Charlie refusing to eat crickets

[Julie]

since about 22nd dec (30th now) Charlie refuses to eat crickets. He's had the odd one, but nothing substantial.. He still eats most of his veg. The last livefood he ate was a waxworm and since then he wont take crickets, whether they are in his cage or hand fed. What else can I feed him as a staple diet until he decides he likes his crickets. (when i got him he ate loads of black crix, he's on brown crix not sure if that makes a difference?)

 

[P]

They do tend to get bored of cricks the easiest......im assuming Charkie is about 9-10 months old??? Thus a juvie

Great alternative staples are
Roaches
Hornworms
Pheonix worms
Silk worms
And you can throw in a butter worm or two weekly as a treat item, theyre very high in fat but a great treat item

 

[Julie]

yup he is, 9 months ish.. dunno if can get horn/phoenix/silk worms here. and i'm not going the roach route. ughh.. will look for those worms though. any alternatives readily available in uk?

 

[Julie]

ok cant get horn worms here in uk. found somewhere does Calci-worms. stating they are same family as phoenix worms? he be ok with these as staple?

 

[richard]

phoenix worms are great but small and can be expensive when trying to feed a ten month old dragon. ive always used superworms (no they are not dangerous to feed like mealworms) and silkworms seem to work well also. roaches are great because they are super easy to breed if you dont mind da bugs all of my dragons at this age showed boredom with crickets so i switched to superworms and they love them. i have 11 dragons and most of them have been eating supers for 2 to 3 years now.

 

[Julie]

are superworms also known as morio worms? if so i think my local pet shop sells those. and charlie is already expensive to feed as the little bugger has the crickets get too big or he bites limbs off n leaves em to die ..

 

[richard]

are superworms also known as morio worms? if so i think my local pet shop sells those. and charlie is already expensive to feed as the little bugger has the crickets get too big or he bites limbs off n leaves em to die ..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zophobas_morio yep, thats them!

 

[Julie]

cool, he'd be ok on them as staple diet, or atleast till he decides crix looks nummy again?

 

[richard]

if you try them and he likes them, start him off at 5 for a day or two and then bump him up to 10 a day or 5 twice per day. the reason i say this is that most dragons tolerate them fine but there are always a few that dont digest well no matter what you feed them so as long as he's pooping ok then all is well. once he hits 1 1/2 to 2 years old that will change to every other day or so as they need more veggies and less live prey when they get older.

 

[Julie]

i do have a back up plan of locusts.. they sell teeny ones upto the humungus omg-are-u-sure-thats-an-insect sized ones. so i'll just get those(size between eyes sized) if the morio's will bulk him out too much. dont want a podgy dragon

 

[richard]

cool, he'd be ok on them as staple diet, or atleast till he decides crix looks nummy again?

i feed mine supers as a staple and hornworms as a treat. i personally have had no problems, and most of my dragons are 4 or 5 years old.

 

[Julie]

cool i'll get him some in morning and try him on them. i know he's healthy. my rep vet said nothing wrong and not thiinking on brumating etc. so he's just being a pain in the butt. hehe.

 

[richard]

i do have a back up plan of locusts.. they sell teeny ones upto the humungus omg-are-u-sure-thats-an-insect sized ones. so i'll just get those(size between eyes sized) if the morio's will bulk him out too much. dont want a podgy dragon

you can over feed anything but with the numbers a stated above you'll be fine

 

[Julie]

cool ty so much. i'll give it a go and see if he eats them. it's bath day tomorrow and he generally likes to eat after, so i'll try with them then

 

[richard]

your welcome. these are my guys and http://beardeddragonforum.com/index.php?threads/my-babies.4014/#axzz1i452UcZk

 

[Julie]

aww pretty dragons!! i should update my pic of charlie. he's err slightly bigger than in my profile pic.hehe

 

[richard]

would love to see him! let us know how he does!

 

[Julie]

and i dont have a clue what type he is. just that he gets a saffron yellow beard.

 

[Julie]

I dunno how to post pics but my avatar is him now

 

[Julie]