6 week Baby BD eats what per day?

[Bushmaster11B]

As the title ask, how much and what should I feed a new baby BD at 6 weeks old and 6.5 inches long? My baby is being shipped over night and when it does, I want to order his live food over night at the same time. I just don't want to over order.

Kind of on subject: What size of cricket keeper should I get? The large or small? I have Petco and Pets-mart but I will never support Pets-mart so Petco is my only local option for supplies. Live food will only be bought from specific bug farms.

 

[Germ]

Different BDs have different appetites, so the old rule of thumb, feed as much as they will eat in a 10-15 minute period per feeding, seems to work the best for each individual BD. Here is a really good feeding & supplementation schedule ...

Feeding/Supplements: Bearded dragons are omnivorous and must be fed a diet consisting of both vegetation and live prey. Vegetables and greens should be offered daily and a wide variety of acceptable veg/greens is the best approach. There are several websites available that provide very helpful suggestions and information on preferred veg/greens based on their acceptability and nutritional content. An excellent and non biased place to start for this information is Veronica Reilly’s "Nutrition Content” page Here.

Staple prey items generally consist of crickets & roaches. Silkworms & Phoenix worms are a good frequent feeder, while insects such as waxworms, butterworms, mealworms, and superworms are considered "occasional" feeders. “Dusting” with appropriate calcium and vitamin supplements is a necessity to maintain good health. Dusting is a process that refers to lightly coating greens or live prey with supplements to ensure all of the additional requirements for proper growth and development are met. It is simplest to sprinkle the supplements into a plastic freezer bag that contains the prey and gently shaking until coated. Only dust live prey or greens, depending on the age of the dragon, but it is not necessary to dust both. Live prey should be “gut loaded” prior to feeding, this means your feeders are fed properly to ensure they have an acceptable nutritional value for your dragon. Live prey should be offered in a size that is relative to your dragon. A common suggestion is that prey should be no bigger than the space between your dragon’s eyes.

General feeding/supplementation schedule:
For hatchlings and young juveniles (up to 2 months): Fresh greens/veg. 1-2 times daily - Live prey 2-3 times per day
Dusted: All Live Prey five days per week with phosphorus free calcium – one day per week calcium with D3 - One day per week with a vitamin supplement such as Reptivite or Herptivite.

For juveniles and sub-adults (2 months to sexual maturity): Fresh greens/veg 1-2 times daily - Live prey 1-2 times per day
Dusted: All Live Prey five days per week with phosphorus free calcium – One day per week with calcium with D3 - One day per week with a vitamin supplement such as Reptivite or Herptivite.

For adults (generally 1+ year): Fresh greens/veg 1- 2 times daily - Live prey every 2-3 days.
Dusted: Live Prey every other feeding with phosphorus free calcium - Twice per month with calcium with D3 - One day per week with a vitamin supplement such as Reptivite or Herptivite.

As there are different circumstances that may arise, this schedule is recommended only as a general guide and may be altered to accommodate individual situations. Using a tracking method of when you dust prevents unnecessary use of product and more importantly, potential harm to your dragon! With proper and effective UVB lighting, supplementation with vitamin D3 is not imperative but should be provided in small amounts. Excessive levels of oral vitamin D3 can potentially lead to the excessive absorption and utilization of calcium and/or toxicity as can the excessive use of supplements containing high levels of vitamin A. Over use of any supplement can have the potential to cause serious health problems, stick to an appropriate supplementation schedule.

Read More: www.beardeddragonforum.com/index.php?threads/basic-bd-care-sheet-a-place-to-start.5177/

 

[Bushmaster11B]

Thanks Germ! I really need to know what to buy next week for supplements/ dusting. However, is there a gut-load product that has all supplements in it to replace dusting? And for the size given in my beginning post, how big of crickets and how many should I order at 1 time?

 

[Germ]

I would order Smalls, although size is only relative, different breeders consider different sizes to be Sm/Med/Lg. If you go with 1/2" to 5/8" (3 week old) crix you will be fine. As for how many to buy at once, I would not buy any more than a max 500 at a time & actually recommend less. Even then, many will die or outgrow your BD's safe feeding size before they can all be fed off. Crickets have a short lifespan & grow to adult size by the time they are 5-6 weeks old.

A large Kricket Keeper is only rated to handle up to 150 crix at one time, any more than that & they will die off &/or cannibalize each other. My suggestion would be to keep the main colony in a solid colored, 'not transparent' Rubbermaid Tote with a screened hole cut into the top for ventilation, with egg flats for climbing surfaces & then have a large Kricket Keeper to house & properly gutload the ones for feeding, a minimum of 24-48 hrs prior to feeding.

All feeders should be dusted as per, or close to, the schedule provided, no matter what they are Gutloaded with. Personally for my roaches (Crix gutload is not different), I use moistened Repcal Bearded Dragon Food as my Gutload & Hydration for my feeders, the remainder of my colony just gets a soft type, chunk dog food (Purina Beneful is what I use) & left overs, stalks etc from the BD's greens & table scraps for hydration.

As for Supplements, I recommend 100% Phosphorus free Calcium without D3, 100% Phosphorous free Calcium with D3 & Reptivite or Herptivite, again as per the provided feeding & supplementation schedule

Good Luck

 

[Bushmaster11B]

How many crickets do you think a 6" Juvenile would each per day and per week? I'm buying the 150 cricket keeper and cannot get anything else (Wife has problem with crickets already being in my apartment, but loves BD's). When I buy my house next year, this won't be an issue because I will house a large colony in the garage..... away from my Wife. Where can I buy 100-150 cricks online? And who is good?

 

[Germ]

I used to limit mine at 30-35 appropriately sized crix a day, if they wanted that many. It may vary, but after the first week to 10 days of acclimation, you should be prepared for 150-200+ crix a week, if it has a good appetite. Once again, the amounts depend greatly on the size of the feeders.

 

[Bushmaster11B]

OK, I will start with 100 crix first. And then see how fast they eat half of them, then average it out per 7 days that way I know how much money to budget for his live food. I just didn't want to buy a thousand crix and then they out grow the BD.

 

[blazedragon]

i order my crickets from ghanns cricket farm. i have not had any issues with the crickets arriving dead. they look healthy and cj eats the crap out of them.

 

[Bushmaster11B]

Do you have a problem getting them on the phone? Because I do....

 

[blazedragon]

have never had to call them.... have traded emails with them a few times and responses were quick.

 

[ashley7988]

I order from Ghanns as well. Very little die off.

 

[Bushmaster11B]

I will hit them up next month. For now, I will use my friend's shop. Plus, I get 500 crickets from his own farm for $16. Ghanns charges $30+ for 500 crickets. My friend said his supplier, when he gets his farm raided by customers (sold out), he olny gets charges $24 for 500 count, shipped....