Crickets are too small AND too big!

[BeardieBaby]

I have a slight problem....someone told me that my bearded dragon was old enough for larger crickets so I went to the petstore and got some larger crickets(they only sell size small or large) the problem is, the small crickets are TOO small for him and the large crickets are too BIG for him. He pays no attention to the smaller crickets and then if I put a large one in it will get his attention and he'll eat it. He recently got backed up and I think it may be because of the larger crickets I was feeding him because he kept going in his "spot" where he poops but nothing would happen and then I gave him a warm bath today and massaged his tummy and he pooped in like 2 seconds! I would love to buy crickets off the internet because you can more easily pick something rather than just small or large but I can't because all my packages get sent to my apartment office and if they had any idea I had crickets in here they would freak out because technically they don't even allow reptiles here. So what should I do??? Should I buy the smaller crickets and just hope he eats them, or should I continue to feed him the larger crickets and just give him more baths? Also want to add that I get the crickets at Petsmart and the "large" ones aren't even full grown which is good but they are larger obviously than the small crickets, but the small crickets are so tiny you can barely see them so if anyone has an opinion on what to do I'd appreciate it!!! Thanks!

 

[Pat B]

I get my crickets at Petsmart also. I would give him the big ones but maybe only a few at a time? Maybe that would work. Good to hear from you and that all is well with 'the baby'. That warm bath will make beardies poop just about every time. I have never had poop in the bath yet....but I bet Spike will sooner or later!! LOL

 

[Mungi's Buddha]

I really wouldn't be concerned with the large crickets either as long as the are not larger than the space between his eyes. Whether you feed small, medium or large Baby is going to eat until he if full and then stop. And he will poop when he has to go but if he occasionally gets a bit backed up then you already know that a good soak will take care of it so there is really nothing to worry about.
However, if you are wanting to buy some off the internet and don't want them shipped to your own address I might suggest having them shipped to wherever you work as long as your Boss doesn't mind or perhaps if you have a friend or relative that lives in a house having them shipped there with their permission of course. Me personally I wouldn't worry about the apartment finding out. They already know that you have the dragon if I remember correctly and therefore know that he has to eat and as long as you are keeping the crickets contained then they shouldn't have any issues. More than likely they wouldn't even look at the package close enough to know it is crickets anyway.

Enjoy!

 

[Augie]

I am in a similar situation. My pet store has two sizes... too darn big and too darn small.

I buy 100 crickets at a time. Half of them are just over pinhead size. I just feed him the larger ones and then the smaller ones as they are left over. I dump them in a container with calcium powder and throw back the smaller ones - almost like fishing! Of course, I also can pull from my roach feeder bin if I have to. The only difference is my little Reggie is ravenous. He will hunt down the larger ones and then scoop up the smaller ones left over. But if there are a lot of really small ones left over its roach time!

I can keep my crickets alive for about a week. There are molts in there so I know they are growing. Ive found that ones that are too small get big enough after time. The other side of that coin is i try not to keep them too long because they really start to stink. But my situation may be different because I haven't had a huge problem with Reggie avoiding prey items.

 

[BeardieBaby]

Thanks everyone for responding! I needed to get more crickets today, so I went to Petsmart and I talked to one of the workers and I told them how big my beardie was and they said he should be able to handle larger crickets, and the "large" crickets at Petsmart aren't even full grown which is good, they seem to be about the right size and plus my beardie pays no attention to the little crickets anymore. I guess I will just keep an eye out on him and if I notice he isn't going to the bathroom again I'll give him water soaks which like I said worked in 2 seconds before! The only thing I am worried about is if he keeps getting backed up and then there will be a time I can't help him or something and he will get really sick and die or something.(Maybe I am being EXTRA worried?) but I know impaction in the beardies can be very dangerous and with Christmas right around the corner I don't have enough money to bring him to the vet right now. He doesn't usually go poop on a regular basis anyways, which makes it harder to tell if he is impacted, but this time I knew right away because he has a certain spot where he poops now and he kept going to that spot but nothing was happening so I knew he was trying to go but could not. I also have prune baby food on hand in case he doesn't poop and that usually works as well. I know in most cases you can help your beardies impaction at home and usually don't have to bring them to the vet, but because I had that scare a few months ago I am so scared when he gets backed up because of what happened before. So anyways, I got 50 large crickets and 50 small crickets today just to mix it up a bit, so we'll see how that goes. And augie, the crickets definitely start to stink very quickly, and mine last about a week as well. Right now I have a cricket keeper and I want to get a plastic container, like something you could buy at bed bath and beyond but I don't have the materials to cut a screen in the middle of it. I was thinking if I got that type of container I could keep them in my cabinet or something and therefore it wouldn't smell so bad. Do you all think if I got one of those plastic containers and just poked a bunch of holes in the top that would work too???

 

[Noella]

I've got a mix of babies and large. I feed the large and am letting the babies grow a little more.