feeding pinkies? meal worms or wax woms?

[jimmyg]

how big should beardies be before you offer them pinkie mice?

which is better meal worms or wax worms?
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[Bry]

I'd say offer beardies pinkies no more than once a month once they're approx. 12-13" STL (snout tail length). As for part of the regular diet, you should def. give mealworms instead of wax worms. Wax worms are more of a treat cause they're high in fat and a beardie can get obese on these quickly. Mealies also have a hard chitin, so, once the beardie gets big enough to eat superworms, switch over to those, cause their chitin is softer and easier to digest. For supers I'd say the beardie should be at least 9-10" STL.

Bry
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[BrianB]

For males and non-laying females, no pinkies. For a female who has just laid a clutch, a dusted pinky is a good treat, and will help get some fat back in her system quickly. Otherwise, they're simply too rich of a diet. Prey size still follows the rule about being no larger than the space between their eyes. I'd only feed a fully grown dragon a pinky, if for no other reason that a smaller dragon can make an unholy mess chewing on one. Scraping pinky parts off the cage wall after a smaller dragon bites one in half is NOT fun. (Trust me on this one...blech)

Wax worms are OK for an occassional treat. Meal worms should be avoided. Smaller dragons shouldn't be fed mealies b/c they are hard to digest and can cause impaction. Younger dragons should stick with mainly crickets. Larger juveniles can take medium or small supers, which are easier to digest. Trevo/aka Butter Worms and silk worms are excellent food sources as well. Both are loaded with calcium, which is not the case with other feeder insects, and both are soft-bodied, and easier to digest.
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[DogVsRaptor]

A friend of mine had three beardies in a 75 gallon tank, decorated beautifully with driftwood, and a cave
made out of paper mache, with a feeding tray on top. They were full grown so every month or so he
would feed them a pinkie. I was there for the first time and suggested to do it out of the cage as to
not create a mess that would be horrible to clean up. His thinking was, which ever beardie gets the first
he would just take it out of the cage and continue the process. In theory, not a bad idea, but not very
bright either. He put the first pinkie in the cage, and with in seconds all three beardies were latched on,
pulling in different directions. It was NASTY. A huge mess, his mom walked in during the feeding and #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^&
near threw up. He takes great care of them, but that was the last time they got pinkies in the tank, and while
all three of them were present. Blood and guts everywhere. But, they didn't get the pinkie in the sand,
so impaction wasn't a problem. The cave was quite a brilliant idea, because it was very sturdy, and the tray
on top had a good lip on it so, the collards never came in contact with the sand.
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