sorry ahead of time for the long reply. lol. if you use sand as a substrate, like i did for my anole, they snap up mealworms and crickets so fast that they often get a mouthful of sand with their fresh catch. that does lead to impaction, but it can be relieved with a touch of castor oil (not recommended way of fixing that, but it worked for me) and they'll pass it. mealworms have worked flawlessly for me, for all 3 types i have.
since beardies are omnivores - try to stick with the 50/40/10 mix of meat, veggies, greens/fruit - let your animal decide which part (meat or veggie) of the 50/40 is the majority. some i've found love meat and very rarely eat the plant/greens - but i still put them there. some that don't eat only the meat, i will push the 50 in greens for those ones. also, always sprinkle the calcium powder on whatever they're eating.
for snacks, i give my gals waxworms which they say have no nutritional value, but they love it as a snack - like a candybar for them. also, pinkies and fuzzies are great since beardies are big, but you may actually need like 4 or 5 at a sitting. superworms pretty plump too and don't move quickly - just make sure to gut load them with potato slices, as you would load the crickets, to make sure there's something to them. also, my skink's new favorite snack is an egg - sometimes scrambled, sometimes raw.
just for reference, right now i have an indonesian blue-tounged skink, green anole and leopard gecko. they all have different diets and are selective eaters even within their respective groups. your bearded dragon will be an eye-catcher and convo starter when you take it outside for a walk. they're very distinctive looking but very approachable - unlike my skink who will strike at everybody.
hope that wasn't tl;dr. hahaha.
since beardies are omnivores - try to stick with the 50/40/10 mix of meat, veggies, greens/fruit - let your animal decide which part (meat or veggie) of the 50/40 is the majority. some i've found love meat and very rarely eat the plant/greens - but i still put them there. some that don't eat only the meat, i will push the 50 in greens for those ones. also, always sprinkle the calcium powder on whatever they're eating.
for snacks, i give my gals waxworms which they say have no nutritional value, but they love it as a snack - like a candybar for them. also, pinkies and fuzzies are great since beardies are big, but you may actually need like 4 or 5 at a sitting. superworms pretty plump too and don't move quickly - just make sure to gut load them with potato slices, as you would load the crickets, to make sure there's something to them. also, my skink's new favorite snack is an egg - sometimes scrambled, sometimes raw.
just for reference, right now i have an indonesian blue-tounged skink, green anole and leopard gecko. they all have different diets and are selective eaters even within their respective groups. your bearded dragon will be an eye-catcher and convo starter when you take it outside for a walk. they're very distinctive looking but very approachable - unlike my skink who will strike at everybody.
hope that wasn't tl;dr. hahaha.
they can land a rover on mars, yet they still have to stick a human finger up my ass to do a prostate exam?! - ricky gervais
