Feeder alternatives ?

[scarface2jz]

Hey everyone, been a long time since I posted on here, I have a slight dilemma. I have 3 bearded dragons, a veiled Cham, and 4 leopard geckos that are all currently feeding on large crickets, roughly 500-600 a week... My dad is rediculously scared of any sort of bug and hates finding them around the house, so he gave me an ultimatum... Get rid of the reptiles that eat the crix ( yeah, right) or switch their diet to something that won't escape, like mealworms and wax worms, They even offered to pay for them... LOL I won't say no. So what are my options ?

I was thinking 1000 med meal worms and 500 wax worms biweekly
Or I'll even consider breeding them, I have enough room
Any opinions ? I know wax worms are high in fat but I'm trying to get some weight on my beardies, they're kinda small for their age... Thanks in advance !

[BAMReptiles]

mealworms....no superworms.....yes

i would say roaches, but if they are already goin over the deep end about crickets, there's probably nothing you can say to get them to allow roaches

[scarface2jz]

What's funny is I've had all these animals for a few years and they just recently started bugging out, I'm thinking the mealworms are my best bet, anybody know a good site I could order from ?

[BAMReptiles]

mealworms are gunna be terribly small for the beardies, leos, and prolly the cham. superworms are a better bet imo

[Crazy4Herps]

Mealworms and superworms both have moderately tough shells, which present a huge risk of impaction, especially in beardies (trust me, impaction is something to avoid!), and waxworms are not only pretty high in fat, but also low in nutrients. Phoenix worms, silk worms, and horn worms (goliath worms) are all excellent sources of food for lizards; high in calcium, low in chitin (the hard outer shell that mealworms and superworms have). You may not be able to find them at your local pet store, but I know of a few companies that will ship them to your home for a reasonable price. Here are some links, in case you're interested.
http://mulberryfarms.com/
http://www.phoenixworm.com/servlet/StoreFront

Also, if you want something that isn't going to stink, escape, die, fly, jump, or make any noise, I HIGHLY recommend dubia cockroaches. They're creepy, and if your dad doesn't like bugs he will hate roaches, but they are really great feeders. Anyways, just thought that was worth bringing up.

[scarface2jz]

My boy mike (ballsunlimited) uses dubia roaches for his purple Cham, I've already asked and they laughed at me, living at home at 22 sucks ... I think I might check out pheonix and Goliath worms... Thanks guys !

[jfreels]

I'd stay away from the mealworms with the dragons. Mine won't eat them at all, neither will my adult leo's. Superworms are pretty universal though. They get big enought for the beardies and they move a lot for the leos. My cham enjoys them too.

My staple feeder is dubia roaches though.

[suzuki4life]

if they were in glass aquariums, I would say to use lateralis.

BUT I doubt the veiled is in a glass anything, so my answer is dubia.

Swap in some silkworms here and there....much better than superworms.

[scarface2jz]

I ended up goin with Goliath worms, strangely enough... My 2+ year old chameleon died today, and showed no signs of sickness until he started getting lethargic 30 hours before he passed... I'm really upset and I'm worried the Goliath worms had to do with it, my room got decently cold the other night, but not much more than usual, maybe 65* and there's a heat source right next to the Cham's reptarium, it couldn't have gone under 70, and only at the end did he show signs of a URI... But I couldn't picture it getting deadly within 48 hours

This is 26 hours prior to death



10 hours prior:cens0r:



He's always been very active, great eater, cage aggressive, all the normal Cham activities... This really caught me off guard, and he was one of my favorites... My first Cham ever, and I had him almost 2.5 years... I'm pretty depressed about this

[Crazy4Herps]

I'm so sorry for your loss! I don't know much of anything about chams, but that definitely is weird. Where did you get the worms from?