Hi!
My new Bearded Dragon just ate 5 crickets and a drop of water I (gently) dropped on his/her nose. Not bad for the first morning home after a stressful day.

I just want to confirm with you guys and gals the best feeding routine from what I could read from several sources.
- Babies should be fed 2 or 3 times a day;
- First time at least an 1 1/2 hour after the lights come up (to give it time to warm up) and last time never after 2h before bed time to give it time to digest;
- Every item (either prey or veggie) must not be bigger than the space between the Bearded Dragon's eyes;
- They should be allowed to eat as many crickets they can in a 10 minute session;
- They should have a very very shallow bowl of water, like just barely covering the bottom (they can drown in a incredible small amount of shallow water);
- 10 to 15% of the babies diet should consist of veggies;
- Calcium supplements should be given every day;
- Vitamins supplements should be given every other day;
These apply to babies not older than 2 - 4 months.

What about mealworms and silkworms? From what I saw, I'm going to have a lot of trouble with the crickets. The box they gave me at the store (was the smallest cricket size they had), had crickets with various sizes, most of them bigger than size I can feed, half of them came dead and I just killed the other half in the freezer =)
I've done this with other bugs: put them in the freezer for a few minutes, they will slow their pace down and they are easily caught that way.

Can someone suggest a diet with a larger proportion of mealworms and a small proportion of crickets? Then when it's bigger I can return to crickets.

Mealies are not a good choice for a staple diet, maybe as a treat a few times a week, and wax worms a few every 2 or 3 weeks, silk worms however are and can be used as staple, you could try feeding veggies in the morning and live in the afternoons, that will get her into a routine, I spray my Bearded Dragons veggies with a bit of water they seem to like them better sprayed, if they dont take an interest I play with the veg make it look like its alive, but I dont have to do that now as they look forward to them.

Wow you really got it my the book, lol. I feed my Bearded Dragons veggies in the morning and crickets at night. I dust the crickets with herptivite and reptical 4-5 times a week. I do leave water in the tank, mist them daily and soak them twice a week in the sink. Mealies are only to be used as a treat. They have a hard exosketal shell that is hard to digest and can cause impaction. You could look into silkworms that can be used as a staple, they are softer and very nutritious.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!