Bearded Dragon practical advice.

[ChrisPortman]

Hi All,

I got my first bearded dragon at the Castle Hill Expo yesterday and I'm just looking for practical advice. Now by practical, I mean, I've read all the care sheets and know exactly what is needed, now I'm looking for people to share their experience with the 'hows'.

Particularly:
- When it comes to calcium supplements, how do people dust their crickets without:
a) wasting heaps of dust,
b) loosing crickets.
c) taking heaps of time.

If anyone has a process that works particularly well for them, please share. The challenge I face at the moment is that I'd like to offer at least 2 feeds a day, only that I have to leave the house for work at 630. This morning I put him a feeding container and he hit about 3 crickets but he'd only been awake for about 25 mins. I put out some salad (which he ate a fair bit of yesterday afternoon when I got him home) with a little calcium sprinkled on it.

Another thing Ive noticed is that if i put him in the feeding tank with crickets already in there and settled, he'll eat them with no issues, if i then add more, he almost seems scared of them... perhaps theyre a bit too flighty after being dispensed from the tube...

Anyone care to share their routines?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Grogshla]

I normally lift one corner of the cricket container up tip a bit of calcium dust in there. Slide/shake the container (not too hard to kill the crickets lol) Then I normally open the container inside my dragons enclosure and let 10 or so jump out. Then drop more in as she needs it.

 

[ricky_91]

i have a container with calcium dust in it i take crickets out of the holding container i made for them i just grab a hand full i buy them buy the 500 at a time then splice the hand full in the container shake it around and once they are covered in dust they move a lot slower so i just open the container and pick them out with my fingers holding it inside a enclosure so if any jump they are in there any way. to you can pick them out with tweezers

 

[saximus]

I put them in a zip lock bag with some dust and shake it around. You can use the bag over and over and just add a bit more dust as it gets used up. If you move to woodies instead of crickets you can get a glass bowl and paint it with fluon and just leave it in the enclosure. They won't be able to escape the bowl and the animal can snack on them any time he/she wants