Question for the Ackie & beardie keepers out there....

[Jesse_H]

Hi there,

I'm trying to decide which is the better lizard for me - an ackie or a beardie? I don't mind how much initial setup is and I am confident I can provide optimal living conditions for either. My main concern is long term costs involved in feeding - crickets here are bloody expensive!!! So which would you all say is the least expensive to keep of the two from a long term perspective? Thanks for your input!

 

[Chris1]

regarding long term feeding costs, beardies would be waaaaaay cheaper.

Their first year they do eat alot of crickets and a bit of salad, but from 6 months onwards their cricket intake is reduced and salads upped till teyre 85-90% vegetarian by the time theyre 18 months old.

mostly greens (bok choy/chinese broc, pumpkin, beans etc and a few crix or roaches a week.

Ackies have an all insect diet.


its not jsut the expense of live feeders (breed ur own roaches, its free!!) but the availability, getting to petshops, the quality of the crickets by the end of the week etc that makes it a pain.

plus beardies are great for handling,....

 

[maddog-1979]

yeah, you can keep around 5-6 beardies for the same food cost of keeping a dog. never had ackies tho so couldnt tell about that

 

[Jesse_H]

Excellent, thanks guys. I've just begun preparations for experimenting the breeding of silkworm, and I've decided to set up a roach colony in the garage too. I have a turtle that will enjoy either too... I think I should maybe just cheat and get a beardie that's past the 6 month mark so I can save on the feeders....

 

[maddog-1979]

where are you located? i have some hatchies due in 5 weeks :twisted:

 

[Jesse_H]

I'm in Melbourne - I'm still unsure what to get, a hatchie or yearling. I'm considering forking out for a fancy red phase, but then again I'm a poor person so I will probably get something random and cheap from classifieds here!

 

[maddog-1979]

hatchies are good to watch grow up, but if you want something you can handle right away go for juvie/yearling. hatchies are just too small to get out often . i have a nice yellow pair that i breed, thinkin about getting some reds myself but the snake addiction got kinda outta control in the last few months,lol

 

[timmy82]

i keep and breed both beardies are alot cheaper but i find ackies are far more active thou u cant handle them like beardies and if u want ackies start breeding crickets it is way cheaper

 

[Jesse_H]

Some really practical and helpful advice guys, thanks maddog & timmy, I'm certainly erring more towards a yearling beardie. Just have to decide what colour now haha!

 

[Jeannine]

dont know about all the breeders but i bought all my reptiles on 'you keep i pay them off' and the breeders were more then happy with that so long as your consistent and honest, maybe pick a juvi and pay it off while its eating is established and it grows a bit

 

[notechistiger]

Another thing, silkworms can't be used year round to feed your reptiles. Would definitely recommend getting beardeds first.

 

[Jesse_H]

Hi notechistiger, that's interesting what you say about the silkworms, do you mean that they are not a suitable staple diet or that they are just not available all year round? I've read that silkworms are among the most nutritious of the live insect feeder options and were a good staple diet for insect eating lizards? Just curious, would love to hear more of your thoughts on that. I've also just ordered some fluon from herpshop to commence breeding woodies

 

[Jeannine]

for the silkworms you need to have access to mulberry leaves, i can get my hands on them so might look into getting some myself plus thinking of potting up a weeping mulberry for the fruit and leaves

 

[notechistiger]

They're not available year round. Their season ends when the malberry trees stop producing the leaves they eat. There is a commercial food that they sometimes eat overseas, but apparently it's expensive and not particularly good for them. Others have also tried lettuce leaves, which aren't very nutritional and the worms often die. It's far easier to take advantage of them when they're in season and breed roaches or crickets other wise.

Here's a link if you'd like to give it a try anyway (not sure if it works xD)

How to Make Silkworm Chow - wikiHow

 

[Laghairt]

I keep a trio of ackies and while it is true that they can really get through the insects, my woody colony is never under any serious pressure. You can also feed ackies meat and monitor mixes etc which can be made very cheaply. 500g of turkey mince lasts me over 3 months. I mix in other ingredients that make it very nutritious.

 

[saximus]

I keep a trio of ackies and while it is true that they can really get through the insects, my woody colony is never under any serious pressure. You can also feed ackies meat and monitor mixes etc which can be made very cheaply. 500g of turkey mince lasts me over 3 months. I mix in other ingredients that make it very nutritious.

I was gonna say mine live off pinky mice as a staple (which I breed myself) and get crickets every now and then for variety and so they can get the "thrill of the hunt". So my two ackies are cheaper than my pygmy beardie was. Obviously not everyone breeds mice though either

 

[Laghairt]

Saximus, how do they do on pinkies? I've been thinking of breeding some mice myself but remember reading that pinkies may not be the healthiest diet for them as adults but there was no evidence to back this up.

I supplement my ackies diet with chopped up pinky rats at the moment but only my male really seems to like them, he will eat an entire pinky rat in one sitting.

Do you feed the pinky mice live? I was thinking that might help get my females to start eating them, for some reason the females seem to prefer mince and insects.

 

[saximus]

They do pretty well on them. I asked a while ago if they could live off them as a staple because I hated having to buy crickets for my pygmy beardie. I don't think they have much in the way of nutrition so, like crickets, they need to be dusted from time to time. Hopefully they'll be on hoppers/weaners when they're older so they get a bit more calcium from the more developed bones.
I don't feed live mostly because I feel slack about it but also they seem to prefer them when they are a day old or so. I have put FT and FK in with them and they both end up just sitting till the next day. I'm yet to try mince though. I think it would be a great, cheap alternative as well but from seeing other people who do it, it tends to get stinky pretty fast.

 

[Laghairt]

OK thanks, I'll probably buy a pair of mice and give it a try, mine would be able to swallow fuzzies fairly easily.

I haven't had problems with mince stinking, through trial and error I have worked out about how much they will eat in one day so there is usually only a small amount left over. In my enclosure this tends to go dry and hard by the time I get home rather than putrid and smelly (if that makes sense). The problem with mince is that the Phosphorous - Ca ratio is something like 20:1 and there is virtually no roughage. I always mix a lot of calcium powder into any mince offered. A cheap way to add roughage to the mince is to buy frozen crix which are much cheaper than live. I did this for a while but now prefer to just make sure they get plenty of live insects in addition to any meat.

 

[PeppersGirl]

If you get a good woodie colony going you can easily feed anything. I have an adult beardie and juvenile ackie and still wind up with an insect overload!