# Bearded dragon ate too many mealworms!



## BigEd (Dec 30, 2010)

I'm SO worried about my bearded dragon. Due to the weather our reptile shop has had no live food so my 6mth old dragon had to go 5 days with no live food! He normally eats crickets daily. Finally they got meal worms in and the guy at the shop said he would be fine eating mealworms. Came home and fed him them for around 5 mins - he must have eaten around 30 of them or more (these are the tiny mealworms). He would normally eat a similar amount of crickets at each sitting. He ate them Thursday afternoon.

I then went online to check how often I should feed meal worms as we'd normally offer crickets - only to find tonnes of info saying meal worms are dangerous for beardied especially in large amounts!! :scared: 

Friday he was acting sort of normal - maybe a tiny bit more lethargic but he still had his active time as normal. However, yesterday and today he's been really yellow (he is a dull yellowy colour anyway) but this was much lighter yellow. He has been light before for no apparent reason but not for more than one day. He is still light today.

He's not touched his greens since he had the meal worms - he would normally eat his greens every day.

He has, however, had 5 crickets this morning which he ate enthusiastically so I'm hoping that was a good sign??? We didn't offer him anymore crickets today as he's not drinking or eating greens and he's not pooed since just before he ate his mealworms. He would normally poo every other day so was due to poo today. Didn't want to cause anymore problems by over feeding him live food if he's not pooing.

Am I doing this right?

He's got a constant bowl of fresh water in his viv which he's not going near (and very rarely does anyway). We also tried bathing him but he HATES baths and just dashed around all over the place and actually gets himself out the sink at warp speed so pretty impossible to do.

We tried to hand feed him greens today but he just looked at it as if it was something horrible.

I hope I haven't done any damage to him and I can't stop worrying. I'm just really annoyed at the guy in the shop as I specifically asked if they were ok for beardies and he said yes but clearly they're not! Especially not at the quantity that he ate them.

We got him out about half an hour ago and he seemed his normal inquisitive self - looking around at us.

I guess its just his colour and lack of pooing/eating greens thats worrying me. (like I said, he was happy to eat crickets).

What do you think?
Thanks


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## jennifer88 (Dec 18, 2010)

Meal worms in large amounts can block them up a bit, especially young ones, so sounds as if he is constipated. Try running him a bath (in an actual bath not the sink) have it around shoulder height and warm, not hot. Put him in for 15-20 minutes, you could try running the tap or a shower head if you have one just in front of him. This often seems to help things along. Also try massaging him gently on the stomach, from the front down towards the vent.
If this doesn't work you could try giving him a couple of drops of vegetable oil a while before bathing him, this can lubricate things inside and help things work there way through!
If nothing comes out soon, say a day or two, you will need to get him to a vet.

Jenny


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## BigEd (Dec 30, 2010)

Thanks Jenny, he has acted perfectly normal today. Eaten all his greens and a few crickets too and has been dashing around like his normal loony self (and his colour is back to normal too). However, he still hasn't pooed. Will try the bath and see how he goes. Thanks again for your advice.


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## BigEd (Dec 30, 2010)

Just to update. He did a poo today which didn't seem to have any undigested mealworms in it. He's been completely normal, eaten his greens and his crickets and seems back to his normal self so I think we have got away with it this time. I am so cross at the guy in the shop for not warning me. If I hadn't checked it out myself I would have given him them again the following day. I have since read some really scary things about beardies eating meal worms and its wrong that a so called "specialist" in reptiles didn't think to warn me of that.

Thanks again for your advice.


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## jennifer88 (Dec 18, 2010)

Glad he's better  meal worms can be ok to feed to beardies but it's best to feed them when they are white (just shed the hard shell), and not too many! They aren't the best food though and mine only get a few as a treat sometimes. Only the adult beardies though!

I'd suggest looking into breeding cockroaches, they are excellent food for dragons. Very meaty and full of goodness and beardies absolutely love them! I have a colony of dubia roaches and a colony of turkistan roaches. Saves a lot of money on food if you breed your own. Think I'd be bankrupt if I bought the food for my lot!


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## sadiajahan (Mar 4, 2012)

Yes, most bearded dragons absolutely love meal worms. Just be careful you give them more than just meal worms, because the meal worms are incredibly high in fat.And you have to maintain that level.Or you can check Free Bearded Dragon Books: Read Bearded Dragon Book by Mario Ross
to know details about it.


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