crickets for mountain dragon.....

[Danster]

Hey everyone; hope everyone is enjoying the weather and seeing plenty of wild happy reptiles running around your area. I have a question; i buy crickets separately, extra large for my big beardie, and small for my mountain heath dragons.
My little mountain dragons like to eat each day, and when my usually always reliable pet shop ran out of small crickets, I tried cutting a large cricket into thirds, so each piece would fit between their eyes, and offered them to my little guys between my fingers and with a bit of a wriggle.
To my surprise they jumped at them, every dragon, and I tried it again the next day, and with a wiggle in front of them, they snapped them up again.
As mountain dragon owners know, most of these guys will not touch anything that doesn`t move, so I was quite surprised.
As this would save me a lot of money and waste, is it ok to keep feeding them this way with the adult crickets? Like all of you, I want the best for my dragons, and if this is in any way a bad idea I will go back to buying separate lots of crickets.
Thanks in advance, and merry xmas and happy holidays to everyone!!

 

[Bushman]

It's probably OK, although whole animals may be more beneficial and less keratinous.
I reckon it's better to feed appropriately sized whole animals, however it probably does no harm to do what you're doing when you can't source the ideal sized food item.
Try mixing up their diet instead. There's plenty of other invertebrates that you can feed them when you don't have the right sized crickets. e.g collect moths and small beetles that are attracted to lights around the house at night. They love spiders as well. Of course make sure that no-one sprays poisons around the house.