Best Places to Purchase Live Feeders Online

First of all, up to recently, I would always recommend that you purchase live feeders from a local store if you had the opportunity.

That way you could chat with the store owner and get a good idea about the quality of the insects. You could also check the live feeders in person before purchase and make sure they are all actually live.

This is no longer the case as there are now so many big companies selling live insects online that the quality is now amazing and many sellers will often offer a ‘live guarantee’ so you can be confident about your purchase.

The main benefit of purchasing live insects online along with the ever-increasing quality and vast choice is the price! Sellers are often fighting against each other to give a better deal and clinch the sale and that means constantly reduced prices for customers that are way better than those in local pet stores.

Amazon is fast becoming a mega-marketplace with huge companies such as ‘Josh’s Frogs’ and Fluker’s Farm’ amongst others now selling their stock on the marketplace at rock bottom prices.

If you want to try purchasing live feeders online such as crickets then the first place I would go is certainly Amazon.

Take a look at the price of the live insects below on the Amazon platform:

• Crickets
• Dubia Roaches
• Black Soldier Fly Larvae 
• Super Worms 
• Silkworms 
• Butterworms
• Hornworms
• Waxworms

On Amazon, It’s always a good idea to look through the description and check for the postage policy of the seller and if they offer guarantees such as a ‘live guarantee’.

After making a few purchases you will get to know the sellers you like and build up a trust.

Some good sellers to water out for are Josh’s Frogs, Flukers and DBD Pet, however, there are many more sellers joining the platform all the time and many more good ones not mentioned here.

There are also other stores that do good deals on live feeders, here are 2 of my favourites:

• Flukers Farms
• Blackwater Reptiles

Cricket Keeper

No matter if you get your live feeders from your local store or you’re ordering them online, one thing you are going to want to invest in if your buying Crickets is a Cricket keeper!

A Cricket keeper is basically a tub that allows you to keep a large number of Crickets then easily dispense them a feeding times.

You will find that these keepers make feeding times much easier when feeding live Crickets compared to feeding straight out of a tub.

Cricket keepers are generally inexpensive and not something that’s going to break the bank but it is worth getting a good quality one that will last.

The one I would recommend is This One On Amazon. The reason I prefer to go with a quality supplier is that it comes with an added dispenser and carry handle which is worth it in my opinion.

Calcium Supplements

Bearded Dragons are well known to lack calcium in their diet and as a consequence, they can suffer from serious health issues such as metabolic bone disease.

Luckily, keeping your Bearded Dragons calcium intake at a sufficient level is really easy to do through supplementation.

Dusting your Dragons food with calcium powder is the easiest and most efficient way to make sure they are getting their recommended intake of calcium.

For baby Bearded Dragons a general rule of thumb is to dust their food around 5 times a week so their bones grow strong and healthy. This is the most important time to consistently provide them with calcium through supplementation as they are growing at a rapid pace.

Again, a general rule of thumb as they move into adulthood calcium is to reduce the dosage to around 2-3 times per week.

This will largely depend on the calcium supplement you choose and you really need to make sure you get quality calcium from a trusted supplier.

I always recommend Rep-Cal With Vit D3  if you have a regular UVB bulb such as a T5 10.0 check it out on Amazon here. 

If you have a mercury vapour bulb then generally you can use this Rep-Cal variant without the vitamin D3 as the UVB rays from the mercury vapour bulb will allow much higher processing of vitamin D3 and supplementation is often not necessary.

You can check it out here on Amazon. In my opinion, it’s by far the best quality and the brand that I most trust for vitamin supplements. This is the brand and supplement that vets and experts choose and I have no doubts that it’s the number 1 choice by far.

There are other brands and options on the market, all I will say is that when it comes to supplements, the cheapest isn’t always best, so think about quality first.

Multi-Vitamins

Do you actually need to provide your Bearded Dragon with multi-vitamins? In a word, Yes!

In the wild, Bearded Dragons generally have a much more varied diet compared to Bearded Dragons in captivity.

This can lead Dragons in captivity to have a deficiency in certain vitamins and minerals.

Providing your Dragon with lots of leafy greens and veggies on a daily basis can go a long way to providing them with the nutrients they need and a would always recommend doing this, however, I really think you should provide them with a multi-vitamin supplement as well.

There are two main reasons for this, the first is that the number of leafy greens and veggies your Bearded Dragon would need to eat daily to get their required vitamin intake would be high and it’s hard to force a Dragon to eat that amount of greens and veg.

The second reason is, that things like how long ago it was purchased? , how it’s been stored? and is it’ organic or not? all of these make a difference to the nutritional value so you basically have no idea how much goodness is in each portion.

The best thing to do is provide greens and veggies daily on top of a good quality multi-vitamin supplement so you know your Dragon is getting all the nutrients they need.

The multi-vitamin I recommend is Rep-Cal Herptivite Multi-Vitamin and one of the main reasons I recommend it is that Vitamin A can be harmful to Bearded Dragon if they consume too much of it.

A lot of multi-vitamins products contain Vitamin-A but Rec-Cal contains ‘Beta Carotene’ instead which can be converted to Vitamin-A. This allows your Dragon to convert as much of the Beta Carotene to Vitamin-A as it needs without getting a Vitamin-A overdose.

This is very important and a massive reason why I recommend the Rep-Cal multi-vitamins over any other brand.

You should look to dust your Bearded Dragon food around 2-3 times a week when they are 0-6 months old and after that dusting once a week should be sufficient to give them all the vitamins and minerals they need to remain healthy.

Food & Water Bowls

As a Bearded Dragon owner, you should be providing your Dragon with water every day and greens and veggies at least 4 times a week but ideally every day.

Obviously, you are going to need some bowls to put the food and water in right? And for the most part, you don’t really need to overthink this as long as they have something to eat and drink out they should be fine.

What I will recommend though, is that you do pay a little more and I mean like a couple of dollars more for a bowl set that looks natural like rocks or wood rather than something that looks like a plastic dog bowl.

Bearded Dragons are much happier when they are in an environment that looks and feels like their natural one and although it may seem like nothing to me or you, eating and drinking out of bowls that look like part of their natural habitat helps them feel at home.

Something like This One On Amazon is great, it’s not expensive, your Bearded Dragon will love it and it will look awesome in any terrarium compared to a red plastic bowl.

If you want something to put live feeders in then you should go with this bowl on Amazon It’s unique design means that worms and other insects can’t escape so it makes the perfect feeding for especially for your Bearded Dragons.

When it comes to water bowls I strongly recommend that you purchase a bowl that your Dragon can submerge its body in. This is because not all Bearded Dragons will drink directly from a water bowl but they will often soak their body in the water to rehydrate when needed.

You need to make sure that their body can fit in the bowl and that you fill the bowl to their shoulder level. The bowl I recommend is this one on Amazon because it comes in 3 different sizes so depending on how old your Dragon is you can get one to fit them and their tank.

As they grow into full adulthood you may need to go with something bigger but you will get the idea and choose the right sized product as they grow.

Feeding Tongs

Feeding tongs are another one of those products that can come in really handy especially if you’ve got a baby Bearded Dragon.

Sometimes live feeders can get away from small and inexperienced Bearded Dragons that haven’t yet acquired the hunting skills they need and therefore the insects will often hide in tiny areas of the tank.

If your Dragon isn’t good at hunting and you simply feel the need to hand feed for a while then feeding tongs are a great option.

I don’t think there are any amazing or bad feeding tongs on the market so just take a look and see a par that you like and go with those.

These Are The Ones I Often Use but it honestly doesn’t matter as I’ve tried many and they all seem pretty much the same to me.