Pinkies

[spike]

When you feed a bearded dragon a pinkie, should you cut it up, if so how and where? (wont all guts and stuff fall out everywhere)

[ace13]

no you dont have to cut them up

if its prekilled wiggle it in front of him and hell most likely take it if he hungry


but if its alive just leave it in a small container so it cant get out and hide and die somewhere

[spike]

what if the pinkie is about twice the size of the size between the dragons eyes

[Sterling]

In on way do beardies need pinkis unless a female just layed eggs, but there are still other ways to fatten up your dragon. But I assume you are just feeding the pinkie just to feed it. Thats not good...pinkies are unhealthy, HIGH in fat, and are hard to digest which can cause impaction. You dont want to feed stuff thats not healthy for your animal.

Steven

[spike]

Steven: I thought the same about pinkies. But if you look through some of the previous threads, you will see that a member (Cyrene) gathred infomation on pinkies and found that they are just as beneficial as crickets

[Sterling]

Well, I dont know where she got that information, but I can assure you its wrong. I know(and other ppl know) that pinkies are horrible for even treats!! *Experiences* is how alot of people find out and I have heard tons of these experiences of feeding pinkies and their beardies have gone to the vet with impaction or illness! I dont mean to be mean or anything! I'm just trying to help! Of course, there are many opinions, and I'm sure what Cyrene found was someone's opinion on the subject and thats why you think its ok. But your probably thinking "then why should I listen to Steven's opinion?" You dont have to, you can take it into consideration, but you dont have to listen, I'm just trying to tell you thats its not healthy, its your choice...

Steven

[spike]

Have you ever given one of your beardies a pinkie before?

another thing is: your are more likely to hear about when something has gone wrong, rather when everything has gone right, if you catch my drift... and please dont take that the wrong way

[Sterling]

Yes, I have fed pinkies to my dragons. That was "back in the day" when I didn't no any better. But once I started reading things and hearing about peoples opinions and taking advice, I soon found out that pinkies arent healthy for your dragon, it has TONS of fat that you DONT need to put on your dragon and that you cant get from feeding healthy crickets or silkies! And yea, I'm going to hear more things that go wrong because people are trying to tell you that stuff CAN go wrong and they are warning you! Thats why you hear of poeples "bad" experiences because you are suppose to learn from them...

Steven

[spike]

Did your dragons enjoy it?
Did they put on a lot of weight?
Did they get impactions?
Did they get sick? <<<< these are not meant to sound bad if they do, the are legit questions

And i spose you are right about the good/bad experience thing

[Sterling]

No they didnt get sick or impacted BECAUSE I only fed like 3 each before I found out that they arent healthy. And yes, they put on alot of weight! Weight they really didnt need. You know beardies can get obese?? AND just because they enjoy it does NOT mean that its good for them! I'm sure they would enjoy ice burg lettuce, BUT its not good for them! Same exact thing...
We can argue about this all day, but obviously its not going to make you change your mind about feeding pinkies!

[spike]

I was always going to try them. I dont have to give them a whole pinkie each, which i wont. Because although the majority of people say that pinkies are bad for your beardies some people will say the opposite. i dont know because i never heard of anyone having any problems myself.

The delivery with the pinkies is arriving today, and i'll tell you how it goes down. Even thought they are only going to get a half each im sure it'll go down fine

[DaremoAlpha]

The digestion system must be way different than water dragons I assume( no I don't know ) because I give Awol my 2 yr old CWD 4 fuzzies every weekend and have had no problems whatsoever with doing so for almost a year now.

Beardies are more vegitarian though right???

[ClementeDragons]

I have not tried pinkies myself because I have heard allot of bad stuff about them. I just know a bunch of the risks so I prefer not to take a chance.

DaremoAlpha Bearded dragons like there meat and mine seem to like their crix allot more than veggies. When bearded dragons are growing or if your female is gravid give them allot of greens because they need their calcium. Some bearded dragons like their veggies more and some dragons like their meat more it varies.

[Pooka]

This is what makes herptoculture and the reptile hobby so great yet so scary at the same time ;D No one KNOWS for sure what causes what, even vets are just taking a educated guess based on physiology most of the time.
Spike I have heard of several people feeding pinkies to there dragons without any ill effect and I have heard of people making there dragons ill of them, no side can present complete evidence for either of there sides. You have 2 experienced beardie keepers here that recommened against it saying that the same nutrients can be found in other, 'safer' items. Please just note that. If you decide you wanna try them with your beardies anyhow thats great and I personally would appreciate feed back about how that goes for you, as all info good and bad is nice to have for future desicsions others will make just like yours.

I hope I'm coming across right. In short, both sides are right here (as confusing as that sounds)

[Sterling]

This isn't pointed towards anyone, but alot of people wont change their ways because it hasnt happened to them yet, even though they know it can. I just think thats kinda irresponsible. Like people know the risks of sand but still use it anyways
I'm just saying that if there is contreversy over the subject then things have happened and to take the safer route would to consider the risks and the animals life and make your descision from there.