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Old 12-23-2011, 08:40 AM   #4
Gina Gauvin
IMO

Main staple should be greens. Highest calcium is found in collard greens, kale, dandelion greens, mustard greens, turnip greens. I prefer collard greens and kale because the others go bad too quickly. A lot of people say don't use kale because it binds calcium, but the main thing is, not to use the the same thing daily all the time. So I vary. I use Collards and kale mostly, switching daily.
The greens should be about 75% of the salad with the other 25% being a different color or consistency such as carrots, zuchini, greenbeans, squash, pumpkin.
You can add a tiny amount of non-acidy fruit, but they're not big on vitamins and mostly good for hydration. Apples, cantelope,pears.
I start feeding them, finely chopped greens the first week to train them. I keep my temps 105-108 at the highest basking point. I find when I don't use a waterbowl they get dehydrated. They're semi-desert lizards, not desert. Giving a bath once a week for adults is fine. Babies you could do more, but keep in mind, it takes a long time to totally dry out and get warmed up again, so you'd want to do it in the morning and on warm days.
Concerning bugs, I've always preferred crickets, even though they're a bit more work, but, I start losing toes when I use worms. I can go a whole year without losing a toes in hundreds of dragons, but I use mealworms once and there goes 5 toes. Just my luck, but others do better.
You have to be careful with superworms. Their exoskeletons are harder to digest and can bind them if fed too many or too often. If I get them I vary them maybe 3-4 times a week, with crickets in between. And only for adults. This is only my opinion, but it's what works for me. I've been working with them about 13yrs now.