How Many Crickets To Feed A Bearded Dragon (Baby-Adult)

Cricket feeding is one of those things that looks simple until you actually own a bearded dragon and realise the numbers change constantly as the animal grows. I have kept bearded dragons for years and the cricket question comes up constantly from new owners, usually because they are either underfeeding a growing baby or still feeding an adult like a juvenile. This guide gives you the exact numbers by age, the cricket sizing rule, and everything you need to know about gut-loading and supplementation to make every feeding count.

Cricket Feeding Quick Reference by Age

Here is the full reference for cricket quantities, feeding frequency, and cricket size at each life stage. The exact numbers within each range depend on your individual dragon’s appetite, size, and activity level. Use the range as a guide rather than a rigid rule.

The golden rule on cricket size: Never feed a cricket larger than the space between your bearded dragon’s eyes. A cricket that is too large can cause impaction (partial or complete blockage of the digestive tract), which is one of the most serious health risks for beardies. When in doubt, go smaller.

Baby Bearded Dragons (0–3 Months)

Baby bearded dragons are in the most intensive growth phase of their lives and protein is the priority. From hatching until about 3 months of age, insects should make up approximately 80% of their diet with vegetables making up the remaining 20%.

Feed baby bearded dragons 5 times per day in sessions of 5–10 minutes each. Allow them to eat as many crickets as they want during each session. Do not count exact numbers or limit intake at this stage. A baby beardie in good health will eat between 25 and 80 crickets per day in total, though this varies considerably between individuals.

Use pinhead crickets (approximately 1/4 inch) for hatchlings and very young babies. As they grow through the first 6–8 weeks, you can move up to 1/4 inch crickets once the eye-space rule is consistently met. Never skip this sizing check. The exoskeleton of an oversized cricket can become lodged in the digestive tract, causing impaction that can be life-threatening if not caught early.

Do not be alarmed if a baby beardie seems to eat enormous quantities. This is completely normal. Rapid growth requires significant protein, and a healthy, active hatchling eating 60–80 crickets a day is not being overfed. The daily total will naturally self-regulate as growth slows.

Juvenile Bearded Dragons (3–8 Months)

At around 3 months of age, your beardie transitions into the juvenile stage. Growth remains fast but has slowed slightly from the hatchling phase, and feeding sessions can be reduced from 5 to 3 times per day.

Juveniles typically eat 25–50 crickets per day across their three sessions. Continue allowing free feeding within the session window: 5 to 10 minutes per session is still the right approach. Cricket size should move up with the dragon: a 3–4 month juvenile can handle 1/4 to 3/8 inch crickets; a 6–8 month animal can typically manage up to 1/2 inch. Always verify against the eye-space rule at each size transition.

At this stage, start gradually increasing the vegetable portion of the diet. A 3-month-old still needs roughly 70% insects and 30% vegetables. By 8 months, you should be working toward 60% insects and 40% vegetables as you prepare for the adult dietary shift. Our complete bearded dragon diet guide has the full picture on what vegetables to offer and how to build a balanced salad mix.

Older Juveniles (9–14 Months)

The 9–14 month period is the transitional phase. Your beardie is no longer a juvenile and has not quite reached full adult dietary needs. Drop feeding sessions to twice per day at this stage, with each session running 5–10 minutes.

Cricket totals typically fall in the 20–40 per day range for this age group. The bigger change is the diet composition: from around 12 months, begin actively shifting the insect-to-vegetable ratio toward the adult 20:80 split. Reducing session length is one practical way to manage this. At 13–14 months, a 5-minute session replaces the 10-minute sessions of earlier stages, naturally reducing cricket intake as greens become the priority.

Adult Bearded Dragons (18+ Months)

By 18 months, most bearded dragons have reached their adult size and their dietary needs shift significantly. Adults are no longer in active growth and do not need the same protein load as a juvenile. Overfeeding protein to an adult beardie leads to obesity and fatty liver disease, both genuine health risks that shorten lifespan.

Adult bearded dragons should eat approximately 10–20 crickets per day, or 20 every other day, in a single feeding session of 10–15 minutes. The diet at this stage should be 80% vegetables and leafy greens with protein making up only 20%, a complete reversal of the baby diet.

Some experienced keepers feed their adult beardies crickets every other day or even every third day, supplementing with other protein sources such as superworms or dubia roaches on off days. This is perfectly fine. The weekly total of protein matters more than strict daily consistency. What matters is that insects never become the majority of an adult’s diet again.

Expert Tip: A female beardie that is gravid (carrying eggs) will temporarily need more protein than a non-breeding adult. If your female is producing eggs (even unfertilised ones), increase protein frequency back toward juvenile levels during this period and ensure calcium supplementation is consistent to prevent egg-binding.

Cricket Sizing Guide

Cricket size is just as important as cricket quantity. Here is a simple reference for the stages:

When in doubt, go down a size. The risks of feeding too-small a cricket are zero. The risks of feeding too-large a cricket include impaction and internal injury from cricket exoskeleton pieces. If you keep a colony of mixed-age crickets, always sort before feeding.

Gut-Loading Crickets Before Feeding

Gut-loading is one of the most overlooked parts of cricket feeding, and one of the most impactful. Gut-loading means feeding the crickets nutritious food for 24–48 hours before offering them to your beardie. Whatever the cricket eats becomes part of what your dragon eats. A cricket that has been starving in an empty container passes on essentially nothing; a well-fed cricket is a meaningful nutritional contribution to your dragon’s diet.

Good gut-load foods for crickets include:

• Dark leafy greens: collard greens, dandelion, mustard greens, kale
• Squash and courgette
• Carrot and sweet potato
• Commercial gut-load products (Repashy Bug Burger, Fluker’s High Calcium Cricket Diet)
• Apple and other fruit in small amounts

Avoid feeding crickets citrus, spinach, or any food high in oxalates or goitrogens. Whatever affects calcium absorption in the cricket will affect it in your beardie too. Also avoid any processed or salty human foods.

Provide a light source and some shelter (egg carton sections work well) for the crickets during the gut-loading period, and include a piece of carrot or potato for moisture. Crickets can drown in a water dish. Remove dead crickets daily.

Supplementing Crickets

Even gut-loaded crickets do not provide everything a bearded dragon needs. Calcium and vitamin supplementation is essential. Dusting crickets immediately before feeding (so the powder adheres to the body before the cricket shakes it off) is the standard approach.

Use calcium without D3 for most dustings if your beardie has good UVB exposure. Excess preformed D3 from supplements accumulates and can cause toxicity, which is documented in detail in the Merck Veterinary Manual section on reptile nutritional disease. The calcium-with-D3 supplement covers those feedings where you want to ensure D3 is present regardless of UVB quality. A good overview of why calcium is so critical is in our bearded dragon calcium guide.

Crickets vs Dubia Roaches: Which Is Better?

Crickets are the most commonly used feeder insect for bearded dragons primarily because they are cheap and available everywhere. But if you have not tried dubia roaches, they are worth considering, especially as the main protein feeder in your rotation.

Dubia roaches are not a complete replacement for crickets. Variety in feeder insects is always better than a single species, and many experienced keepers use Dubias as the primary feeder and offer crickets as a rotation insect for enrichment (the hopping behaviour is genuinely stimulating for beardies). If you have a beardie that has become fixated on crickets and refuses other feeders, introducing Dubias early in the juvenile stage is much easier than converting a resistant adult.

Other good supplementary feeders to rotate in include superworms (high fat, use as a treat only), mealworms (occasional, not a staple due to high chitin), and black soldier fly larvae (excellent calcium source). Variety across feeder types ensures a broader nutritional profile and keeps your beardie engaged with feeding.

Why You Should Only Feed Live Crickets

Always feed live crickets, not dead ones. The movement is what triggers the hunting response in your beardie. A dead, motionless cricket often goes unnoticed or is ignored. More importantly, dead crickets begin decomposing quickly and can harbour bacteria that cause serious illness if consumed. Remove any uneaten live crickets from the enclosure within an hour of feeding. Crickets left overnight can bite sleeping beardies and cause stress.

Remove uneaten salad and vegetable portions after a few hours for the same reason. Wilted greens covered in bacteria are no better for your beardie than a decomposing cricket.

Expert Tip: Buy your crickets from a reputable supplier rather than digging them from the garden or buying from a bait shop. Wild-caught and bait-shop crickets have a significantly higher parasite load and may have been exposed to pesticides. Captive-bred feeder crickets from a reptile supplier are the safer and more reliable option.

When Your Bearded Dragon Refuses Crickets

A beardie that suddenly refuses crickets is not unusual and is rarely a crisis. Common reasons include:

• Shedding: appetite typically drops during a shed cycle and returns once complete
• Brumation: adult beardies may significantly reduce or stop eating during cooler months; this is normal seasonal behaviour covered in our brumation guide
• Temperature issue: if the basking spot is not reaching the correct temperature, digestion slows and appetite drops; check temperatures before assuming illness
• Cricket size: a beardie that was previously eating well but suddenly seems uninterested may have outgrown the cricket size being offered; try larger crickets
• Feeder monotony: some beardies become bored with the same feeder insect; rotate in Dubias or BSFL to reignite interest

Consult a vet if your beardie refuses food for more than 2–3 weeks outside of brumation, shows weight loss, or displays other symptoms such as lethargy or disinterest in basking. Impaction from oversized cricket pieces should be considered if the dragon is straining or has not defecated normally. Our bearded dragon impaction guide covers the signs and what to do.

Frequently Asked Questions