Hi,

I am looking into bearded dragons, and I have noticed many people in America have fully grown dragons in a year, and feed 50-100 crickets a day when they are under 12 months. And also really high basking temps.....

How many crickets do you guys feed a day and how long until your dragons reach adult size??

I have heard that they reach adult size at about 2-3 years here, and feed about 7 give or take crickets a day, depending on the dragon....

I am going crazy with the info I am getting, it's all too different!!!

I suppose its possible to grow them that fast but id think you'd drastically shorten their lifespan due to metabolic burn out. The higher the temp you keep them at, the faster their metabolism, i.e. the more active they are, the more energy they burn and thus require by way of food.
In respect, the lower temp there at, the slower their metabolism, less enery they expend and less they require by way of food.
A natural life would be somewhere in between depending on the time of year.
In colder months they slow down and eat less (in wild, or for cooling prior to breeding in captivity)
In warmer months their metabolism is faster and they are more active, hunting, mating etc and ofcourse eat more as energy requirements dictate.
Mine have a basking spot heat of roughly 35, cool end about 26-27c.
I feed them mainly every3-4 days a plate with mixed veg/fruit, dog food and in between they get crix and woodies, not sure how many, perhaps a doz lrg crix per animal(adult)or same of woodies, but they must hunt them so expend some energy in that.
Occasionally they get a pink rat, my female has recently finihed laying and im beefing her up some as producing eggs takes it out of them. she gets a pink rt every 2nd or 3rd day aswell.
amazingly shes got hollow legs, im yet to re-weigh her but it dosent seem to be adding much condition yet.
Incidently their both around 20 months and not full grown, atleast ive seen the same species quite a bit larger.

well my eastern beardie male, i got him when he was about three weeks old, and i gave him about 20-30 small crickets a day when he was yound and as he got larger i just kept feeding him, he wasnt cooled at all the first year. at 12 months old he was full grown, about 44cm and 380grams, and he is as healthy and happy as could be, have recently got a feamle the same age as him and he would be easily twice the weight and about 2 inches longer, i find feeding them heeps when young you get a better dragon. he eats anything i show him and he eats it from my hand including veggies, insects pinkies, canned food, etc.... personaly i wouldnt do it any other way, my female is a great dragon but not as great a feeder as him she fusses sometimes cause she doesnt want any more but i still want her to eat more. eg my male eats a box of crickets a dozen woodies and saled in one meal and i feed him twice a week. the female only eats a fraction of that and not as often.
sorry if i have babled on a little!
jason