Feeding Bearded Dragons

Feeding 1-4 months: usually 2 wk old crickets are the size they eat, but the rule is no larger than the space between their eyes and to the tip of their nose. Each baby is different, but unless sick, they eat 10-30 a meal, the faster growers of course will eat the more amount, feed twice a day if possible, if you can only feed once a day, do it later in the day. In the mornings give them small pieces of greens and finely chopped vegetables.

5 months to adult: You will see they start to eat salads more and less crickets, again, your beardie will let you know when they are changing their diets, just make sure there are plenty of good fresh greens and vegetables available for them and this is also when we start to add superworms, silks and occasional wax worms to their diets. Fresh shed ones are okay for younger dragons, but we notice they can not digest normal superworms at this age and should not be given superworms until adults.

Below are some recommended greens and vegetables to make a salad. Also here is a link for a salad I make for ours.

Greens
• Collard
• Dandelion
• Kale
• Endive
• Mustard Greens
• Chinese cabbage flower leaves
• Small amounts of romaine, mustard or spinach (romaine is mostly water and spinach, mustard greens - bind with calcium and reduces absorption

Vegetables: All fresh
• Acorn squash
• Yellow squash
• Zucchini squash
• Banana squash
• Summer squash
• Carrots
• Green beans
• Snow peas (they love these)
• Sweet Potatoes
• Small amounts of asparagus, tomatoes, peppers, parsnips, pumpkin and Alfa sprouts.

You can also use small amounts of other beans, but watch the phosphorus count and offset with dustings of calcium. Again the tomatoes, peppers, parsnips, pumpkin and beans are high in Oxalic acid and bind to reduce absorption of calcium and other nutrients if used in large amounts.

Fruits
• Pears
• Peaches
• Raspberries
• Blackberries
• Strawberries
• Melon
• Mango
• Star fruit
• Papaya
• Grapes

Berries, star fruit and mango are high in Oxalic acid and should be used occasionally as this tends to bind with calcium and prevent absorption

NOTE: any of the foods listed above that are high in oxalic acids can be included in their diets in small amounts as they do add many good vitamins and minerals for them, but if an animal has kidney or liver problems or is under any meds treatment for coccidia, I recommend not using any of these in their diet until after treatment is completed.

Leave the salad for them all day in the cooler spot of the tank along with a few soaked pellets, ours like only the Rep-Cal brand, then feed the crickets at lunch and dinner or several hours after the salad/pellets. We find our smaller eaters need them twice a day then they eat as much as the bigger eaters do once a day, they will let you know when they want to change, same with the salad, as they get older, they want crickets less and salad more until this becomes their main diet. We start adding in other protein when they are 5-6 months, superworms (fresh shed mealworms are ok, however superworms are more nutritional), silk worms - several times a week and wax worms as an occasional treat.

Don't forget the supplements and calcium, depending on which kind of light they are under and if they get exposure to natural sunlight.

If outdoors in natural light they need little additional supplement if they are eating greens and veggies. Once every few weeks.

If under active UVB heat lights, research has found they do not need supplement, but we still dust with calcium once a week and with vitamins once a week also 3-4 days apart. We have had blood test and found that the calcium and phosphorus levels are perfect with this routine.

If not in natural light or Active UVB, then they need to be under another UVB source and they need to have their crickets dusted with calcium a minimum of 3 times a week and vitamins once a week. As they grow older you can lower this amount to twice a week for the calcium and every other week for the vitamins, until they are adults, then we dust once a week with calcium and every other week with vitamins in place of one of the calcium dustings either on their crickets or salads. This is providing they are eating salads good, if not, you will need supplements more often since they are not getting them in their diet.

Article by Cheri Smith
Copyright Cheri Smith, The Reptile Rooms ©2003
All images Copyright The Reptile Rooms ©2004 Unless otherwise noted.