When it comes to the bearded dragon diet, the most important thing is to make it varied. Bearded dragons eat so many different things and that’s great about these animals, but you also want to make sure that you’re providing different sources for them to get their vitamins and nutrients.
Baby bearded dragon diet is different than one of adults. When you have a baby to a juvenile bearded dragon (up to one year old), they will mainly be eating insects because at that time they need that protein in order to grow. So, within that first year, you’re mainly gonna be feeding them 80% insects and 20% plants (veggies and salads). You can also serve fruits but only as a snack. Juvenile dragons should be fed 3-5 times per day.
For those younger than three months (babies) – give them as many insects they can eat in 10 minute intervals. Baby Dragons can eat up to 60 insects a day but they’ll probably stop eating after 10 – 15 minutes of feeding, since they’ll be full! When that happens, just remove any insects they don’t want and offer them another meal couple of hours later.
Bearded dragons do most of their growing within their first year of life. After that first year you should transition them to the adult diet which consists of 80% plants and 20% of the insects. Again, the fruits are just going to be snacks that add hydration and nutrition for them. However, too much of fruit can be too much sugar for them and can cause diarrhea, so definitely it should be just a treat you want to feed in moderation. Adult dragon, older than 18 months should be fed every day, once a day.
This article will cover the types of leafy greens as well as the insects, the fruits the veggies, even flowers, that these guys can eat and I’m also cover supplementation as well.
Don’t forget: food for bearded dragons should be cut into pieces they can swallow. If you’re serving carrots, shred them, greens should be chopped, etc.
Btw, title image of this article shows delicious pizza, but that’s only posted as a clickbait (sorry about that). Rule number 1: don’t give your reptile any of human snacks, pizza, chips or fast food of any kind. It’s not their way, and, in the long run, it will ruin their health. Now, let’s go to real food for real dragons.
Leafy greens
Some of the best leafy greens for bearded dragons are collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion, turnip, rainbow chard and bok choy. There are many other different greens that bearded dragons can have, but you want to make sure that it’s nice dark and leafy.
Not all greens are good for your beardie. Some of the leafy greens to avoid for are: kale, iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce and spinach. Spinach can mess up with their calcium absorption and the others just don’t provide a lot of nutritional value for them. Basically, it’s just like giving them water. That’s why it’s important to make sure you’re giving them the nice dark leafy greens that are great for them and giving them lots of nutrients and vitamins that they need.
Vegetables
When it comes to veggies, a lot of them are great for beardies: carrots, tomatoes (tomatoes should be served occasionally because it has a high acidity), red bell peppers, squash, celery, cucumbers (make sure that you peel the skin), pumpkin, zucchini.
There are many other types of vegetables that you can feed these guys as well but, again, make sure that you check and make sure that it’s safe for them. For example, avoid onions which are too acidic. Green beans are not toxic, but not nutritious either. Don’t give them rice (or any other grains) in any form (cooked or raw) since they can’t digest it.
Bearded dragons especially love red color, so if you’re trying to feed them a salad and they’re being a picky eater, putting something red on top can help them and entice them to eat. That’s what the tomatoes are great for, even strawberries, but again, you don’t want to be offering those items all the time.
Fruits
Some of the fruits that bearded dragons can have are: strawberries, blueberries, apples, watermelon, cantaloupe… they can even have banana occasionally but you don’t want to overdo it with the banana because that can mess up with the calcium absorption as well.
Some fruits to avoid are avocado. Avocado is toxic to bearded dragons so you never want to feed your beardie with it. You should also avoid fruits that have high acidity level such as orange, lemon or pineapple. I would just avoid those completely and stick with the other options.
Bearded dragons can have flowers as well and it can actually entice them to eat their salads more and it can be good for them. But, be careful with flowers. You can’t just go and pick them somewhere and then feed it to your animal because you don’t know if has pesticides on it and that can harm your animal. The best thing to do is either grow your own flowers, and make sure that there’s no pesticides on it, or you can buy little packages of dried flowers, made especially for bearded dragons, and put that on top of their salads as well.
Some of the safe flowers for bearded dragons are: hibiscus, dandelions, dahlias, day lilies and pansies. Again, make sure that you’re not just picking something and giving it to them because it could have pesticides that could be fatal for your beardie.
Insects
When it comes to the insect options for bearded dragons, some of the best ones are: super worms, dubious, gut loaded crickets, hornworms and wax worms.
Wax worms are very fatty so that’s definitely just a treat you don’t want to be feeding that too often.
Hornworms are the absolute best thing that you could feed your bearded dragon. They’re very healthy and nutritious for them and also have a lot of hydration in them. I find that dubious and super worms are really great too, they’re very nutritious.
Crickets aren’t the most nutritious thing to give to your bearded dragon although they do love them. If you are going to be feeding crickets, the best thing to do is to make sure that you are gut loading it. That means that you’re feeding the crickets with all of the nice healthy greens that you’d be feeding your bearded dragon.
Supplements
Make sure that you use calcium supplement but beware about D3 (Vitamin D which has role in calcium absorption) which is often offered together with calcium, since this can be counterproductive. That’s because bearded dragons hopefully have a UVB light in their habitat (if you don’t have one for your beardie you definitely need to get it) and because of that UVB you shouldn’t give them calcium with d3 because you can literally calcify their organs. It’s just way too much d3 for them because of UVB that they already have. In short, make sure that you’re using a calcium without d3 most of the time.
You should also provide them a multivitamin that you can dust on their food once a month. It’s important for them to get that additional vitamins.
Regarding the dosage, you can dust their food with the calcium 5 times a week and multivitamins 2 times a week.
Another supplement that I would recommend, especially if you have a picky bearded dragon (there are a lot of bearded dragons that don’t want to eat their salads and their greens) is: bee pollen, which bearded dragons love very much. Bee pollen is really great for them, it adds extra vitamins and minerals to their diet and also gets them to eat their greens. If you’re buying bee pollen make sure that it’s organic and, if it’s not in a powder form, you need to mash it up yourself. Make sure that it is in a powder form before you dust it on top of their salad.
As you see, there are many different options to feed your bearded dragon. You just need to make sure that you’re not giving them something that’s bad for them. A lot of people think that, since bearded dragons can eat so much, they can literally give them anything. But, there are some dietary restrictions and, since you don’t want your beardie to get sick, it’s very important to do your research.