Bearded Dragons: What Food Do They Eat?

1. What Food Do Wild Bearded Dragons Eat?

A dragon with bearded.

There are few research on what bearded dragons consume in the wild.

In one investigation, wild bears were caught and their stomachs were flushed to see what they had eaten.

61 percent of the diets of the lizards tested consisted of insects, mostly termites. The rest was plant stuff.

Biologists believe bearded dragons are opportunistic feeders, consuming insects when they are available but relying on plant material for their diet.

They suggest “a diet consisting of different bug species, complemented with green vegetables”.

2. What Food Do Bearded Dragons Eat?

Now that we understand the basics of feeding bearded dragons, we can dig deeper into the varieties of plants and insects that your bearded dragon can eat.

Prior to discussing the appropriate foods, it is important to consider environmental contaminants such as pesticides and insecticides. Toxins can cause issues in caged lizards.

As a result, you should only feed insects developed specifically for the pet trade and properly wash any plant material before feeding.

Types of Livefood

Mealworms are a great diet for bearded dragons.

Almost all commercial feeder insects are suitable for bearded dragon.

Most beardie owners feed their beardies crickets, although additional possibilities include hopper locusts, mealworms, and waxworms.

Crickets and locusts may be released directly into the cage for your bearded dragon to seek and catch.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Livefood

Crickets

• Most pet retailers stock it.
• Easy to care for.
• Active insects attract bearded dragons.

Locusts

• Bearded dragons like smaller locusts. No prey larger than your bearded dragon’s head is recommended.
• Less escape than insects.
• Can be more costly than crickets.

Mealworms

• Due of their thick shell, they are less nutritious. Mealworms should only be provided as a rare treat.
• Easy to breed and care for.
• Can be refrigerated to slow down the life cycle and lengthen longevity.
• Keep them out of the substrate with a bowl.

Waxworms

• The perfect treat for lizards.
• Slender life span Waxworms often mopph into adult moths.
• They are soft and might be difficult to handle.
• Use a basin to keep em out.

Insect Storage

If you just have one bearded dragon, one issue you may have is storing live food. Then you have an expensive jar of dead insects and a hungry bearded dragon.

Crickets

Fortunately, there are several techniques to prolong the lives of feeding insects.

Bearded dragon diet – what insects and how often?

Crickets should not be kept in their original container. Instead, release them into a different tank.

There are several causes.

First, crickets are cannibalistic, which means they consume each other.

Putting your crickets in a large tank and covering it with scrunched-up newspaper gives them additional places to hide and escape becoming supper.

The other reason to maintain crickets in a tank is because they have little food and no water. Dry bran is better than nothing, but it is hardly a balanced meal for your crickets. Dehydration is a major cause of death in captive crickets.

In the cage, supply nutritional items like carrot, apple, and fresh grass, as well as cereal-based mainstays.

A small waterbowl (a jam jar lid works nicely) filled with cotton wool can be offered. Cotton wool keeps crickets from drowning and helps them to securely consume water droplets.

Locusts

Locusts are good praying mantis food.

Like crickets, locusts thrive in a bigger tank with proper feed.

Similarly, locusts are less cannibalistic but require proper perches to moult. Using twigs instead of newspaper works best for locusts.

Cold is a major killer of locusts. Wild locusts like temperatures of 30’C or above, so your cool spare bedroom won’t help them.

Instead, attempt to keep locusts warm to extend their lives.

Mealworms

There are two techniques to prolong the life of mealworms.

Firstly, place the full container in the fridge. Cold-blooded organisms, this delays their life cycle, shortening the time it takes to mature. However, this procedure only lasts a few weeks until the insects die.

Rather, release them into a plastic tupperware box with little ventilation holes punched in the lid.

You may supply a thick base of cereal (bran works well) and daily fresh veggies on top. This will keep your mealworms hydrated and increase their nutritional value.

Check the box often to eliminate uneaten plant stuff before it moulds.

Waxworms

Waxworms generally pupate within a few weeks of purchase, and nothing can be done to stop them. Instead, buy waxworms as a treat and feed your bearded dragon the whole pot within a week or two.

Gut-feeding Insects

A bearded dragon eats bugs.

Many bearded dragon owners utilize “gut loading”.

This entails providing your livefood a vitamin and mineral-rich diet.

By eating the bug, your bearded dragon will also ingest the insect’s stomach contents, supplementing the nutrients they get from live food.

These food supplements are usually powdered and can be fed dry (with supplemental water) or blended with water to produce a paste.

The best results come from gut loading feeder insects for at least 24 hours before feeding them to your dragon.

Feeder Insects

Alternatively, “dust” insects with a nutritional supplement.

Put the feeder insects in a plastic bag with some dusting powder and gently shake to coat them. Your bearded dragon can eat them.

Notably, livefood does not appreciate being coated in this manner, and will quickly begin cleansing themselves of the offending material.

So, when employing this method, make sure your bearded dragon consumes as many crickets and locusts as possible quickly.

Those consumed hours later may have been well cleansed and hence lack nutritional value.

3. Bearded Dragon Diets

Increasingly, commercial bearded dragon diets are available. These are dry, pelleted vitamins and minerals for your pet.

These entire meals may make feeding your dragon much simpler. Simply have a bowl of this on hand and add livefood as needed.

4. Bearded Dragon Vegetables

Vegetables are essential in a bearded dragon diet.

To keep them fresh and full of goodness, feed them everyday. To provide a fascinating and diverse diet for your lizard, choose and choose from a wide variety of veggies.

Bearded dragon owners have found the following veggies to be safe for their pets to eat:

• Cauliflower
• Peppers
• Beets
• Broccoli
• Brussels
• Squash
• Bok Choy
• Celery Chicory Cucumber
• Endive
• Beans
• Kale
• Rabi
• Mushrooms
• Dill Greens
• Parsnips
• Peas
• Pok choi
• Yam
• Chard
• Watercress
• Yams
• Zucchini

5. Fruits

Many bearded dragon publications recommend a mix of “fruits and vegetables”, yet many vets point out the increased sugar content in fruit and how many captive bearded dragons end up obese.

As a result, while fruits are still vital, they should only make up a tiny fraction of your bearded dragon’s diet, with vegetables making up the majority of plant matter.

These fruits are safe for your bearded dragon to eat:

• Banana Apple Apricot
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Cherries
• Cranberries
• Figs Figs
• Kiwi Grapefruit
• Mango
• Melon
• Nectarines
• Papayas
• Pears
• Prickly Pear
• Riesling Raisins
• Raspberries
• Starfruit
• Strawberries
• Tomatoes
• Watermelon

6. Other Plants

However, a variety of wild and garden plants may be utilized to enhance your bearded dragon’s diet.

However, they should be completely cleaned and free of weedkillers before usage.

It’s also not a good idea to harvest plants from roadside verges owing to odors and pesticides.

Some plants that bearded dragons can consume include:

• Clover and Dandelion leaves
• Mint
• Oregano
• Parsely
• Rosemary
• Thyme

7. What Should I Not Feed My Bearded Dragon?

While the following diets are proved to be safe and healthy for your bearded dragon, some keepers choose to experiment with new feeds.

So let’s talk about what not to feed your lizard.

First, pay attention to the livefood/plant matter ratio. Items that do not fall into one of these categories should be avoided. Avoid, for example:

• Meat chunks
• Table scraps
• Chocolate
• Chips
• Non-water drinks

Even in plants and insects, there are foods to avoid at all costs:

• Avocado
• Lettuce
• Onion
• Rhubarb

8. Conclusion

Creating a good bearded dragon diet requires time and effort, but it is not difficult. Your bearded dragon’s food should consist primarily of live insects and veggies, sprinkled or gut-loaded with mineral powder.

A dish of fresh water should be available at all times, as well as little portions of fruit as a reward.