One of the most vital parts of giving proper care to a bearded dragon is ensuring that it is getting enough nourishment through proper diet. Here are some of the tips that you can consider to make sure that your beardie is eating the right foods that will make them healthy:
1. Insects and animals – pet reptiles love to eat insects and animals. Some of the great selections of insects for your pet beared dragon are the following:
- Crickets – it is advisable to give hatchlings some "pinhead" crickets because these are smaller and easier to chew for them. However, for adult bearded dragon, full sized crickets are best to offer. Feeder crickets contain 69% moisture, 1% ash, 21% protein, 3% carbohydrates, and 6% fat. To ensure more nutritional value, it would be great if you will throw away some fruits or vegetables for these crickets to eat before actually serving them to your pet. With this your pet beardie can receive more nutrients and vitamins that their body needs. Crickets to be fed to your lizard can be bred but it is not actually a great move. You can bulk order 500 crickets online for around $ 21 which is a wiser choice since you do not have to go through the hard work of breeding crickets. These 500 crickets can be kept in a ventilated plastic storage bin until they are all fed to your lizard.
- Roaches – another great food items for your bearded dragon are roaches particularly dubia. This food item for your pet contains 61% moisture, 28% protein, 2% ash, 3% carbohydrates and 6% fat. It is more expensive to feed your reptile with roaches compared with crickets because only reptile specialty stores offer these feeders roaches.
- Mealworms and superworms – prolific mealworm is second most popular food for lizards. Mealworms contain 63% moisture, 1% ash, 19% protein, 14% fat and 3% carbohydrates. Superworms are more recommended for larger lizards.
2. Limit the fruits intake – bearded dragon is omnivore. Sometimes, it is good to mimic diet in the wild so it would be great to give vegetables and some fruits to your bearded dragon. Some of the best fruits and vegetables for them are carrots, turnip greens, strawberries, dandelion greens, blueberries and tomatoes.
However, it is advisable to limit the percentage of these foods intake. Fruits and vegetables must only be 25% of the overall mix of foods and it must not go beyond 10 percent of the whole diet of your bearded dragon.
3. Commercial diets – giving commercial diets mixture like Rep-Cal Maintenance Formula Bearded Dragon Food (6 oz) and Zoo Med Natural Adult Bearded Dragon Food (20 oz) are also advisable. These commercial diets are good for the lizard since it contains lots of the fruits and vegetables mentioned above plus great deal of nutritional supplements and vitamins.
However, there are instances wherein the beardie does not eat the commercial diet foods immediately so what you can do is moist it a bit or mix it with green vegetables and fruits until they get used to it.
These are some details that you should remember when it comes to the diet of your reptile It is also advisable to consult veterinarian first so you can have proper background and knowledge about your dearest pet. Giving them the right kinds of foods will help them grow healthy and active.
If you are really an enthusiastic individual and pet loving owner, you must read more details about Bearded Dragon diets . It will give you all information that you need to know about your pet.