Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What should I be in a bearded dragons cage for food, daily. Just need some more info, i know about collared leaves and other leaves, what other cool things can I add? Give me a list of things I can keep in his cage to maintain a good nutrition. Thanks

Basically anything you can also eat.
Protein is important to (especially if it is a young Beardie)
Crix (appropriate size)
Super worms
meal worms (as a treat, NOT a staple)
wax worms (also a treat)

Try all of the fruits and veggies to see what he/she likes.
I have fed mine:
Blueberries (I have heard this could lead to health problems if too many are fed, but mine will only eat one at a sitting)
Blackberries
Carrots
Green Peppers
Spinach (in limited amounts because it interferes with Ca absorption)
I feed mine Dole SpringMix (along with Crix and the most of other things listed).
Dandelion (flowers and greens--of course make sure you don't use pesticides or fertilizers or weed killer)
Clover (mine LOVES clover)
Henbit (Lamium purpureum: it grows like crazy out here and he seems to like it. It has little purple orchid type flowers arranged in head type structure at the top)
Frozen Mixed veggie (he used to have an absolute LOVE AFFAIR with corn...he would hide it until it became crunchy then crunch away like it was popcorn...funny)
I have even given him baby food from a dropper (just a special treat to get in some bonding time with him.)
Crix (even the canned variety)
Meal worms (as a treat)
Super worms (he LOVES these guys)
Grasshoppers
Caterpillars (as long as you know what they are and they aren't part of the Milkweed variety)
earthworms (fun to watch him try to eat these guys)
red worms
slugs
Moths/butterflies (again as long as they are not from the Milkweed variety)
Pinkie (NOT all the time, as a treat no more than about every three months or so)

But again, they can eat anything you can eat (even though you may not want to)
I have heard of people feeding them eggs, romaine, those hissing cockroaches, silk worms, bannanas.
Variety is the key. I treat ZZ like another member of our family. We don't eat the same thing every day, so why should he. Summer is when I really mix it up. He just doesn't eat as much the rest of the year.
Hope this helps.
Ps: make sure you make everything the appropriate size (no bigger than the space between eyes--serious neurological problems could result)

This is a great chart that will tell you all kinds of foods that are acceptable and how often you should feed them. I use it all the time as a quick reference.
BeatifulDragons Food Chart

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1.0 bearded dragon (gold X yellow flame)
0.1 california kingsnake (evil)
1.0 ferret (runt)
1.0 cat (cornish rex)
0.1 dog (mutt)

>>What should I be in a bearded dragons cage for food, daily. Just need some more info, i know about collared leaves and other leaves, what other cool things can I add? Give me a list of things I can keep in his cage to maintain a good nutrition. Thanks

Dragons have a specific diet. Some foods we eat, as briefly touched upon but not stated very well, can cause great health problems with your beardie. Follow the advice on Beautifuldragons.com and you won't go wrong but again, do not treat your beardie's diet as basically anything you eat. If you do, before you know it your beardie will be suffering and die.

And to ZZ1, you may want to seriously think about what kind of effect your advice can have when make statements like "Basically anything you can eat". Beardies will die if people follow advice like that.

Good luck!
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Rob

I can appreciate what you are trying to say.

My comment basically meant that I am not aware of any fruits and veggies that are especially toxic to a beardie . I know they have different dietary needs, but I was only offering my opinion. I also listed things I have fed my ZZ. I didn't mean to imply that we should be giving our beardies portions of the meals we are eating. I WOULD NEVER DO THAT.

I take his diet pretty seriously (I am not a fanatic though). I try to maintain a good variety of natural and commercial grown foods (Which are the SAME quality for human consumption.) I do not believe in the man made foods like the pellets and canned or the "home delivered salads".

I do treat him as a member of my family.

I don't believe anything I listed was toxic to beardie. I have had success with my Beardie (once I found out that mealies could be fattening and we but him on a diet)

So many times I see people looking for the ONE thing you should feed to a Beardie. That is how I believe people get rooked into buying commercial foods (but that is another thread entirely). I was trying to illustrate you should be feeding a variety and NOT any one thing.

I stand behind my statement (even after reading beautiful dragons list...I don't agree that you should NEVER feed spinach to a Beardie, I believe it can be done in moderation with no harm.)

I also think it is good to get more than one source for dietary needs. I have researched this forum, Reptiles magazine (although I disagree with many of the things they said about other aspects of Beardie husbandry) as well as the book I have at home. (The Life of your Bearded Dragon)and other websites.

Isn't that what this forum is all about, an exchange of ideas and opinions?

I could tell you knew what you were talking about by the info in your post. I was just concerned someone just starting out in the beardie world would take the statement wrong. I know it's sometimes people's tendency to pick one thing out of a statement that's the easiest and least restricitive thing to do and use that as the basis for everything pertaining to the topic. In this case diet and the statement "treat it as anything you would eat". Especially if the surrounding context gives the impression the person making the statement is knowledgeable on the subject, which it appears that you are.

Even though you also stated a couple of items that were not good to feed all the time those can be easily forgotten if the reader chooses to go by the "anything you eat" statement which, again, is by far the easiest thing to remember.

The only reason I point these kinds of things out is because I was brand new to the care of these animals 6 months ago and it is extremely fresh in my mind, when you try to take in all of the brand new info, how easy it is to remember certain things simply because it takes less effort. I think it's extremely important whenever someone gives advice to do it very carefully and try as hard as they can to look at the advice they are giving from the perspective of someone who has never had to care for a dragon or any other animal for that matter.

Please do not take this as a shot at your knowledge or the care you give your beardies. It's just something I think needs to be reminded from time to time. Heck, in a few years when I'm not so new to this and it has become routine someone will most likely need to remind me of the same thing, which I sincerely hope they do!!

Take care!!
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Rob

thanx,
You do bring up a good point and I will try to keep that in mind. (I have only had my Beardie for 2 years...beofre that I didn't even know what a Bearded Dragon was) I did a lot of research in the month before I bought him and found that there were lots of different opinions on diet. I am always trying to expand my knowledge to enrich my animals (I would like to think that all responsible keepers are like that.)

Everyone has to start somewhere.

"Everyone has to start somewhere"

First, after watching enough Jeff Corwin and Steve Irwin to last a lifetime I just couldn't stand it any more. I had to have a reptile so after doing a lot of frustrating research I went out and bought a ball python. He's awesome!

A month later I decided I wanted a lizard and had heard of these bearded dragons but didn't have clue as to what they were. Well I went to the local pet shop, which has someone there who does a heck of a job, and looked at the two they had. Again after doing loads of frustrating, conflicting research I bought one. Then two weeks after that I bought the second one they had. Beardies are a heck of a lot more work than ball pythons, that's for sure and the amount of debateable (sp?) info is just freakin' huge!!

Now, in a week or two I've got a blood python coming! I may need some professional counseling soon! I'm looking at getting a house now just to have more room for more herps!
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Rob

Funny,

I have heard some horrible things about bloods. They are beautiful though. I saw one at a pet store, but declined to hold it because it had a nasty dispossition (sp). It struck at the worker, it struck at me it struck at everything that moved, it wiggled its way lose, hit the floor and kept on striking. (gotta love the spirit though). They had to get a towel and place over it to get it back into his home (which they told me its harder to maintain because of their moisture level requirements and heat requirements). This one was about 19" long and full of spit and fire.

Good luck