Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i've read that you're basically not supposed to start letting them eat meat until after a year old.

i own 4 snakes as well as my beardie which is 6 1/2 months right now, don't know the sex but from what i can tell now at this age looks like a female but i am not an expert.

now, i let my beardie roam around my room as he/she pleases, my room is very clean and i have nothing for him/her to get into. i have basking light at the end of his/her enclosure pointing toward the outside so he/she can bask, and the uvb light right next to a place that he/she likes to hang out at.

when i was pulling the frozen mice(hoppers) out of the bag to put them in container for them to thaw out, my beardie was basking and he/she must have got whiff of something or he/she must have saw the mice, and out of nowhere he/she got off of the perch and ran after the mouse i was transporting, but i moved it just in time.
so after i moved away from him/her and continued transporting the other 15 mice into the container, he/she tried to get the mice 6 different times. i even put one of the mice in front of my beardie and he/she tried to grab it like he/she does with the crickets.

my beardie is 15 inches at 6 1/2 months old, what do you all think of feeding beardies pinkies or fuzzies for a snack every once in while at this age or size.

THANK YOU FOR READING AND RESPONDING

I have heard of and personally seen people feed their beardies pinkies and small fuzzies. (All of which were under one year old in age). I have on the other hand never read or been told that it is a good idea to have mice babies be a main part of a beardie diet. Used as an occational treat every now and then I cannot foresee a problem. As you can imagion, in the outback they would be more than happy to gobble up a few pinkies if they happened upon a mouse's nest.

I have personally fed a few pinkies to my beardie AND leopard geckos. Both of which happily accepted.

Hope all goes well.

Nick

at that size, your Beardie can certainly eat a pinkie safely. It is not a neccessary part of their diet. As a special treat given rarely, it should be OK in the short run but I would not make a habbit of it. Pinkies are high in fat and while they do have some good nutritional value, good nutrition can be better found elsewhere. Research is showing greens to be the best diet for Beardies over a year old. Apparently the protien is important at a young age. There are people who give pinkies to help fatten up females that have just laid eggs to help jump start their system and replace a lost nutrients. If it were me, I would not do it. If you just want to see what would happen once or twice, it should be fine.
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

While it is possible to feed your beardie a pinkie (although I would NEVER feed it to a beardie only 6 1/2 months old!!), it's not recommended at all. It will not do your beardie any good, it could possibly carry parasites, and it is not the easiest thing to digest (once again, this goes especially for a 6 1/2 months old beardie). If this is for your own amusement, then please try to control yourself and think of the beardies' best interest. If it's for your beardies' best, just don't do it, and leave your pinkies to the snakes. There are a million other things you could feed your beardie that are much healthier. It's as simple as that.

Have a look at the link below, and click on "Nutrition value", for a great chart of beardie food, including treats and staples.
Beautyfuldragons.com

I only feed Pinkies (never fuzzies!) to my adult female dragons after they have layed eggs to help them put their weight back on. And yesterday I fed one to my largest adult male Dragon, but only as a rare treat because he is a bit thin after coming out of burmation.
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-Lauren

~ Lauren's Lizards ~