Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I fed my beardie a giant moth tonight and my friend took a few video clips of it w/ his digital camera. Thought you guys might enjoy the attack footage.

The AVI files are in this directory:
http://www.tlutz.net/movies

Later,
Tom

Bearded Dragon vs. Mothra Video Clips

Did you know moths are poisonous for dragons??
Also. that is way too big for that little one . i hope he had as much fun as you did....

I beg to differ... I have found many websites that claim dragons regularly eat moths. Butterflies, I would not feed to him. I hear some of them can be poisonous. Here are a few of the sites I found, and I'm sure there are dozens more:

http://lizards4all.stormpages.com/diet.html
http://www.fab-design.de/freddies-pets/beardies.htm
http://www.martinsreptiles.co.uk/bdcare.html
http://www.stormpages.com/herpvenue/beardievenue.html
http://www.yowiepower.com/teachers/pdf/cr_info.pdf
http://www.herpshop.com.au/ht/herptrader.html

Also, I think he did have a good time killing that moth. He looked quite satisfied after chowing down on it (and yes, he ate the whole thing). He ignored all the crickets in the cage and attacked the moth alone. If my bearded dragon caught this moth in the wild, do you think his mother would be there telling him to take smaller bites?

Later,
Tom

I doubt all moths are toxic, it all depends on what they eat as catapillers. Silkworms grow into moths but are very edible to reptiles. I expect most of the plainer more trig looking catapillers are edible but the brightly patterned or spiny catapillers typically are poisonous to most predatory animals (birds and reptiles). I certainly would do research before feeding any moth/butterfly or catapiller to my beardie. Thanks for the list of sites too, will look into them when I can.

It looks like you guys had fun watchin your beardie attack and eat that moth. But just some advice, not only can moths be toxic, but that large of a prey item can kill you're little beardie. If they eat prey that is too large it can destroy there nevous system causing hind leg paralysis. Which can be fatal. As a gerenal rule you dont want to give your beardie prey that is larger then the ditance between his eyes. thats just a gereral rule though. I wouldn't give that little guy anything bigger than 2 week old crickets. maybe 2.5. week old. If your beardie is fine after that moth I wouldnt push your luck and try it again. I hope some of this helps. I dont mean to sound like a jerk or anyhting , I'm just trying to provide you with some info that you may not have known. Anyway good luck with the little guy.

peace,
nathan