Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female dragon ate 3x this past week. A pet store in the area had some live pinkies temporarily available and I took advantage of the opportunity. She fed on them immediately, even more enthusiastically than my usually exitable big male. I know that it's not recommended to feed pinkies as a regular source. How bad would this really be for her? I realize they are high in fat; but, they are also seemingly easy to digest and high in protein/calcium. She is still a bit underweight so I'm thinking maybe the high fat content may be beneficial for some period of time. What is the big drawback to feeding pinkies regularly? What can I do to entice her to get back to accepting crickets. If I can't find a way I'm probably gonna end up breeding smelly-ass rodents and I'm not sure my girlfriend is too keen on that prospect.

well, they are not high in calcium becouse all babies' bones are mostly cartilage, so that is one bad thing, another is i heard that a main diet of anything is bad for them (i dont now why).
i guess that if you dusted thim it would be fine but still try other things(anoles,millworms,waxworms,and fuzzies are better the pinkies if there small enough).good luck with it.

P.S. please watch your language, there are alot of little kids on here.

i hope this is helpfull
jake

I guess I get that. I've been on many internet sites that talk about animals getting fatty liver disease (don't ask me, I'm not a vet.) from eating a diet of nothing but rodents. The same sites also go on to talk about how a diet of strictly insects may not be so great due to not so easily digested exoskeletons. They always expound on the virtues of feeding at least some vegetation, but as I'm sure most folks on this site realize, that's a bit unrealistic when it comes to frilleds. My bad on the language. I guess I'm just bitter toward the little kids on this site since my parents were never permissive enough to let me keep cool reptiles at the age where swearing would have been offensive to my fragile little mind. Thanks and more info is always appreciated.

I believe a diet of mainly pinkies is bad, also becuase of the high fat consintrations in them...iam not to sure on any real studies done on frilleds and fatty liver diease but iam pretty sure its well doccumented in monitors and other carinvous lizards. And in a lab setting to cause fatty liver diease animal is fed a high fat diet then is fasted for a few days then feed again a high fat diet..which induces fat to be release into the blood and the liver start to fail.. So if you frilled stops and start eating again may cause problems..

But once again.. i not to sure on how offen it is recorded in frilled dragons...
well anyway best of luck.
Bob Sabol