Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm going to get a baby beardie and I was thinking about puttong her on pellets. What do you guys think of pellets? I know how to train her to eat them, so thats not a problem. Pellets would be easier to give her than crickets and other live things. Also, if I fed pellets, would this take the place of eggies and live feeders? Or just one of them? I've heard Repcal pellets are good. What does everyone here think? Thnaks.
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~Julie~

They claim to be all they need but I just use them to supplement their veggies. I also offer a small mount of tiny Mealworms to the small ones and supers for the adults but I am thinking about stopping those all together.
I still use the Cal, Cal W/D3, and Repti Vite.

Joel R

vitamins/calcium. The pellets are supposed to be a complete diet. Should I add supplements to this diet? Both beardies and growing rapidly and gaining weight. Thanks, Jo

i think that even though the 'people on the...' container? claim that the pellets are a complete diet, i don't think they are.
My Baby Beardie's Diet is this:

Crickets, Veggies, Pellets, Zoo Med's wet formula- made of carrots, dried apple, cornmeal, alfalfa stuff etc.

i think they would be happier (& healthier) if feed live food that they had to work for & real veggies.

PS mine will eat pellets, but would go for a live cricket first, then some veggies, then if not full, head for the pellets.

i supplement my...
~crickets w/ vit. D3 and calcium
~veggies & water with an electrolyte & vitamin D3 supplement

Pellets can come nowhere near to the nutrition and benifits of a supplimented diet of live foods,greens, and veggies. Just the added mental benifit to the animal to chase his prey greatly benefits that animal. The labels don't always tell the truth, you can say that again. Those companies have motives, and that is to sell their products, simple concept of getting the most money in the pocket. My dragons won't even eat the stuff, I got to trick them to eat it by mixing it in their veggies. I only do that to give variety. Variety is deffinatly the key to any healthy diet. Anyone who feels that a pellet diet is all the animal needs, has a lot of learning to do. I hope not with the life of the animal. Of course just an opinion.
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Photos

In order to understand an animal nutritional needs in order to formulate a complete pelleted diet for ANY animal it takes years and years of extensive nutrition research. They're STILL trying to figure out how to best feed cows, sheep, chickens, hogs, dogs, cats, and horses for optimal growth and development. These are animals that have been around and domesticated for centuries. Bearded dragons have only been captive for the llast half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st... logic says that there is NO way pellet companies can produce a pelleted diet for dragons that actually meets their dietary needs. Especially since I've yet to see a research study on dietary needs of lizards being conducted at any research institution or university.

Also... anyone notice how similar all the pelleted diets are to each other... tortoises, iguanas, box turtles, beardeds, etc.

Kinda fishy.

Their diets are some what similar there for the foods would be "some what similar" They do have specific needs that's why the are a little different. For the most part, every animal you listed eats a main staple of Veggies.
I do agree about how they have not been in captivity too long and I don't think they have the requirements pin pointed but there are people who have been feeding pellets for years and their dragons are doing great.

Joel R

I've had sucess with feeding on a majority pellets diet. I use repcal brand, which does claim to be a complete diet. I occassionally supplement/treat with worms and can o crickets, and more often greens. I try to give one big dusted piece of green to each dragon once a week. I did have a dragon who would eat pellets, and would actually lick calcium from a dish.I would put worms into a dish filled with powder and roll them in it, and feed him from the dish. I don't know when he started doing it, but one day I saw him licking the calcium from the dish.
You will have to train your dragon to take them, and there are a few methods I could suggest if you would like me to.

Yeah, I'd feed them other things too, like crickets occasionally...as long as they don't want to only eat crickets, finding that crickets are more fun to catch and maybe tastier. I also thought that maybe ti would be better, like it would lower the risk of parasite transmitting and infections from sick bugs.
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~Julie~

Well, i've never heard of a case where a beardie got parisites from a cricket, not mentioned in any books or websites, as long as you get them from a good store, i think you'll (and the beardie) will be fine, as long as u don't catch the crix outside (risk of poisions and fetrtilizer)

PS i use the Kaytee brand, should i offer Repcal instead? Katee also claims to be a full diet...

its a good idea to offer a few crix, helps give the beardie a workout, enhance the mind, could be fun too...

If the brand of pellets you are using lists an ingredient EQ or ethoxyquin, discard immediatly. This chemical can kill. I suspect it could have led to the death of my first dragon. Some batches of kaytee have this in them, and others don't. So, check your packaging. None of the repcals have it.

If the brand of pellets you are using lists an ingredient EQ or ethoxyquin, discard immediatly. This chemical can kill. I suspect it could have led to the death of my first dragon. Some batches of kaytee have this in them, and others don't. So, check your packaging. None of the repcals have it.

I know the person who formulated the diet for rep-cal, and I can tell you it was formulated to be a complete diet. Whether rep-cal has kept the formulation the same or not is a different story. I knwo the Vandivers have had great success using it as the primary diet. They have adults that have not seen live food in over six years! Pretty amazing stuff. I have a few babies that I'm going to raise up in a similar fashion as them, but using another complete food formulation. It is a powder formula that uses veggies as the delivery method. Contains all the neccessary Macro and Micro nutrients. What is it you ask? It is the Sandfire Superfoods formula Developed by Allen Repashy. I will keep the forum posted on how it goes.
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me

Thanks everyone for the help. I was thinking about the risk of parasites because someone on here was telling me how there is always a risk of parasite transferral, even if you buy the feeders in a store.
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~Julie~