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Will someone please give a straight answer.

kay1688 Mar 05, 2005 05:17 AM

I have asked pet shops, looked on sites and posted messages on here but every one contradicts each other.
some say lettuce is terrible some say its ok, some say spinach is good some say it is really bad, kale is suposed to be good but someone said it can hurt them. i read the post earlier about carrots with people saying they are good them bad. loads of people have said cabbage is really good but them others don't.
I want to know straight out WHAT IS THE BEST FOR MY BEARDIE.
Also i was told mealies crickets waxworms and locusts are fine for a beardie in a mixed diet, then i was toll that they are all bad for him apart from crickets whcih aren't nutritious so you have to gut fee. i really don't want to hurt my beardie
Thankyou for any information
Kay

1 Male Beardie-Frank
2 Moggy cats -Jenny & June
3 springer spaniels-kipp, nutt and max
2 birds (mums go knows what they are)-loopy and george

Replies (6)

InTheBlue Mar 05, 2005 08:00 AM

Kay,

The best thing you can do is educate yourself on the dietary needs of your dragon and decide for yourself. Unfortunately your correct when you say that everyone contradicts each other and I know it is very frustrating for you.

Go to beautifuldragons.com and read about the dietary needs of dragons then review the list provided of good and bad veggies complete with nutritional values and reasons for good/bad rating. I believe this will answer your questions and provide you with some peace of mind about your beardies diet.

Later,
Robert
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Great spirits have always been recieved with violent opposition by mediocre minds. Albert Einstein

AlteredMind99 Mar 05, 2005 03:24 PM

beautifuldragons.net has THE best comprehensive list of what nutrients are in which veggie. check it out
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

kay1688 Mar 06, 2005 06:39 AM

Thank you for all your replies they were really helpful. the web pages were great for information especially the one with picture because i am rubbish a knowing veg by the name. I was interested to find that lettuce is mainly water and can be used for dehydrated dragons. my dragon always has wrinkly skin despite me leaving water in and spraying him so lettuce once a week in a small amount may help him a little. i feel a lot more comfortable making my own mind up aswell because i understand what is bad a good for him better.
Thankyou again for the replies they have made me feel alot better and i am sure my frank will benifit and i wish people wouldn't worry me by saying cabbage is terrible after he has been having it for months and that lettuce is fatel even though it may help him get the water he needs.
Kay

CheriS Mar 05, 2005 08:08 AM

I will try to answer this and why somethings are that way

About greens: Greens are rich in Calcium (thats good), but some are also very high in phosphorus (not good) with others being high oxalates (not good-binds calcium)

So you want to balance those foods using the good calcium - ph ratio foods as staples, the ones with higher ratios as occassional and the ones that are very high in Ph and oxalatic acids as rarely.

As with most foods, some that have undesirable properties, often having someone that is very desirable that others lack. take kale as an example, the calcium : ph ration is not that good, but it contains many things that are good, like antioxidents, so you would use it as a rarely or small amt food item, mixed in with good ones, like collards, dandelions and mustard greens as staples.

Below is a link to a greens chart with photo's of the greens and common name they are know as around the world, marked as staples, occassional and rare. Those markings are based on their Ca : ph ratio, amount of oxalates and nutritions value.

Lettuce such as bibbs, icebergs etc are mostly water, little nutrition.... so not normally a good food item, BUT, for a dehydrated dragon, this is something that is good, it gets fluids back into them quickly so you would not want to fed it as a staple mostly, but at times it may be the best food for them, ie, when they are on sick, taking meds or dehydrated.

Same with the veggies, some are high in nutrition, but are higher in other things that you want to limit. Given occassional with other staples is okay, but not as a staple.

As for feeders, that depends on age and nutrition also. We would not feed superworms to young dragons due to the chitin shelling that does not break down good in a young digestive tract or a baby that has reached a certain weight so it can process that food, but right size crickets have less and softer shelling, so are safe for all ages.

Mealworms can be fed also after they are old enough(too young they can impact a small dragon) but superworms are a better meat to chitin ratio food.... so more perferred due toi nutritonal content and less risk. We do not feed mealworms to anything, but do feed supersworms to subadults and adults.

Sikworms are an excellent choice for all ages, they are soft bodied, great nutritional value and they have the added benefit of containing an enzyme called serrapeptase, this has properties that make calcium absorption more efficient, can reduce inflammation, pain and best of all it can break down arterial plaque. It's acts as a cleaning agent for the vascular system, can lower blood sugar levels (these tend to run high in captive breed bearded dragons) and very beneficial in older dragons. Yet too much of a good thing can be harmful too

The best diet that we know of so far for bearded dragons is a varied diet of lower fats, good calciums, lower phosphorus, low oxalates and occassional other foods that may have some of those in higher amounts. Using the higher ones in small amounts is not a problem if mixed in with the staple ones

Hope this answers some questions you had
Edible greens for bearded dragons

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www.reptilerooms.com

firefighter2598 Mar 05, 2005 09:29 AM

Check out this link someone or here gave it to me and I think its the most complete link I have ever seen for nutritional value of just about everything. Hope this helps. http://home.comcast.net/~holachapulin/Nutrition.html

kay1688 Mar 06, 2005 06:41 AM

I know this is a repeat just posted it in the wrong place

Thank you for all your replies they were really helpful. the web pages were great for information especially the one with picture because i am rubbish a knowing veg by the name. I was interested to find that lettuce is mainly water and can be used for dehydrated dragons. my dragon always has wrinkly skin despite me leaving water in and spraying him so lettuce once a week in a small amount may help him a little. i feel a lot more comfortable making my own mind up aswell because i understand what is bad a good for him better.
Thankyou again for the replies they have made me feel alot better and i am sure my frank will benifit and i wish people wouldn't worry me by saying cabbage is terrible after he has been having it for months and that lettuce is fatel even though it may help him get the water he needs.
Kay

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