Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my beardie is a monster, hes great loves to play and swim but will kill any thing, i was wondering is it bad to feed him other lizards, i mean he eats hoppers and pinkeys fuzzeys, he also loves his fruits and vegies and bugs so u think an ocasional anole house gecko or long tail is bad??

I don't see a problem as long as you get whatever reptile you intend to feed vet checked for parasites/diseases/etc. I brought back about 30 anoles from Florida for my yearling Columbian a few years ago and I had them checked to prevent the possibility of transmitting anything to my snake.

The ones in petstores are most likely WC and unless you want to risk losing your dragon, I'd stick to mice but you could try other rodents. Avoid gerbils though...something about gerbils is bad for snakes so it's best to avoid giving them to animals who aren't strict carnivores. I'd try hamster pinkies but how you'd get them other than breeding hamsters is beyond me. Dwarves make good pets and let's face it, their cages are sweet as hell. And some of the smaller dwarves can be fed to your dragon as well.

feeding him other lizards , especially the ones you mentioned , is a very bad idea. It Is a great way to get your dragon sick and possibly kill it. Also feeding it pinkies should only be done very ocasionaly. in the wild adult dragons eat about 80% greens and about 20% insects. Pinkies are used to fatten females up during the breeding season. They are too high in fat and can cause kindney and liver failure.

peace,
nathan

Feeding a too high diet of fatty foods to bearded dragons is bad for them. Adult dragons should only get a small percentage of insect foods, about 10-20%, the rest should be greens, vegies and fruit. There isn't any need to feed pinkies or lizards to bearded dragons on a regular basis. Pinkies are often fed to breeding females to help put the weight back on and give them extra protien and calcium for egg laying.

Though I am sure bearded dragons in the wild will happily gobble up any small lizards they come across, it typically isn't something fed to them in captivity. If you want to give more variety of prey items to your bearded dragon, there are plenty of feeder insects available to choose from. Crickets, superworms, silkworms, butterworms, various species of roaches, locusts (grasshoppers) and other insect foods are great to offer your dragon.
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PHLdyPayne