what else can i feed my bearded dragon?
jacob asked:
i have a bearded dragon thats about 3 or 4 months old. he only eats crickets. if i put veges in front of him he only eats one piece. i want him to have a wide variety of food, not just crickets. i know that he needs his protien as a baby but what can i feed him that has as much protien as crickets?
oh, and i dont want to feed him mealworms..
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i have a bearded dragon thats about 3 or 4 months old. he only eats crickets. if i put veges in front of him he only eats one piece. i want him to have a wide variety of food, not just crickets. i know that he needs his protien as a baby but what can i feed him that has as much protien as crickets?
oh, and i dont want to feed him mealworms..
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mealworms
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have you tried waxworms or locus or try prawns from the supermarket
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Baby beardies have a staple diet of crickets and greens.
Also try to make sure he IS offered a wide variety of veggies.
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wood roaches are great earthworms silkworms keep in mind meal worms are high in fat so there good to feed occasionaly in winter and as treats to keep him fattened up to an extyent. You should still provide him with fruits and vegetables DAILY, even if he doesn’t eat them. Having the vegetation in the tank with him, will get him used to seeing it, so when he is older he will be more likely to eat the veggies on his own.
Kansieo.com
Crickets
Waxworms (on occasion)
A bit of orange (not too much – diarrhea)
Silkworms
Spaghetti Squash
Also on occasion you can give them peeled apple and cucumber – just a little bit!
Why no mealworms?
Oh and plenty of vegetation!
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Bearded dragons eat mostly insects when they’re young, then switch over gradually to eat mostly greens as adults. It’s perfectly normal if he doesn’t want the vegetables. However, what kind of veggies are you offering? They tend to prefer leafy greens. If the beardie is big enough, you can offer a pinky mouse once in a while to give him more variety, but they are fattening if given too much.
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Go out and get some bee pollen it well entice your BP appitie sprinkle on the food
your can go to Beautiful Dragon.com and get a great food list you can give to your dragon it’s awesome
Another trick is sprinkle the greens with apple juice and it helps
You can get baby BD pellets too
dust all your veggies and crickets we use Discoid Roaches with Repti-cal vit d
We have gave our beardes watermelon and cantalope shredded squash or the one that have so much trouble eating
we use baby squash and dab drops in the food dish
there faces well be orange and cute but it works
your temp could be down or too high
Bearded Dragons (Pogona Vitticeps)
Presented by Nails, Scales and Tails
So you want a Bearded Dragon? How much do you know about them? Do you know what it takes to keep one of these little guys happy and healthy?
Our objective to this care sheet is that you be as prepared as possible when you get your new baby. We take painstaking care of our babies from the beginning
of their lives and expect them to go to a good home and caring family, where
they will receive the same care for the rest of their lives. Does any living thing deserve anything less?
Animals are not toys to be thrown away when you get tired of them. They are a responsibility for many years to come. Bearded dragons can live up to 12+ years.
Your Baby Beardie:
Your baby should eat approximately 20 crickets twice per day, in the afternoon and evening and a handful of veggies each morning, but you need to offer as many/much as he is interested in eating. Make sure there are NO crickets left in his cage when he stops eating, they need to be removed because they can chew on your beardie while he is sleeping, causing infections, missing limbs, or expensive vet bills for amputations. Lighting schedules should be 12 hours on,
12 hours off. They need to have nighttime, just like we do, with all lights and
heat turned off for at least 8-10 hours each day, as long as your house temperature doesn’t go below 60 degrees. You should have a shallow water
dish available always, and most of the babies like to lounge in their water, so don’t make it too deep. When your beardie is older, you can take him
everywhere with you, but always be prepared, because just like any animal,
they can get scared and run away when you least expect it. We recommend
buying a small pet carrier and keeping them in it while traveling.
Enclosure:
For a baby beardie you will be able to get by with a 20 gallon tank, but to save money in the long run, We recommend purchasing or building a tank that will fit for his entire life.
Once your baby reaches 12 inches it will be time to get him a bigger tank. A
40 gallon breeder (36x18x18) is the minimum recommended, however, the
bigger the tank, the better.
Bearded dragons are semiariborial not tree climbers, therefore they need the floor space.
They do like to sit on fat branches and flat rocks, so think Australia, and
decorate accordingly. It is hard packed red clay, not sand, and a very arid/dry environment. Offer a place to bask, a few things to climb on, and somewhere
that they can hide, like a cave or half log. Try not to fill your cage with furniture, they like to have lots of empty floor space too, so they can move freely.
Lighting and Temperatures:
It is very important that you choose the correct equipment to measure your temperatures. You should buy either a digital thermometer with a probe or an infrared temperature gun. The stick-on thermometers that they sell at pet store can be as much as 20 degrees wrong, and very unreliable, so it is in your beardie’s best interests that you stay away from these.
There are three temperatures you will need to measure, a basking spot, a warm end of the
tank, and a cool end.
For a baby:
The basking temperature is the surface temperature of what your beardie sits on, in the place that is closest to the heat lamp, where your beardie will sit to get warm. This spot needs to be between 110 and 115 degrees.
The hot end of your tank is the air temperature around the basking spot. This should be between 90 and 100 degrees.
The cool end of your tank is where your beardie will go when he wants to cool down. This should be between 80 and 85 degrees.
For an adult:
The hot end and cool end of your tank should be the same as for a baby, but
you will need to lower your basking spot temperature to between 95 and 100 degrees.
To achieve the correct temperatures you can use regular old household light bulbs. They are inexpensive, so it will make it easier for you to experiment so you can get the correct temperature. I usually start with a 75 watt bulb, and
go up or down from there. Just keep in mind that beardies LOVE bright
sunlight, so a dull, yellowish lighting will make your beardie lethargic and depressed. The brighter you can make the cage, the better your beardie will
feel and act.
Your new beardie will also need a UVB light. This is VERY important for
your new little guy, or old seasoned guy to metabolize and absorb the calcium
he or she is going to be ingesting, by producing vitamin D3. Without a UVB
light, your new pet can develop metabolic bone disease, which will twist and warp their body, paralyze them, make them have seizures, and then die from
lack of vitamin absorption. This is an extremely painful and horrible death for them, so we would like to stress the importance of having the correct UVB
Light, and that you change it EVERY six to eight months. We also recommend always having a spare bulb, for accidents and emergencies. It is vital that your beardie never go more than day without a UVB. If your UVB burns out, don’t panic, your beardie is still protected with the Calcium w/vitamin D3 supplement that you are giving it.
A Reptisun 5.0 is recommended. This is to be replaced every six months.
Your beardie should be able to get within 8 inches of the light. You can place
the light low, or have branches or other furniture that will bring him closer to
the bulb.
Another option is to use a MVB, Mercury Vapor Bulb. This emits both the
heat and the UVB rays. Your beardie, in this case, should be between 8 to 12 inches from the light, because it is more powerful. This type of bulb you will need to replace once a year. Make sure that you place the bulb facing down,
it cannot lean or tilt AT ALL or it will burn out quickly. Also always have an
extra bulb on hand for emergencies. This type of bulb is more fussy, in our opinion, as it shuts off occasionally, and does not come back on until it has cooled off. It is also VERY hot, and you MUST use a ceramic based clamp light, due to risk of melting, resulting in fire. Once you use a MVB, this is the type of bulb you will always have to buy in our opinion. You can not switch back to a to the power and design of the bulb.
Substrate:
The best substrate (bedding/flooring) will be something that cannot be ingested by your beardie. Ceramic tile, paper towels, newspaper (use black and white newspaper print, unless you confirm with your newspaper that the color ink is non toxic.), non-adhesive shelf liner or repti-carpet are the best substrate options. We personally use rock-like ceramic tile, and our babies are raised on paper towel from the time they hatch.
Anything loose that can be ingested by your beardie can cause impaction
(cannot poop because their intestines are blocked) and eventually leading to a very expensive surgery or a painful death.
Diet
A baby bearded dragon should be fed crickets or another staple bug two to
three times a day, all he can eat in a 15 minute period, and have vegetables
and greens available at all times. To avoid choking and/or impaction, he should not be fed anything bigger than the space between his eyes. If by chance he gets a staple bug a little to big, it will put pressure on the spine causing a paralysis in the back legs. If this happens, dip a staple bug in virgin olive oil and force the beardie gently to swallow it. This will act as an enema allowing your beardie to pass it.
A baby’s diet should consist of 80% protein and 20% vegetables. The protein will help your baby grow.
As your dragon reaches adulthood, which is around 18 months of age, his diet should consist of 20% protein and 80% vegetables. Too much protein at this stage in life can cause liver and/or kidney problems.
At about 10-12 months old, slowly start lowering the protein intake, so that
he will be eating protein only twice a week by the time he is 18 months old.
Your dragon will also need calcium and vitamins. We buy Rep-Cal Calcium without D-3, (it has a green label) and just a standard multivitamin powder designed specifically for bearded dragons. We alternate calcium with Rep-Cal calcium, with D3. So our babies’ schedule is 3 days without D3, 1 day with
D3, giving mutlivitamins on the day we give the D3.
NEVER feed your beardie any insects that you can buy in a can at the pet
store. They have very little nutritional value, they are basically an empty bug
shell stuffed full of preservatives, chemicals and vitamins.
Between the ages of 2-4 months:
Dust their prey with calcium powder twice a day.
Dust their prey with vitamin powder twice a week.
Between the ages of 4-8 months:
Dust their prey with calcium powder once a day.
Dust their prey with vitamin powder once a week.
Between the ages of 8 months on:
Dust their prey with calcium powder two times a week.
Dust their prey with vitamin powder once a week.
Staple Prey Items: (Can be fed every day)
Crickets, Silkworms, or any species of apropriate size roach
Prey to be Used as a Treat Only: (only a few of
these 1-2 times each week)
Wax Worms
Horn Worms
Butter Worms
Super Worms (not until beardie reaches 6 months of age)
Staple Veggies to be fed Every Day:
Mustard Greens Turnip Greens Collard Greens Dandelion Greens Endive Escarole Cactus Pad Green Be