Complete Guide On How Often to Feed a Bearded Dragon

It’s reasonable to feel this way as every parent wants the best for their pet.

The right food and feeding schedule for your pet goes a long way to influence the growth and health of your pet.

So it’s a delicate question.

In feeding your bearded dragon properly, you will need to know what type of veggies, fruits, and insects to feed them, and how often they should have them.

The frequency of their meals depends largely on their age as adults eat less than juveniles and baby beardies.

How Often to Feed an Adult Bearded Dragon

In adulthood, bearded dragons don’t need as much protein anymore.

Too much protein would cause obesity.

Their meals are healthy and should comprise 70% greens, and 30% insects.

Bearded dragons also eat less as they grow older since they have attained their full size and are not rapidly growing anymore.

You can split their diets into three days to ensure that they eat as much of each meal as is required.

The first day could be a day for greens.

On this day, feed them as much as they can finish during their meal time of 15 minutes.

Feed them with as much protein as they can eat during mealtime on the second day as well.

Choose insects that are hydrating, high in protein, and low in fat.

You can abstain from feeding your pet any meal on the third day.

You will see that on the fourth day, your pet would have an increased appetite due to hunger and eat more greens.

So you can help your pet maintain high greens and veggies ratio while maintaining a low protein diet.

How Often to Feed Baby Bearded Dragons

Baby bearded dragons grow rapidly and require as much protein and fat as you can provide.

This is gotten from insects and is why their meals should comprise mainly of insects.

Baby bearded dragons should be fed as many as 3 to 5 times daily as they eat a lot.

A baby bearded dragon can eat between 30 to 80 insects daily.

For easy munching and to prevent choking and impaction, the food you feed a bearded dragon should not be larger than the distance between its eyes.

Bearded Dragon Diet Guide

The goal of every pet owner is to try and replicate the home and life of your pet as it were in the wild.

This way, the stress that comes with trying to adapt to a new lifestyle would be taken away.

Besides, bearded dragons are not the most adaptive creatures, so it’s better for them if you treat them as they would be in the wild.

This also applies to their diet.

Being omnivores, bearded dragons can eat insects, fruits, leaves, and vegetables.

In the wild, bearded dragons get a lot of exercises and so they can have a good serving of protein even up to adulthood.

If your pet in captivity had the same diet, it would become obese.

To reduce the number of insects and animal matter your pet eats as it gets older.

Baby Bearded Dragon Diet

Baby bearded dragons require more protein diet than fruits and veggies, and they also need to be fed regularly.

This is because they are growing rapidly and need nutrients to stay healthy and grow well.

It’s a good idea to leave veggies and greens in their cage as it won’t go to waste.

They will eat them.

You can also include insects in their meal now and then.

Baby beardies can eat a large number of insects daily, and they can even eat beyond the 10 to 15 minutes feeding period.

If they however stop eating before the feeding period is up, it just means they are full.

Unlike with greens and fruits, clear out any insects they have not eaten.

Juvenile and Adult Bearded Dragon Diet

Adult bearded dragons need more vegetables than insects.

Their meal should be made up of only about 25% insects, and then veggies.

Too many insects or protein will make your adult beardie to be obese and you don’t want that.

Juvenile bearded dragons can however eat an equal ratio of both insects and veggies as they are still growing.

Best Greens for Bearded Dragons

The following are greens that you can feed to your bearded dragon:

• Rocket
• Parsley
• Kale
• Turnip greens
• Collards
• Clover
• Endive
• Dandelion greens
• Mustard greens
• Coriander

Best Insects for Bearded Dragon

The following are insects and meat that your bearded dragon would enjoy:

• Crickets
• Dubia roaches
• Locusts
• Earthworms
• Kingworms
• Waxworms
• Phoenix worms
• Butterworms
• Mealworms
• Silkworms
• Superworms

Be careful when feeding mealworms and superworms to your pet beardie as these have a hard exoskeleton.

If fed to baby bearded dragons, it’s likely going to cause impaction.

Best Vegetables for Bearded Dragons

Vegetables that you can feed to your bearded dragon include:

• Bok Choy
• Peas
• Green Beans
• Parsnip
• Butternut Squash
• Asparagus
• Yellow Squash
• Bell Pepper
• Courgette
• Broccoli
• Acorn Squash
• Cabbage
• Kohlrabi
• Celery
• Okra
• Sweet Potato

Best Fruits for Bearded Dragon

Fruits that bearded dragons would benefit from include:

• Apples
• Peaches
• Dates
• Pears
• Figs
• Strawberries
• Melons
• Kiwi
• Guava
• Mango
• Papaya
• Apricots
• Plums
• Grapes
• Raisins

Some fruits are sugary and can cause tooth decay and other problems related to the tooth.

So to maintain proper dental health for your pet, only feed them with sugary fruits occasionally.

Vitamins and Mineral Supplements

For a healthy bearded dragon, you will need to introduce vitamins and supplements to its meals.

Lack of these in their nutrients can have a serious health toll on them, such as metabolic bone disease as caused by calcium deficiency.

To provide them with the supplements they need, purchase the products from the store, and dust their live food with it.

Feed the insects to your pet immediately after dusting to prevent the supplement from falling off before your pet eats it.

Also, do not mix the supplements at once.

Choose a day for a particular vitamin or mineral, and then feed your pet with another on the next day.

If you have baby bearded dragons, you will have to provide them with daily supplements.

As they get older, you can then reduce the number of times you provide them with it.

Normally, bearded dragons of under 6 months need daily supplements in their meals.

Above 6 months but below 1 year are good with a serving of supplements every other day.

And above a year, you can feed your pet with supplements twice a week.

Foods to Keep Away from Bearded Dragons

Fireflies

Fireflies are toxic to bearded dragons and can cause death. So keep them away from your pet

Rhubarb

Rhubarb contains lethal amounts of oxalic acid. This can be toxic to your pet and cause death

Spinach and Beet Tops

In small quantities, they are okay for your beardie.

But note that they can cause calcium deficiency especially in large amounts.

So instead of risking it with your pet, it’s better you feed your beardie with something else

Iceberg Lettuce

Iceberg lettuce consists mainly of water and provides no nutritional benefit to your beardie

Wild Insects

Insects in the wild could harbor harmful parasites.

They could also have come in contact with chemicals that are toxic to your pet.

Avocados

Avocados contain chemicals that are harmful to your pet

Commonly Asked Questions

What Can Bearded Dragons Eat Every day?

For baby bearded dragons, feed them with insects every day.

They need it as they are still growing fast.

Once your pet is 12 months, start feeding it with lots of greens.

Be careful though not to let greens sit around as they can become a breeding site for bacteria.


Can You Overfeed a Bearded Dragon?

Yes, you can especially in adults.

This can take place if you are not careful of the meals you feed your beardie.

A protein-rich meal for an adult bearded dragon is a call to obesity and you should avoid this at all cost.Add question

It’s Your Turn

The guide on how often to feed a bearded dragon isn’t set in stone as it changes with the growth and development of your pet.

Babies and juveniles are still growing and so require frequent feeding. Babies need to be fed daily and up to 5 times each day.

As they grow, you can then work your way down with the number of times you need to feed daily.

Adults will do well being fed once or twice daily.

Also, note that the nutritional requirements change from childhood to adulthood.

Protein is the best meal for baby beardies, while greens are best for adults.