What is Best Food for Bearded Dragons in 2020
If you are planning to own a bearded dragon at home, it will be a good idea to try and find out everything about the reptile so that you can take good care of it. Scientifically known as Pogona vitticeps, bearded dragons are basically semi-arboreal omnivores. They usually eat a large variety of vegetables, fruits, and insects. It is rather important to provide the best quality food to these docile animals so that they can remain healthy for the rest of their lives.
Simply feeding them with nutritious foods is not enough. You also need to give them a wide array of foods. This will also make every meal more appealing to your pet. As a result of this, your bearded dragon will eat every meal with equal interest and zeal.
Top 5 Bearded Dragon Food
Types of Food to Feed Your Bearded Dragon
If you do some research on bearded dragons, you will come to know that these reptiles normally have a combination of plants and insects. It is crucial for you to know that as your pet matures, it will require less of the other food source and more of the other. When it is young, bearded dragons will need around 20% plant-based foods and about 80% of animal-based foods. However, adults will need just the opposite.
- Vegetables: When it comes to feeding vegetables to your reptile pet, make sure it is properly chopped. The smaller the size of the reptile, the more finely chopped. One of the best mixture of vegetables for bearded dragons include kale, shredded carrots, dandelion greens, collard greens, mustard greens, and a variety of frozen vegetables such as peas, beans, and carrots. It is good for you to note that avoiding broccoli and spinach is good, since too much of these can lead to harmful effects. Although these reptiles love to have romaine lettuce and green leaf, it is better to use these sparingly.
- Insects: Talking about insects, some of the common ones for bearded dragons include mealworms, crickets, wax worms, and super worms. These reptiles love to have insects and you should ensure that your pet gets a proper dose of insects in its daily diet. It will be a good thing to feed the insects properly before offering them to your pet. This is the simplest way to pass along the vital nutrients to your pet. If you are wondering how to feed insects, you will find several types of commercially made diets for various insects.
- Dietary Supplements: When it comes to dietary supplements for your bearded dragon, one of the most crucial ones is a vitamin D3 and calcium supplement. It is needless to say that when bearded dragons lack proper levels of vitamin D3 and calcium, it can easily give rise to metabolic bone disease. This can get quite serious if not prevented in the first place. These types of supplements come in the form of a powder that needs to be sprinkled on the vegetables or to be coated on the insects. Simply place the insects in the bagful of the supplement and shake the bag well. It will be a good idea to add the supplement to the diet of your pet on a minimum basis of once a week.
Best Bearded Dragon Food List
When it comes to food options for bearded dragons, there are several types available in the market. Choosing the right one may seem difficult, especially for first timer owners. This is why we have formulated a list of some of the best-bearded dragon foods that you can feed your pet.
① Fluker’s Buffet Blend Adult Bearded Dragon Food
This food is especially designed for adult bearded dragons only. This is basically a special blend that contains essential fat vitamins, protein, and vital nutrients that is needed by an adult bearded dragon to lead a normal and healthy life. This food product is basically a variety of meals for your pet including freeze dried crickets, vitamin fortified pellets, and freeze dried mealworms. Pros Cons
Pros
Cons
② Nature Zone Bites Bearded Dragon Food
These are bite-sized and moist gel cubes that are fortified with easily digestible soy and why protein along with whole eggs that help to support healthy growth in bearded dragons. It also contains fiber and soluble carbs that help to boost the intestinal health of your pet. The essential minerals and vitamins content help to promote the overall wellbeing of your bearded dragon.
This food product is one of the natural sources of easily absorbable calcium and has a solid to water ratio that is quite similar to insects and leafy vegetables that these animals normally eat when out in the wild. It also has a prickly pear scent and flavor that can boost the natural appetite of the dragon and also get it attracted to the food.
Pros Cons
Pros
Cons
③ Zilla Bearded Dragon Food
This food product is designed to give your beloved pet bearded dragon the right amount of nutrients in a form that is pretty simple to feed. It is shaped in the form of pellets and each pellet contains minerals, protein, and vitamins that are sourced from a wide array of animals and plants. It is perfectly designed for omnivorous lizards since it boosts vibrant color, long-term health, and robust growth. It is designed to be ready-to-eat and there is no need to put it in any type of refrigeration.
Pros Cons
Pros
Cons
④ Zoo Med Adult Bearded Dragon Food
This bearded dragon food comes fortified with all the essential minerals and vitamins. Keeping the nutritional requirements of your pet in mind, this food product has been made. With all the correct proportions of fiber, protein, and calcium, it will promote the overall well-being of adult bearded dragons. Some of the nutritional plants that make up this food product include the flavorful dandelion greens.
Some of the ingredients in this product include rice bran, hydrolyzed yeast, suncured alfalfa meal, wheat middlings, organic soybean meal, dried lima beans, citric acid, ascorbic acid, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, sodium bicarbonate, vitamin B12 supplement, and zinc oxide to name a few.
Pros Cons
Pros
Cons
⑤ Fluker’s Buffet Blend Veggie Variety Juvenile Bearded Dragon Food
If you wish to give the best quality food to your juvenile bearded dragon which is full of essential nutrients, then this product will be a great choice for you. It contains essential vitamins and minerals and the formula is an ideal blend of pellets and freeze-dried veggies with a unique texture.
Some of the ingredients found in this product include freeze dried peas, freeze dried squash, corn gluten meal, chicken meal, potato starch, potato protein, tomato pomace, soybean meal, fish oil, soybean oil, chicken fat, calcium carbonate, fish meal, vitamin B12 supplement, citric acid, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, zinc oxide, and rosemary extract.
Pros Cons
Pros
Cons
Conclusion & What is the Best Food for Pet Bearded Dragons
Now that you know the type of food that bearded dragons normally love to have, buying the right brand will not be a major problem for you. However, in order to make things simpler and to act as a guide, the above-discussed list will come handy. All the food products discussed above are of good quality. However, the best of the lot was the Fluker’s Buffet Blend Adult Bearded Dragon Food (CHECK BEST PRICE HERE).
It is packed with all the necessary nutrients that are required to keep your adult bearded dragon healthy and happy. The formula of this food is basically a combination of freeze-dried mealworms, freeze dried crickets, and pellets that are enriched with vitamins. In other words, it is designed to provide a balanced and complete meal to your pet.
Feeding Safety Concerns
It is normally seen that bearded dragons are pretty simple to feed. They like to eat a wide array of food items and enjoy their food. Here are some tips that can help you feed your beloved pet easily and safely.
- While eating insects and plants, bearded dragons can accidentally ingest small pieces of gravel, loose substrates, and sand with their food. Although this is more common in young dragons, it may lead to added stress on the digestive system of the animal and give rise to various health issues. It will be a good idea not to feed them on pebbles, sand or any loose or sharp substrate.
- It will also be a good idea to constantly monitor the size of the food that you feed your bearded dragon. Feeding anything that is wider than the space between its eyes is a bad idea. This will needlessly put pressure on the spine that can give rise to mobility and health complications.
- It is also a good thing not to overfeed your bearded dragon. Although it is not a major issue, it can certainly give rise to various health problems in the long run. Even if you give large quantities of wax worms that contain large percentage of fat, it can lead to overfeeding.
Important Minerals and Vitamins for Bearded Dragons
If you have a bearded dragon at home, it is important that you understand the different minerals and vitamins that are essential for them. It is true that this may appear to be trickier than it may seem. After all, if you wish to ensure that your pet lives a healthy life, then it is important for you to make sure that the animal receives the right dose of supplements. Here are some important vitamins and minerals for bearded dragons.
- Vitamin A: This type of vitamin is readily available in most of the vegetables that you feed your pet. There are several vitamin A supplements in the market that you may give to your pet. However, do make sure to give those that contain beta carotene. This ingredient is available in several vegetables and when absorbed by the reptile, their bodies easily convert it into vitamin A.
- Vitamin D3 and Calcium: Without vitamin D3, dragons fail to absorb calcium in their bodies. This is why most of their supplements contain both together. Both calcium and vitamin D3 are crucial for the proper growth and development of their bodies. These nutrients also play a crucial role in saving bearded dragons from metabolic bone disease, which is a serious health issue for these reptiles.
- Iron: This nutrient plays a major role in the overall development of baby dragons. Normally bearded dragons get sufficient amount of iron from the greens that they have. However, in case of babies, they may not have their greens all the time. thus, you will have to give them proper iron supplements.
