Adult Beardie Diet

[regiusloki]

It's a very good possibility that I will be adoping a very cute, adult sized 2 year old male bearded dragon very soon. I have exhausted all my research in preparation for him, since this is the first beardie I will have. I know that as an adult, he'll require more veggies to protein. So my question to the beardie owners, is what does this diet look like, as in how many cup(s) (or other measurement) of veggies (fruits) you feed on a daily basis? (In sizes no bigger than the space between the eyes).

I do know that for protein/prey it's nothing bigger than the space between the eyes and only what can be eaten in about a 10 minute period (or at least that seems to be the average information). And do you offer protein items daily? Every other? Every third?

And everything dusted with the right combo of stuff... Which are your favorite dusting vitamins?

Any opinions, help or direction is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Herpenthusiast3]

First off congrats on your decision to get a Beardie. I have a little girl name Mushu and I love her to death. I have read hundreds of different articles and care sheets pertaining to Beardies but the most comprehensive care sheet I was able to find was here:

http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/bearded-dragon-care.php

Young Beardies will eat a lot of insects and they should be offered them dusted with calcium without d3 if you have powerful enough lighting and with d3 if you think that your Beardie is having troubles digesting. Another thing people don't realize is that Beardies don't naturally drink from a water dish so often this is somthing that you have to teach them to do. I like to use a water dropper or spray bottle and squirt it into the water dish. The Beardie will often get excited pertaining to the movement, explore, and once he realizes it is water will begin to drink. You sometimes have to do this several times to get them into the habit of using it themselves. Also I like to dust the insect with a vitamin supplement 2 days out of the week along with the calcium supplement. Heat and lighting (uvb and uva) are extremely important to the growth and digestive system if your Beardie. Without it your Beardie will become lethargic, can get sick (MBD metabolic bone disease) , may become malnourished and even die. Getting your mini dragon to eat insects typically won't be a problem. Growing beardies have a veracious appetite and seem to love chasing insects.... Not so much eating greens. Soooo if you do get a Beardie that will be the real challenge. To get he/she to eat greens throughout the entire growing process and into adult hood. Here is a video on a way that I decided was the easiest route to go when providing greens. It also provides some other info on bearded dragons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=GC5eruXzbKE

Hope this helps!
Best regards from
Mushu and myself!

[kitedemon]

This is just about the best chart I have found. It lists a whole variety of foods that is good for them.

http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Personally I offer Alfalfa, collard, mustard, turnip greens almost everyday. I add a squash selection, I sometimes add basil, peppers, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, cabbage, or rosemary.

He gets supers, crickets, Phoenix or horned worms every other day as well as his salad.

Mine is a bit of a special case he is a rescue and arrived with very bad teeth from being fed a mono diet (one thing and nothing else) They need a selection. Anyway I offer all these things he rarely eats any so he is also fed with a syringe slurry every 3 days. It is a mix of a whole variety of things and gets changed all the time critical care being the bulk of it. (Mixed from powders of alfalfa, egg white, bee pollen, CCH, CCC, and mix of supplements and crested gecko diet) He is doing super well. You will not need any of these likely but every now and again you will get a stubborn feeder that will not eat vegs and you can add alfa dust to calcium dusting. and dust salads as well for an extra kick of veg. The local reptile zoo does this as a matter of course.

[theodore]

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME
SO COOL
thankyou for making this thread I am thinking of getting a beardie