Can I feed ants to bearded dragons?

I know this is a weird question but I have an ant colony. The ant population will have to be thinned down. I know what I feed my ants and know that there are no bad chemicals on them. This will NOT be a stable for my bearded dragon. It will only be severed rarely. Can bearded dragons eat ants?

If they are big enough , yes .

Wild bearded dragons have been found in extensive scientific studies to have mostly ants in their stomachs.

I don't know what the nutritional content of ants will be though. So maybe as a treat.

Some species of ants can contain high levels of toxins, hence why they often smell bad when squished. Would you happen to know the species?

Chanza":3p08v4tb said:

Some species of ants can contain high levels of toxins, hence why they often smell bad when squished. Would you happen to know the species?

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The species is the Camponotus sp. Also known as the carpenter ant.

Coming from Australia, I do know the most common ant species in Central Australia aren't your average carpenter ants, such as honey ants, green ants, bull ants and some species of sugar ants. Carpenter ants would most likely end up in Central Australia some where as they are such a common species, however ours fall under a different family of irodomyremex glaber. So just incase, I would reccomended releasing some of those ants into the wild, or find another way to decrease the population. Most ant species in Australia are very protein rich, and are quite large, hence why beardies eat them, in which I am assuming carpenter ants are quite small. I have heard your species spray a toxin from their head to ward of predators, so the toxin they hold inside their body could be toxic to dragons in large amounts.

Hope this helped

Chanza":1zrdv49e said:

Coming from Australia, I do know the most common ant species in Central Australia aren't your average carpenter ants, such as honey ants, green ants, bull ants and some species of sugar ants. Carpenter ants would most likely end up in Central Australia some where as they are such a common species, however ours fall under a different family of irodomyremex glaber. So just incase, I would reccomended releasing some of those ants into the wild, or find another way to decrease the population. Most ant species in Australia are very protein rich, and are quite large, hence why beardies eat them, in which I am assuming carpenter ants are quite small. I have heard your species spray a toxin from their head to ward of predators, so the toxin they hold inside their body could be toxic to dragons in large amounts.

Hope this helped

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Not very knowledgeable about ants, but yes we have a large range of ant sizes here, and ants are extremely common in the natural range of beardies (been there and seen , "interacted" with those ants)
If you ever spend some time there, things will strike you :
>> not much sand
>> very flat landscape with more trees and shrubs than you expected
>> the grass (is very spikey)
>> standing water and flowing water is hard to find.
>> ants, flies, budgies and finches ... they are everywhere !!


And I've seen the occasional beardie stake out an ant trail and pick off some astonishingly big and nasty looking ants (even bull ants) , and if you break open a termite mound , skinks and dragons will soon be there to have a feast.

The stuff these ants spray is formic acid - I believe (I think Attenborough spoke about them in some of the nature docs), same as in the stings of other ants.

Makes sense! Yes, in outback Australia we do have very large ants, and it is quite a shruby landscape. I don't know an awful lot about American ant species, but if the formic acid seems harmless then perhaps it is okay? I haven't heard a beardie eating a scorpion, but by knowledge there are quite a few species in Australian, in which do carry venom so surely beardies would have some sort of system to digest poison to a certain extent? For the definite though, ants surely wouldn't impact a beardie.

Thank you guys for all the replies. I will look into the Formica acid of my ants.

Chanza":2kh8warl said:

Coming from Australia, I do know the most common ant species in Central Australia aren't your average carpenter ants, such as honey ants, green ants, bull ants and some species of sugar ants. Carpenter ants would most likely end up in Central Australia some where as they are such a common species, however ours fall under a different family of irodomyremex glaber. So just incase, I would reccomended releasing some of those ants into the wild, or find another way to decrease the population. Most ant species in Australia are very protein rich, and are quite large, hence why beardies eat them, in which I am assuming carpenter ants are quite small. I have heard your species spray a toxin from their head to ward of predators, so the toxin they hold inside their body could be toxic to dragons in large amounts.

Hope this helped

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This makes total sense thank you. The carpenter ants I have are 1/2 an inch.

Jmas4":1v4l10ct said:

Thank you guys for all the replies. I will look into the Formica acid of my ants.

Chanza":1v4l10ct said:

Coming from Australia, I do know the most common ant species in Central Australia aren't your average carpenter ants, such as honey ants, green ants, bull ants and some species of sugar ants. Carpenter ants would most likely end up in Central Australia some where as they are such a common species, however ours fall under a different family of irodomyremex glaber. So just incase, I would reccomended releasing some of those ants into the wild, or find another way to decrease the population. Most ant species in Australia are very protein rich, and are quite large, hence why beardies eat them, in which I am assuming carpenter ants are quite small. I have heard your species spray a toxin from their head to ward of predators, so the toxin they hold inside their body could be toxic to dragons in large amounts.

Hope this helped

Click to expand...

This makes total sense thank you. The carpenter ants I have are 1/2 an inch.

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worth a try .... if beardie tries some , he will soon tell you if he likes them. I'd offer a few at time in a tub the ants can't escape from , maybe chill them in the freezer for a little while to make them less lively / less aggressive..