List your Favorite staple foods.

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I really want to get a feel for what people feed their dragons as staple foods for each insect, greens, vegetable and fruit. Feel free to tell why or critique mine.
Mine are:
Black soldier fly larvae.........easy to care for and I like the fact you don't have to dust with calcium
Collard greens.......cuts up easy and she really likes them
Yellow squash (baby food)......easy
Mango........she really like them
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
Hello,

What You're feeding your beardie does sound good. :) It probably needs more variety in it. Maybe add some Collard, Mustard, Dandelion, turnip or endive greens for the salad, Feed the mango once every two weeks, and maybe add Dubia roaches, Crickets, or hornworms to the insect mix as well. Otherwise than the lack of variety you seem to be feeding your beardie well. :)

I Feed my beardies Collard, Mustard, Turnip, and Kale greens for the greens part, Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, or mango once a week for the fruit, Dubia roaches, super worms, and occasionally hornworms for the insect part.

I Hope this helps! :)

-HippieLizards.
 

gunslingers

Member
Original Poster
How important do you feel it is to feed more then one insect. I used to feed crickets, but such a pain. I also give her rep-cal multi vitamins twice a week. I just wonder the TRUE benefits of feeding more then one type of insect. Any thoughts?
 

VenusAndSaturn

Sub-Adult Member
Well most reptiles will get bored of the same thing over, and over, and end up refusing food for a long time if offered only one or two types. It also isn't exactly healthy you could say to have only the same food, and a variety even in our own diet should always be offered as well as theirs.

In the case of my tegu she will refuse the same food if it is given to her for more than a week, or even sometimes 4 days in to eating a sardine/salmon/turkey mix (just to use as an example) she'll straight up refuse it. However she's a picky brat and no where close to a bearded dragon.
She also refuses to eat crickets now because she got them quite a lot a long side her grounded up food. Only dubia roaches and hornworms now, luckily she gets those only occasionally or I'd be looking everywhere to find insects for her to eat if she got bored of those as well.

In the case of my beardies I have never had them exactly refuse the food they were eating as they always have a variety. Variety is key and should ALWAYS be offered.
In an insect feeding they usually have up to three kinds of insects, and in their salads they'll have about 2-3 types of greens and occasionally 3-4 types of fruits once or twice a week mixed in.
(They have refused food before, but I mean they haven't gotten bored of the food.)

Other than just refusing the same type of food, like I said it's not very healthy for them to only get a small amount of food items (both insects and greens/fruits). As insects are all different, some have a lot of hydration, some have a lot of fat, some have a lot of protein, some have a lot of chitin like mealworms, some have high calcium contents and some have enzymes inside that are pretty good for the health of the animal eating them.
The same goes for all greens and fruits, each is different and not a single one is really a feed only type of food. By "feed only type of food" I mean you cant only eat this for food and you'll be fine as you'll end up lacking other nutrients that your body needs that other foods have more of.
 

gunslingers

Member
Original Poster
My dragon never refuses anything. She attacks food as soon as you put it in and eats a ton. She eats 100 bsfl per day and her greens, veggies, or fruits, whatever I give her. She @ 5 months old btw. If I stop once a week and get her crickets or roaches would that be sufficient? I really don't want to house them. She does get different greens and veggies, I just give her my top ones the most.
 

gunslingers

Member
Original Poster
I have started breeding silkworms and also feeding cricket, so now I am feeding silkworms as ataple and BSFL and crickets occasionally, thanks for the input.
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
Where did you get the silkworms from? How do you breed them?

I Have been looking EVERYWHERE for silkworms and have not had any luck finding them.. ANY ideas on where to find them would be greatly appreciated. :)
 

Shidohari

Hatchling Member
My beardie inhales BSFL and even though she really doesn't touch them i have a small salad of a blend of dusted curly mustard greens and turnip greens in her enclosure daily.

She's not big enough to do hornworms or silkworms yet, being only 11 inches at 7 months so not even going to try.

I know she hates the texture of both Waxworms and Butterworms as she's thrown them both up in the past when I've fed them to her.

She also has no interest in crickets and the only other protein she's eaten was mealworms which i'm no longer feeding her.
 

gunslingers

Member
Original Poster
So for silkworm breeding. I bought the eggs and silkworm chow online and I made a makeshift incubator out of an old light fixture and a coffee cup inside a big Tupperware container, I then put the eggs/worms inside two separate small Tupperware containers inside. This keeps them between 78-85. For the rest on how to feed and take care of you are best off to watch youtube and read up on it one the websites that sell the eggs and chow, I can't remember which place I ordered the original eggs from as I am breeding them to moths and getting eggs now. but if you google shouldn't be a problem. But I am buying the chow from coastal silkworms now.
 
My beardie has greens always available, apart from at night for digestion. I give her collard greens, dandelion and butternut squash when it is available. I have also planted mustard greens and am looking for some endive to plant to give her a nice variety.

Then four days a week she has some veg in with her greens. Her favorite is green beans or grated carrot and occasionally cabbage. I also give her a choice of fruit once a week, her favorite is strawberry, but she also likes apples or grapes. The fruit and veg I only give her the option of one, but mix it up so she has different things throughout the week.

Her staple insect is locusts 6 days a week, although I am looking into getting some dubia roaches as well. I also give her waxworms as a treat once a week.

Then she has calcium 3 days a week and a multivitamin once a week.

I found these websites really helpful
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html
https://www.completecritter.com/bearded-dragon.html
 

gunslingers

Member
Original Poster
I have been putting baby food on my dragons various greens, all different types, mixed veg. squash, green beans, carrots, sweet potato, she seems to LOVE it and it seems like an easy way for her to get her veggies. I also put in some fruit, blueberries, raspberries, mango, here and there. Anyone ever try this, and any reason why this couldn't be her source for veggies? Labels says, whatever veggie and water.
 

lizardmom25

Hatchling Member
My beardie is about 5 months old. He prefers dubia to everything else. I have used BSFL, but he tends to swallow them whole, and they come out that way! He eats pretty much any greens I give him, some fruits I try, several kinds of squash, and green beans. He has just started eating greens regularly in the past month or so, but has always inhaled as many dubia or BSFL as I would give, He wasn't super enthusiastic about crickets.
 

AnnaAndWyvern

New member
My beardie Wyvern is absolutely spoiled. At 3 months old, she is a HUGE baby at 13inch. And I know for a fact that she is 3months. Maybe confused on the sex but whatever, not the point. I attribute her amazing growth to her varied diet. I did start her on crickets but they became such a hassle. So now, I'm feeding her dubias, hornworms, superworms, waxworms, AND flightless flies. Everyday, she gets a couple of each (except the hornworms). She doesn't at all touch her veggies but they're there. Collard greens, mustard greens, snap peas, bok Choy, and this weird baby beardie diet thingy. Looks like spaghetti. Got my dubia colony, raising the hornworms (they grow too fast!!), and also have waxworms pupating currently. So I cant really say I have a fav!
 

zxBadWolf

Member
AnnaAndWyvern":2fkbpmun said:
My beardie Wyvern is absolutely spoiled. At 3 months old, she is a HUGE baby at 13inch. And I know for a fact that she is 3months. Maybe confused on the sex but whatever, not the point. I attribute her amazing growth to her varied diet. I did start her on crickets but they became such a hassle. So now, I'm feeding her dubias, hornworms, superworms, waxworms, AND flightless flies. Everyday, she gets a couple of each (except the hornworms). She doesn't at all touch her veggies but they're there. Collard greens, mustard greens, snap peas, bok Choy, and this weird baby beardie diet thingy. Looks like spaghetti. Got my dubia colony, raising the hornworms (they grow too fast!!), and also have waxworms pupating currently. So I cant really say I have a fav!

You make me ashamed to call myself a spoiler of my beardie xD
 
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Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

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