Bearded dragons and ladybugs

Hope it’s okay to post this here - am hoping to provide relief to someone here looking for info on bearded dragons eating ladybugs. I know the general consensus is that they’re not toxic, but I figured it would be nice to hear a firsthand account.

So our appr 14-month-old beardie ate a small ladybug last evening and seems to be fine here at around 20 hours later. I don’t think he even got sick to his stomach - from what I could tell - he’s usually lethargic and grumpy looking around that time of day anyway though. We did leave his basking light on a little longer for digestion purposes, and it was a pretty small bug, but so far so good.

Oh - and I’m in Georgia. I know there are different genus/species but hopefully they have more in common than not! Will try to upload a picture this afternoon for reference!

From what I've heard + read and experienced the occasional ingestion of a mildly toxic insect usually does no harm, especially to a larger dragon. People used to freak out if their beardie ate a bee ,wasp or hornet but several dragon owners have seen no effects after their dragon ate one , same thing happened to mine including one of my babies. Ate a hornet and had no problem whatsoever.

I haven't noticed a problem with them eating them occasionally in low amounts. They tend to infest the house in the fall so it's tough to avoid sometimes.

That’s good to know. We also get stink bugs in the fall. Do you know if they are more toxic? I’m sure they taste horrible if nothing else...

Hello,

I agree, they are not highly toxic unless a large amount is ingested.
If you are a bit worried about toxicity, you could get some activated charcoal to give to
your dragon to help flush out the system. I have never heard of a dragon dying from
ingesting a lady bug, but it's usually best to try avoiding ingesting them but with reptiles
that is hard!

Tracie

I haven't had many stink bugs around but I would certainly try to prevent them from being around as much as you can. I agree that having an activated charcoal kit handy is a cheap and easy way to be prepared for an emergency. I highly recommend this one https://bug-de-lite.com/Item/Emergency Charcoal Kit It is compact and easy to dose. It goes wherever my dragon goes.