Can Beardies get E Coli?

[MyAngelLokki]

There's an E coli warning on all Romaine lettuce. I'm worried about feeding my Beardie contaminated lettuce. I know humans can get E Coli but I am not sure if Beardies can get it. If they do eat contaminated lettuce will they be okay? What Symptoms should I be looking for?

Any information would be helpful.

Some background.
I have a 6 year old male Beardie named Razor. I got Razor as an adult and I tried giving him all the healthy recommended greens but he is stubborn and refused to eat any of them. He's eating Romaine and Superworms on a regular basis. I suppliant the Romaine with liquid calcium and olive oil because he's also a stubborn pooper. I get organic Romaine but unfortunately they do not label the heads of romaine with there state or country of origin. I'm supposed to be avoiding the lettuce from Arizona but again, the heads I get are not labeled. He's been living on Superworms until I figure this out.

 

[HippieLizards]

Hello,

I'm not sure if beardie can get that but they should not eat lettuce at all. The only exceptions are feeding them as a occasional treat or as backup food if you do not have any of the proper greens.

You are much better off feeding him Collard, Mustard, Dandelion, turnip greens, or Endive.

Also Superworms are better as an occasional treat too. You could try offering him crickets, dubia roaches, silkworms, Black soldier fly larva, or hornworms.

Superworms are very high in fat and their shells are high in chitin which is hard for them to digest (they have less chitin then mealworms but still a lot). It is edible, But not very tasty. Like the tails on shrimp.

-HippieLizards.

 

[MyAngelLokki]

I'm well aware that they should not eat lettuce.

I spent the three weeks after I got him (he was a year and a half at the time) trying to get him to eat anything else. I did not raise him. If I had, he'd be on turnip greens.

He just refuses to eat anything else. It's either give him romaine or let him starve himself to death. I've given him roaches too. They don't seem to interest or crunch enough for him. He just looks at them. Crickets don't seem to interest him at all. He'll chase one or two but he won't bother with them after like a minute. He likes freeze dried anything. Crunchy anything (when I let him run he steals cat food when I'm not looking). I did not raise him and I know some of the mass breeders use freeze dried bugs and romaine because they are cheap.

I'm working with what I got and what I've got may be contaminated. Hence the question.

 

[HippieLizards]

You could try to stop feeding him lettuce for a week or so and he will eventually get hungry enough to eat the proper food. It's what I did whenever I switch my beardies from a food to another food. So far it's never failed for me.

Also, I wouldn't trust that rumour about the breeders. Either way you should never feed them any freeze dried object because during the freeze-drying the object loses all nutritional value. IMO for those breeders if you cannot afford the proper food and equipment for the animals then don't get one at all.

Also do not let the beardie eat cat or dog food at ALL. Cat and dog food has a lot of additives and other ingredients that could kill your beardie. If he steals it when you're not looking then you should consider putting it higher then he can reach or putting a cover over it so the beardie can't get to it but the cat still can.

Have you tried offering him any of the food I mentioned at all? I'm pretty sure that if you keep trying the beardie will eventually eat those greens.

-HippieLizards.

 

[AHBD]

Romaine is not as devoid of nutrition as iceburg, so it's fine to feed a few times a week, so are superworms. Here is a write up about romaine :
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/romaine-lettuce

It would be good to try other veggies that you might not have yet, maybe dandelion and fresh clover greens from the yard. Kale is also a good one that most beardies like.

And don't worry about the ecoli, there are different strains and beardies can carry both ecoli and salmonella but not have any symptoms of illness. It is important to wash our hands after handling our reptiles though.

 

[xxCRAZEE]

Not sure if this is spot on but does it just seem that he likes ANYTHING CRUNCHY?

Have you tried Arugula?

Have you tried these? https://symtonbsf.com/products/popworms-premium

That came to mind when reading your posts. I've been interested in getting Migi to try them but he loves regular BSFL just fine, wanted to try them as a treat but still haven't.

Let us know if you do try them.