Diet Question For First Time Beardie Owner

[barterking85]

Hi everyone first time poster so i am not new to reptiles just beardies i have 2 water dragons, a sudan plated lizard, red eye tree frog, and a colubian red tail boa all adults.

Ok so my beardie Loki Is an adult and her feeding routine goes as follows when i bought her she only ate supers and baby food for veggies errrrr. she never seen any other type of insect but i am working on switching her onto gut loaded crickets but its not going well lol

Now i have her on a fresh salad everyday mixed of lettuce, peppers, squash, sweet potato, blackberries, blue berries, apples and carrots.

Monday Fresh salad
tuesday fresh salad and 10 supers dusted
wednesday fresh salad
thursday fresh salad 10 supers dusted
friday fresh salad
saturday fresh salad 10 supers NOT dusted
sunday fresh salad

does this routine sound good? and is there a cheaper way to do the salad like a bag of spring mix?? and i would mix in her favorite blue and black berries.

Thanks for the help guys

 

[SeanC]

Hi everyone first time poster so i am not new to reptiles just beardies i have 2 water dragons, a sudan plated lizard, red eye tree frog, and a colubian red tail boa all adults.

Ok so my beardie Loki Is an adult and her feeding routine goes as follows when i bought her she only ate supers and baby food for veggies errrrr. she never seen any other type of insect but i am working on switching her onto gut loaded crickets but its not going well lol

Now i have her on a fresh salad everyday mixed of lettuce, peppers, squash, sweet potato, blackberries, blue berries, apples and carrots.

Monday Fresh salad
tuesday fresh salad and 10 supers dusted
wednesday fresh salad
thursday fresh salad 10 supers dusted
friday fresh salad
saturday fresh salad 10 supers NOT dusted
sunday fresh salad

does this routine sound good? and is there a cheaper way to do the salad like a bag of spring mix?? and i would mix in her favorite blue and black berries.

Thanks for the help guys

Welcome As an adult the schedule sounds good. You could feed a few more worms, maybe 15. You should dust with calcium 3x a week and multivitamin 1x a week. You shouldn't feed lettuce, it has minimal nutrition. Stick with collard, kale, dandelion, mustard and turnip greens as staples. I just buy 1 bunch then wash them all, dry them and stick them in a zip-lock bag with a napkin/paper towek and they stay fresh for a couple weeks. Carrots should be rarely. www.beautifuldragons.com has a great nutrition chart and what to use as staple greens. If she doesn't like crickets it's ok. My Lightning doesn't want crickets either since I feed him supers too. There's plenty of other worms you can feed if you want to add variety or give her a treat.

 

[barterking85]

great thanks for the reply very informative

 

[barterking85]

ok next is there a bagged salad that anyone would recommend ?? i can add a few things but i am wasting alot of veggies and i cant eat any more lol

 

[SeanC]

ok next is there a bagged salad that anyone would recommend ?? i can add a few things but i am wasting alot of veggies and i cant eat any more lol

Most of the bags don't have what they need. The technique I listed in my previous post will keep the greens fresh for a couple weeks. You don't have to get all of them at once. Spyro is only 9'' and he will eat his whole bowl twice over in a day. Which is usually half a kale leaf and half a collard leaf and a bit of dandelion. Some will go to waste but it's only like 2-3$ for a bunch.

 

[barterking85]

ok and what should a serving size be like lets use cups for and example should they eat 1 cup a day of greens?

and for a mix i think i will go Collard, kale, sweet potato, black and blueberries. as they are readily available

 

[SeanC]

ok and what should a serving size be like lets use cups for and example should they eat 1 cup a day of greens?

Well my baby will eat 1/2 cup ish of greens a day. The easy thing with adults is their diet is 80% greens 20% feeders, so let them have greens to their hearts content. My adult, Lightning, is a rescue and I'm having an issue getting him to consistently eat greens so I have no reference for you there. All I know is they should have greens available all day everyday.

 

[barterking85]

my Loki came from a lets say poor owner too so she is taking the salad a lot better then i thought but still wants more feeders then greens but i am slowly trying to correct that

 

[SeanC]

Yah same here. But the last few days he barely wants his feeders either Just keep on keeping on

 

[barterking85]

will do Loki is a pig for feeders but a good amount of greens is a battle

So my revised schedule is as follows

Monday Fresh salad
tuesday fresh salad and 15 supers dusted(multivitamin, calcium)
wednesday fresh salad
thursday fresh salad 15 supers dusted(calcium)
friday fresh salad
saturday fresh salad 15 supers dusted(calcium)
sunday fresh salad

Salad consists of collard greens, kale, peppers, sweet potato, blackberries, and blueberries.

Sound good

 

[casper31]

I think the revised schedule looks good Miss stopped eating crickets when she turned 1. She would turn her head on them...lol Now she eats hornworms, butterworms, supers, & dubia. I give her greens daily & proteins twice a week like the vet told me to her last visit, but she really still is a protein pig. Miss hates fruit, so i make her a veggie mix w pretty much the same things that were recommend to you in the previous post. I dust her veggies w the cal & vit cuz she eats more of them on the days there dusted.

 

[barterking85]

awesome great tip i may try a light dusting on her salad and i may only go with 2 days protien cause i think she figures "nah i dont have to eat the green stuff i got supers coming tomorrow" lol

 

[casper31]

LOL! I have no doubt. Whenever i put in her dish of geeens, Miss still gives me that look like "I know that's not all you're giving me" LOL. On protein days the vet said to still follow the as much as they'll eat in 15 mins rule. All i can say is...the girl CHOWS!

 

[Mediabandit]

You should also try giving her a variety of protein as well. Try breaking it up, Havoc stopped eating crickets around 1 year old as well, so now he gets Supers, Hornworms, Butterworms and Silkworms. He has a salad in his enclosure all day everyday so he can eat as he pleases. I take the salad bowl out a few times a day and mist it to keep the veggies fresh for him too. He gets Collard Greens, Bok Choy, Dandelion Greens (when in season), butternut squash and fruit once in awhile as a treat. Calcium dusted 5 times a week and vitamins 2 times a week.
Blueberries, blackberries and carrots should only be fed ocassionally.

 

[barterking85]

I am trying a variety but we are very limited in our small town so i pretty much have to breed my own. so i will pick up 100 of whatever i can find and start a colony. From now on i will only use black and blueberries as a treat. She has salad available 24hrs a day. For her salad she now gets collard, kale, butternut and peppers.