Bearded dragon question
- Thread starter lecham
- Start date
lslcronk
New Member
If you feed them a well rounded diet, they seem to do well with little to no supplementation. My girls are pretty much veggie dragons! They get a HUGE variety of fruits and veggies, the Bearded Dragon food pellets and on occasion hard boiled egg...oh and silk worms once since Claude wouldn't eat them! lol They have been without crickets as a staple for years! They are 11...going on 12! It is the same principle as gutloading your crickets for nutrition. Variety is always key to this though! I dont think they would be alive if all I gave them was Kale and carrot, which seems to be what a lot of ppl want to feed them.
lslcronk
New Member
Sorry, I think I read that wrong the first time. D3 for any reptile is dangerous if they are getting too much. I don't supplement mine much at all, just what they get in their food pellets. There are care sheets out there for them, I was looking at a few, and it varies based on age - babies they say should get it everyday, juveniles a few times a week and adults once weekly. I am sure it varies a lot between sources, just like cham info! They will get MBD, they need the full-spectrum lights etc...I would have them do some research, or you could for them if you wanted! 
fluxlizard
Avid Member
Age of the dragon is pretty critical when considering this question.
Young dragons grow really fast and need a lot of calcium and d3 to keep up with the growth rate. At times, some of my dragons have grown an inch in a week! Most of the time it's like an inch every 2-3 weeks.
It also depends on lighting and temperature and natural sunlight availability.
A more direct answer to your concern though- I've been breeding dragons since 1994, and I have gone many generations and thousands of offspring with mine in that time. My oldest dragon is around 12 years old possibly a year or two older. I dust all insects with rep-cal with d3 when the lizards are indoors. Outdoors I use calcium without d3. My adults are only fed relatively few insects- I mostly use rep-cal pellets ever since they became available years ago and those have worked great for me for adults. I do feed adults greens as well as the pellets. I rarely feed insects to adults except as treats. So the adults really don't get supplementation- just pellets and a variety of greens. I feed all the insects growing dragons can eat every day, as well as pellets and greens to babies until they are about 15", when I switch them off the insects. This takes several months of growth. During that time they get lots of rep-cal with d3.
If the dragon is young and growing I would strongly advise keeping up with the d3. I've seen a number of problems when there is lack of d3 and no problems from too much d3 over the years. That's not to say it can't happen, only that it is much more rare than the opposite problem of not enough...
edit-- re: veggie dragons. Over the years I've done a lot of messing around with various feeding trials for my dragons. I actually went from egg to adults laying good eggs on a strictly vegetarian diet one time. It can be done. But they grew slowly and never got quite as large and were not as productive (smaller clutches). Also babies had to be reared seperately to avoid cannibalism. But they got along great as adults and the eggs they produced and the hatchlings from those eggs were very healthy.
One study of wild dragons showed they consumed 90% plant matter as adults. Hardly anyone feeds them that way in captivity...
Young dragons grow really fast and need a lot of calcium and d3 to keep up with the growth rate. At times, some of my dragons have grown an inch in a week! Most of the time it's like an inch every 2-3 weeks.
It also depends on lighting and temperature and natural sunlight availability.
A more direct answer to your concern though- I've been breeding dragons since 1994, and I have gone many generations and thousands of offspring with mine in that time. My oldest dragon is around 12 years old possibly a year or two older. I dust all insects with rep-cal with d3 when the lizards are indoors. Outdoors I use calcium without d3. My adults are only fed relatively few insects- I mostly use rep-cal pellets ever since they became available years ago and those have worked great for me for adults. I do feed adults greens as well as the pellets. I rarely feed insects to adults except as treats. So the adults really don't get supplementation- just pellets and a variety of greens. I feed all the insects growing dragons can eat every day, as well as pellets and greens to babies until they are about 15", when I switch them off the insects. This takes several months of growth. During that time they get lots of rep-cal with d3.
If the dragon is young and growing I would strongly advise keeping up with the d3. I've seen a number of problems when there is lack of d3 and no problems from too much d3 over the years. That's not to say it can't happen, only that it is much more rare than the opposite problem of not enough...
edit-- re: veggie dragons. Over the years I've done a lot of messing around with various feeding trials for my dragons. I actually went from egg to adults laying good eggs on a strictly vegetarian diet one time. It can be done. But they grew slowly and never got quite as large and were not as productive (smaller clutches). Also babies had to be reared seperately to avoid cannibalism. But they got along great as adults and the eggs they produced and the hatchlings from those eggs were very healthy.
One study of wild dragons showed they consumed 90% plant matter as adults. Hardly anyone feeds them that way in captivity...
Last edited:
lslcronk
New Member
edit-- re: veggie dragons. Over the years I've done a lot of messing around with various feeding trials for my dragons. I actually went from egg to adults laying good eggs on a strictly vegetarian diet one time. It can be done. But they grew slowly and never got quite as large and were not as productive (smaller clutches). Also babies had to be reared seperately to avoid cannibalism. But they got along great as adults and the eggs they produced and the hatchlings from those eggs were very healthy.
One study of wild dragons showed they consumed 90% plant matter as adults. Hardly anyone feeds them that way in captivity...[/QUOTE]
haha I was a pioneer and didn't even know it! I just couldn't deal with the crickets when I was younger, I do remember lots of crickets when the girls were young and I was all over the supplements and I am not sure when it changed! lol Almost 12 years is a long time! The girls seem normal size, but I have never tried to breed them so maybe that is why? Now they are just 2 happy old girls entertaining my mom's grandkids!
One study of wild dragons showed they consumed 90% plant matter as adults. Hardly anyone feeds them that way in captivity...[/QUOTE]
haha I was a pioneer and didn't even know it! I just couldn't deal with the crickets when I was younger, I do remember lots of crickets when the girls were young and I was all over the supplements and I am not sure when it changed! lol Almost 12 years is a long time! The girls seem normal size, but I have never tried to breed them so maybe that is why? Now they are just 2 happy old girls entertaining my mom's grandkids!
lecham
New Member
thanx for the info man i appreciate it.. and you are rite mostly evryboday feeds crix all day long ..they should have a salad diet as adults.
ill upload a pic so u can tell me if the dragon seems too fat for her age..i think shes a little too fat but maybe im just wrong ..ill post in a bitI also use the rep-cal pellets with occasional Fluker's freeze dried crickets thrown in. This has been the staple of my 8 year old beardie on days I work. On my days off he gets the fresh veggie mix and some live crickets dusted once a week in calcium with D3. When he was younger it was mostly veggies and live crickets and cal w/d3 every other day. He is the easiest to take care of in the zoo at home other than the snakes who eat a lot less often. The chameleon demands the most attention.
