Feeding Bearded Dragons and keeping them healthy

Feeding Bearded Dragons and keeping them healthy

What can be said about feeding bearded dragons is also largely applicable to feeding other insectivorous lizards that start life small but grow rapidly into relatively large animals. Examples include water dragons, frilled dragons and small monitors.

Feed insects that are as long as the width of your lizard's head. Offer food to hatchlings little and often, as much as they want, up to three times per day. If insufficiently fed, those in groups tendency to bite each have a other's toes and tails. Uneaten crickets distress and irritate lizards and need to be removed after a reasonable period. Crickets also eat lizard faeces, which can lead to re-infection with internal parasites. It is best practice to feed only what will be eaten quickly and then to remove any surplus.

Added extras

Hatchlings can be frightened of fast moving prey like crickets, putting the crickets in a fridge for a few minutes slows them down All insect food should be both gut loaded with high quality insect food, and dusted with a highly adherent calcium powder especially for hatchlings. To enable calcium intake to be absorbed each individual must receive a regular weekly supplement of easily reptile-assimilated vitamin D3 ,or very close access to a specialist reptile ultraviolet fluorescent lamp, claiming an output of 5% UVB light. Bearded dragons also take vegetable matter. Spray this with tepid water to keep it fresh longer and provide additional moisture intake. Offer grapes, green beans, dandelion leaves and flowers, clover, Romaine lettuce, mustard greens, peas and sweet corn.


Prevent bullying

It is important to continually regroup hatching by size as they grow. Smaller individuals are dominated by those that grow faster and decline quickly as the bullying can stop them feeding. These smaller animals must either be raised individually or regrouped with hatchlings of the same size. Fresh water can be provided daily either in a shallow water dish, with an aquarium pump bubbling air into it, or with a small waterfall feature. Bearded dragons do not recognise standing water as drinkable and need to see the refraction of light from moving water to attract themto it. Spraying lizards with tepid water is the commonest method to keep them hydrated but can leave the cage too wet, which may lead to respiratory problems. A sprayed cage should be sufficiently well heated and ventilated to dry out completely within half an hour.

Great growth

Growth rates under the above regime should be impressive. As reptiles are cold-blooded, what they eat is mainly transferred into growth and not utilised to keep their bodies warm as it is with ourselves. Unlike hatchlings, adults only need to eat two or three times per week, with food intake drastically reducing as size increases. In fact for adults an occasional week or two without food is much more likely to be beneficial than harmful.

Supplied by pbwnews (Pet Business World)