If you just purchased a bearded dragon or think you want one as a pet, you must know the complexities of feeding this reptile. Bearded dragons are omnivores, with a diet of roughly 80 percent meat and 20 percent vegetables and fruit. This means you must handle lots of feeder insects. Read the following steps to know what, when and how much to feed your bearded dragon.
Instructions
1. Start a hatchling bearded dragon on mostly small insects. A good choice is two-week-old feeder crickets (3/8 inch) two to three times a day. Keep the amount down to what your hatchling eats in one feeding.
2. Introduce greens and slightly larger crickets to juvenile dragons (two to four months old.) Feed juveniles three-week-old crickets, small mealworms and finely chopped vegetables two to three times a day.
3. Feed dragons four months old to adulthood four-week-old crickets, small mealworms and finely chopped vegetables once or twice daily.
4. Begin feeding mature dragons adult feeder crickets, king mealworms, earthworms or cockroaches once a day or every other day, depending on their appetite. At this point you can add mice to their diet but only once a week or less often.
5. Gut-load your feeder insects. This means giving your insects nutritious foods high in vitamins for approximately 24 hours before feeding them to your dragon. Pet store crickets aren't highly nutritious, so you must give them baby cereal, fresh vegetables and fruit to make them a nutritious food source for your dragon.
6. Choose the best vegetables to feed your dragon. Leafy greens high in calcium include argula, collards, parsley, kale and endives. You also should vary vegetables, adding carrots, corn, squash, peas and others. Make sure all vegetables are finely chopped to avoid choking.
7. Supplement your dragon's diet by coating feeder insects with a powdered calcium carbonate or calcium gluconate daily for juveniles and three to five days a week for adults.
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