How To Care For A Bearded Dragon with Feeding Schedules

Many homeowners consider bearded dragons as the best addition to their homes. When having a pet in your home, it’s important to take care of it to ensure it stays healthy and active. With extremely high growth and metabolism rates, it’ll be wise to provide the pet with appropriate nutritious foods when having routine care. Feeding is a core step when caring for your bearded dragon. Below is a comprehensive guide on how to care for a bearded dragon with feeding schedules.

How to Care for a Bearded Dragon

Caring for your bearded dragon is key to having a happy and healthy pet. Besides feeding, we’ve got other ways you can care for the dragon to ensure the animal stays healthy and happy. Let’s look at the basics of caring for the bearded dragon:

● Provide the right habitat and keep the habitat clean regularly

● Keep track of the humidity and temperature levels

● Create a basking spot to ensure the appropriate temperatures and effective metabolism of calcium

● Provide appropriate meals, which include vitamins, insect food, and fresh greens.

● Add the appropriate tank accessories in the habitat, like bedding, basking rock, and plants.

● Provide the right bedding materials, such as slate, interlocking wood, fake grass, or reptile carpet.

● Include weekly baths in the routine to hydrate and keep the dragon clean

● Have gradual bonding sessions with your pet

Overview of Feeding the Bearded Dragon

With feeding being one of the main practices for caring for your dragon, it’ll be appropriate to get right with the program or schedule. Experts advise that you feed young dragons with the appropriate feeds as their high growth rate and metabolism requires sufficient foods rich in calcium and proteins. A proper diet and feeding schedule increase the pet’s lifespan and prevent diseases like a metabolic bone disease.

Age is key in determining the reptile’s nutritional requirements, feeding behavior, and dietary composition. For instance, the main diet of a young beardie includes crickets and other insects to enhance protein and fat levels. In contrast, you can feed the mature dragon a vegetable-rich diet for superior nutrition and health.

Despite being constantly hungry, most individuals may find it hard to give grass or greens to baby dragons below 4 months. You can feed young bearded dragons who refuse to eat grass with calcium and vitamin supplements. Remember, the time the reptiles take to start eating vegetables varies.

Feeding Schedule for Bearded Dragon

When feeding the dragons, it’s important to monitor the calcium to phosphorus levels to ensure the pet get’s the right nutrient amount. You can use phosphorus-free multivitamins for bearded dragons that prefer vegetables with high phosphorus levels. Remember, too much phosphorus is harmful to baby dragons as it prevents calcium assimilation.

The right ratio of calcium to Phosphorus is 2:1 or 1:1. This ratio represents the best husbandry approach to get your pet’s preferred meal and achieve consistency. In addition, you can include feeder insects in the diet to supplement the diet.

Here are the major feeder insects you can include in the diet:

Crickets

Most homeowners commonly use crickets as a feeder, as they’re cheap and a good source of protein. After eating, remove the leftover to prevent bites and spreading infections to the dragon. Furthermore, give the reptile the right amount of crickets to maximize the health benefits. So, how many crickets should you feed your dragon:

● Young dragons (between 1 to 3 months) – feed 25 to 60 one-year-old crickets thrice daily. Ensure that the pet eats approximately 450 crickets per week

● Juvenile dragons (3 to 9 months) – 40 to 65 medium crickets per day

● Mature pets (above 9 months) – 50 to 70 medium crickets.

Dubia Roaches

Dubias are large tropical roaches in different sizes and the best inclusion in your pet’s diet, as they have high fat and less fiber content. With their faster reproductive rate, insect feeders are cost-effective for your pet. Below are the right dubia roach proportions:

● Young ones (1 to 3 months) – 30 -50 small roaches thrice a day. Ensure the reptile eats approximately 1050 roaches weekly to support growth.

● Juvenile dragons (3 to 9 months) – 25 – 50 medium roaches twice a day

● Mature beardies (above 9 months) – 3 – 5 adult roaches daily. With high-fat content feeding your reptile with more roaches might result in obesity.

Discoid roaches

These feeder insects provide the best and nutritionally superior options for your pet. Unlike dubias, discoid roaches have more moisture content. You can use these feeders when your reptile suffers terminal impaction. In addition, the lean physique and high protein content make them the best feeder insect for younger dragons. The food’s high phosphorus helps neutralize calcium and maintain a robust skeletal structure.

Black soldier fly larvae

Experts rank the black soldier fly larvae as one of the most nutritious insect feeders for reptiles. With their high fat and protein levels, they’re the best options to enhance the growth of your young reptiles.

In addition, with the 1:1 calcium to phosphorus ratio, the feed enhances your pet’s nutritive needs without spending too much money.

Follow the guideline below to feed your dragon with the larvae:

● Young dragons ( 1 to 3 months) – approximately 400 small larvae weekly

● Juvenile beardies (3 to 9 months) – 20 – 40 larvae twice daily

● Mature dragons (above 9 months) – 10- 15 larvae daily

Silkworms

While individuals consider silkworms the best insect feeder alternative, most don’t prefer them. These insect feeders are very expensive and difficult to maintain. In addition, they don’t travel appropriately during transit. With these disadvantages, most individuals shy away from using this insect feeder.

Hornworms

Including hornworms in your pet’s routine diet offers the perfect supplement. It’s a great addition to the diet as the insect feeder has more water weight, which makes it a better supplement to other feeds. The high water level makes hornworms the best option when your pet has hydration issues.

Leafy greens and fruits

When feeding your dragon, it’s good to include greens in the diet. Experts recommend that you consider the age and nutritional requirements when feeding your pet greens. 50% insects and 50% vegetables are appropriate for a juvenile dragon, while it’ll be appropriate to reduce the protein intake as the pet grows.

Feeding the reptile twice a day will be appropriate to enhance proper growth and development. The common greens to feed your dragon include green beans, snap peas, bananas, yellow squash, collard, mustard, and mango.

While feeding your pet, it’ll be good to avoid giving the reptile mealworms, avocados, fireflies, and lettuce. Some of these meals or food are hard to digest or may contain high protein levels, which are harmful to the reptile.

Wrapping Up

Feeding is a core step when caring for your bearded dragon. The appropriate meals and proper feeding schedule enhance growth and keep the pet disease-free. Depending on the age, choose the right meal and proper feeding frequency to suit the reptiles.

You can incorporate feeder insects and greens to make the food nutritious and enhance growth. Above is a comprehensive guide on proper feeding schedules and routines while taking care of dragons. Adopt the feeding strategies and tips to keep your pet healthy and happy.