Food, Water, and Supplements

Your bearded dragon has numerous dietary demands. It needs greens and protein, in the form of insects. There are numerous good feeder insects and vegetables for your dragon, and I’m not going to cover all of the details here. There is a link in Appendix B to a nutrition chart that many experienced bearded dragon keepers consider to be the ultimate authority of diet. What I do want to cover here are the major feeder insects, feeding schedule, supplement schedule, and hydration.

A baby bearded dragon requires a lot of protein. Once you have gotten your vivarium all set up, this is going to be your largest cost for the first 12-18 months of owning your dragon. For baby through young juvenile dragons, you need to have two to three feeding sessions of live insects each day. Each session should last 10 to 15 minutes, and your dragon should be allowed to eat as much as he/she wants in that period. A typical dragon this age will eat anywhere from 50 to 100 appropriately sized feeders each day. Some will eat a bit less, and some will eat a bit more – you will have to gauge your dragon’s appetite level. As your dragon becomes an older juvenile to a sub-adult, you will notice that he/she will not be interested in a second feeding each day. At this point, you will want to slow down to one 10 to 15 minute feeding each day. This typically happens somewhere between 7 months to a year in age. As your dragon approaches adulthood, you can begin to cut down live feedings. Once he/she is 18 months old, your dragon is considered an adult. At this age, your dragon should be offered a live feeding 3 or 4 times a week, eating approximately 50 to 60 live insects. If you are using larger, higher protein feeders, it will be less than this.

Appropriately sized feeders are no larger than the space between your dragon’s eyes.  Once your dragon is over 16 inches, you can flex this a bit – adult bearded dragons can easily handle an adult dubia roach. Soft bodied worms like silkworms and hornworms are also less of a concern with this rule, as they do not pose an impaction risk.

Calcium and multivitamin supplementation is vital to the health of a bearded dragon. If you are using a ReptiSun 10.0 or Arcadia 12% UVB light, you will need a calcium with D3 supplement. If you are using a MVB, you will want a calcium supplement without D3. Regardless of UVB, you will also need a multivitamin supplement. These come in powder form. You should coat your insects with these powders. For a baby to juvenile dragon, you will dust one live feeding each day with a supplement. Five days a week, that should be your calcium powder. The other two days you will want to use the multivitamin. Sub-adult dragons (over about a year on age) should have food dusted 4 times a week with calcium and once a week with the multivitamin. As an adult (over 18 months), you will cut this down to 3 times a week with calcium and once a week with multivitamins.

There are many standard feeders for bearded dragons. The healthiest option for your dragon is to have a balanced diet including a few of these choices.

Crickets: Crickets are considered to be the most standard staple feeder. They are easily purchased, fairly cheap, and are a decent source of protein. On the downside, crickets are extremely noisy, smelly, great at escaping, and aggressive. Never leave crickets in your dragon’s vivarium after the 10 to 15 minute feeding period, as they can and will bite your dragon, which can cause infections.  This is especially important overnight, as your dragon will not wake up, even if he is being bitten.

Superworms: Superworms are another popular feeder. These are good for a dragon over 16 inches in length. However, they do have a chitinous shell, which could cause impaction in smaller dragons. Many keepers do feed small or medium superworms to dragons over about 12 inches long. If you choose to do this, be attentive for possible impactions or other digestive issues (see Section 5). Superworms are somewhat fattier than other options. They can be used a staple, but you need to be careful that your dragon does not become overweight. They are best used as a regular, but not staple, feeder.

Dubia Roaches: Dubia roaches (Blaptica dubia) are a favorite among more experienced bearded dragon keepers. These large tropical roaches come in a variety of sizes for any size bearded dragon. They are higher in protein than a similarly sized cricket, are not aggressive, and do not easily escape a smooth container. They also do not make any noise, and do not have the same propensity to carry parasites that crickets have. Finally, they breed very easily. For this reason, I suggest that you consider establishing a colony of dubia roaches 4 to 6 months before purchasing your bearded dragon, if possible. This will give you a self-sustaining colony to feed from the moment your dragon arrives in your home. The only downside to dubia is that they tend to hide in corners of the vivarium rather than move around like crickets. Bearded dragons tend to follow movement when they eat, so you may need to “prod” the roaches to get your dragon’s attention.

Calci-Worms/Repti-Worms/Phoenix Worms: These are actually the larvae of the black soldier fly. They are very easy to keep, as they do not need to be fed at all. They are also extremely high in calcium, and therefore do not need to be dusted with a calcium supplement. They are an excellent feeder for a baby to young juvenile bearded dragon. However, they are relatively expensive, and very small. This means that an older dragon will need to eat quite a lot of them every day. Another potential issue is that bearded dragons often don’t chew them due to their small size. This often leads to dragons passing whole or even live worms in their stool. This is not dangerous on its own, but sometimes a dragon will then eat the same worms again. This can lead to higher than usual internal parasite loads.

Silkworms: Silkworms are extremely nutritious option. They are perhaps the healthiest of all of the above options. However, they are more difficult to keep, and even more difficult to breed. They are also relatively expensive.

Waxworms: Waxworms are an excellent treat for a bearded dragon. However, they are too high in fat to be a staple feeder.

Butterworms: Butterworms are another good treat. Again, they are too fatty to be staple feeder.

Hornworms: Hornworms are a great feeder. They are very wiggly and bright green. Bearded dragons seem to love them. They are best as a supplement to a regular diet, because they are primarily composed of water weight. They are not very nutritious because of these, but they are not fatty. If your dragon has issues with hydration, these are an excellent addition to its diet.

Other food options commonly found in pet stores are pellet food and canned or freeze-dried insects. Pellet food is fine as a supplement to a healthy diet, although many dragons will not eat it since it doesn’t move. Canned or freeze-dried insects are not a very good option for your dragon, unless you find yourself in an emergency situation and in need of food for your dragon. They tend to lose much of their nutritional value when freeze-dried or canned, and most dragons will not go for already-dead insects. Pellet food  and canned/freeze-dried insects are not an acceptable replacement for live food.

Mealworms and pinky mice are a matter of great contention in the bearded dragon community. Please see Appendix A for more details on this. In my opinion, and that of many other experienced keepers both at /r/BeardedDragons and on the forums at BeardedDragon.org, we believe that potential risks involved in feeding these items outweighs any possible benefit. Therefore, it is my recommendation to never feed your bearded dragon mealworms or pinky mice, especially before your dragon is 16 inches long.

All feeders (except Phoenix worms) need to be gut-loaded. This means that you need to offer them nutritious foods for 24 to 48 hours prior to feeding the insects to your dragon. You can use fresh vegetables and fruits, prepared cricket food for crickets, oatmeal for superworms, mulberry leaves or food mix for silkworms, and a protein rich diet for dubia roaches, such as premade or homemade roach diet (see Appendix B for a link to food options for dubia roaches). Without gut-load, your insects will be far less nutritious for your dragon.

You also should have a bowl of greens available in the vivarium at all times. Don’t worry if your young dragon doesn’t eat many (or any) greens. They tend to become more interested in them as they get older. Just keep offering them every day, before the first live feeding of the day. Then leave them in the vivarium until lights out.

When feeding your bearded dragon, remember that heat plays an essential part in their digestion. You should never feed your dragon within an hour of the lights coming on in the morning, or within two hours of the lights going out in the evening.

Hydration is also extremely important for your dragon. Most bearded dragons will not drink standing water. Water bowls are typically left untouched in the vivarium. This tends to raise humidity, which can cause respiratory infections (see Section 5). '''I do not suggest having a water bowl in the vivarium with your dragon. Spraying/misting your dragon is also not recommended.'''  Bearded dragons do not absorb water through their skin. Misting merely increases humidity. In order to properly hydrate your bearded dragon, you will need to offer it regular baths. For a baby dragon, you optimally want to offer a bath every day, but every other day will work as well. As your dragon gets older, you can slow this down to every 2 to 3 days. The bath water should be lukewarm (similar to water temperature for a baby human – not cold and not hot on the wrist). The water should be no higher than your dragon’s shoulders. The bath should last 15 to 20 minutes. Bearded dragons primarily absorb water through their vents (the spot at the base of the tail from which they defecate). The water needs to cover this. Baths often stimulate bowel movements. If your dragon defecates in the bath, you should take it out right away, sanitize the tub or container, and then wash your dragon off. '''Never take your eyes off your dragon when he is in the tub. They can drown in an instant. '''See Section 5 for a discussion of dehydration.