Feeding Bearded Dragons: Essential Guide to Providing Your Beardie a Healthy Diet

Feeding your bearded dragons seems to be an easy process right? Many lizard owners will supply a food dish full of 'whatever' veggies they have in the fridge, fill up a water dish, and toss in some insects on occasion. They may even decide to use dry food pellets that can be purchased from nearly every pet supply store. This diet, as you may have guessed, will ultimately lead to poor health.

Some of this problem is caused by uninformed first-time owners who make an impulse purchase of a "cool looking" lizard they saw while picking up dog food at their nearest 'super' pet store. Now obviously these first-timers have no idea on how to provide proper care for a bearded dragon, so they turn to the 'expert' pet store clerk for answers.

This clerk will most likely point them in the direction of the packaged products (pellets and dried insects) once the conversation becomes focused on food. They will then inform the customer that beardies will also eat crickets and vegetables and to have a nice day.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not that this information is incorrect...it's just lacking detail. This is what leads keepers to believe that their bearded dragon's diet is fine, when in reality it is severely lacking vital nutrients.

"So what am I supposed to feed my lizard?"

Good question. Before we get to specific foods let's first go over a few basic guidelines that should be followed when feeding any beardie.


All food items must be smaller than the space between the eyes. This prevents choking and digestion issues.
Offer as many feeder insects as the lizard will eat within 10-15 minutes for each feeding.
Remove any uneaten insects. You don't need them defecating in your enclosure, or gnawing on your pet.
Have a water dish available at all times. Not all dragons will drink from a dish and you may need to use an eye dropper if it appears your lizard is becoming dehydrated.
Mist all plant matter to enhance their hydration value. This is how beardies get their main source of liquids.
"Gut load" all feeder insects 24-48 hours in advance of feeding them to your lizard. Gut loading is the process of feeding high-nutrient items to your insects, making them a much healthier meal.
"Dust" all insects before feeding. This is the process of coating the insects with a multivitamin, or calcium supplement before giving them to your beardie.

Staple Insects include: crickets, superworms, silkworms, calciworms, even roaches. Make sure all insects are of proper size.

Staple Vegetables include: dark greens such as collard, mustard, dandelion, turnip and kale. All varieties of squash may also be offered as a daily staple along with cactus pads.

Fruits that may be offered on occasion include: apples, fresh blue and blackberries, pineapple, mango, fresh strawberries and cantaloupe.

The amount of feedings per day, the insect-to-veggies ratio, and the amount of supplements all depends on the age of your dragon. You will find that younger dragons may ignore their veggies, while adults rarely turn them down.

Follow these guidelines for feeder insects and vitamin supplements:


Babies - (0-6 months) Feeder insects 2-3 times daily. Dust insects with calcium everyday and multivitamin supplement 4-5 times a week.
Juveniles - (6-10 months) 1-2 times daily. Calcium daily, multivitamin 4-5x
Sub-adult - (10-14 months) 1 time a day. Calcium 5x weekly, multivitamin 3x
Adult - (over 14 months) Offer feeders every other day or so depending on your dragon's appetite for them. Calcium 5-6x, multivitamin 3x.

When feeding bearded dragons it is critical to provide the best diet that is available to them. As their owners, we have taken on that responsibility and our pets depend on us.

To Healthy Reptiles,

Joselyn Rhodes