Many of my readers asked me whether or not bearded dragons can eat cereal. If you are reading this post, I guess that you ask the same question too.
The truth is that bearded dragons can eat many of the fruits and vegetables that humans eat. However, not all human foods are safe for them.
So, can bearded dragons eat cereal?
No. Cereals don’t have nutritional value for bearded dragons. In addition, cereals are processed foods too something that bearded dragons should not eat.
It is important to consider the foods that beardies are accustomed to in the wild. If they are raised domestically, their diet should mimic their natural foods in the wild.
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What Bearded Dragons Should Eat Instead of Cereal?
Instead of giving them processed foods, give them veggies and some live insects to maintain their good health.
There are foods that they can eat and get their nutritional needs satisfied. Many of those foods are available in the market or even in the backyard.
You can feed your beardies with blueberries, strawberries, and bananas. However, fruits like these are not enough.
As mentioned, bearded dragons need foods that are similar to what they normally consumed in the wild.
That said, they need veggies, insects, and other live little animals for them to survive and live healthily.
Below is the list of foods your bearded dragons should have.
3 Types of Foods Your Bearded Dragons Need
Below are some of the foods your beardies should be getting.
1. Bugs
Bugs consumption is dependent on the age of bearded dragons. Younger or juvenile bearded dragons tend to consume more bugs than their older counterparts.
The reason behind this is that younger bearded dragons need more protein for their rapid growth. While the adult bearded dragons need more vitamins and minerals than proteins.
As a result, adult beardies tend to eat fewer bugs or insects. Instead, they eat more veggies and fruits.
When feeding bearded dragons with bugs, there are some things to remember. One of the most important is the size of the bugs. Do not feed bigger bugs or insects to small or baby beardies. It could cause harm (blockage) or digestive problems to them.
Always consider the size of the mouth. Bugs or insects should be smaller than your beardies’ mouth.
This also applies to worms. Feed small beardies with small mealworms. You can increase the size of the worms as your bearded dragons get bigger.
If you have hatchlings aged up to 2 months, expect them to eat more insects. They could also eat finely chopped green leafy vegetables. So make sure that the veggies are chopped in smaller pieces to allow them to eat without any possible problem.
Juvenile bearded dragons will approximately eat 80% of insects and 20% greens. If you are feeding them crickets, choose the 3-week old crickets 2 times daily. Small mealworms about ½ inch can also be added to their meal.
As bearded dragons get bigger, the size of their foods can also be increased. A 4-month old bearded dragon can eat 4-week-old crickets. Feed them these at least once a day.
Bearded dragons are insatiable. If baby dragons don’t eat well, they probably have problems. One of the most common causes is incorrect temperature. Their body needs high temperature to digest the ingested food.
2. Vegetables
As mentioned, bearded dragons consume a considerable amount of veggies especially adults. Fortunately, there are many vegetables you can feed to your bearded dragons.
Some of the safe veggies are kale, arugula, collard and mustard greens, dandelion, parsley greens and flowers, radish, turnip tops, endives, escarole, and chicory endive.
To add more colors, you can add squash, corn, peas, shredded carrots, cucumber, zucchini, sweet potatoes, and green chard to their salad.
You can also add fruits such as cantaloupe, blueberries, peaches, pears, plums, grapes, apple, and raspberries. However, when feeding vegetables, make sure that they are finely chopped. Although beardies are voracious eaters, they can get choked.
When making a salad for your beardies, it is important to add more color to it. This means that you should combine 4-5 variety of vegetables or fruits together to create a stunning colorful meal.
This is very important especially if you are dealing with a picky bearded dragon. A variety of fruits and vegetables present in their meal should entice them to eat.
And one more thing, avoid water-rich fruits and vegetables for they can cause digestive issues to your beardies.
3. Supplementation
Bearded dragons also need supplements for them to remain healthy all the time. Calcium supplement is a common need for beardies. For my beardies, I use the Rep-Cal Calcium supplement. It is rich in Vitamin D3. You can add it to their food once every other day.
Bearded dragons should also have enough source of vitamin A. Once a week I give my bearded dragons multivitamin. I use Herptivite.
However, when giving vitamins to your bearded dragons, it is very important to take extra caution. This is because bearded dragons could easily suffer from vitamin A toxicity.
If your beardies receive enough vitamin A-rich foods, then there might be no need to give them multivitamins. Be careful.
Final Thoughts on Can Bearded Dragons Eat Cereal
It is very important to remember that bearded dragons are native in the wild. They hunt and pick their own foods. The insects, fruits, and vegetables are all-natural.
Therefore, beardies are not accustomed to cooked or processed foods. These foods do not do good to your beardies instead of harming them. So don’t give them cereal.
Do not try to alter their natural food intake with processed ones. Just give them a good ratio between insects and greens. For younger bearded dragons, give them diet with at least 80% insects and about 20% greens.
As the bearded dragons become adults, reverse the ratio. Adult beardies eat more greens than insects.
