Bearded dragons are omnivores and are known to feed on vegetables, insects, and fruits. However, just like dogs and cats, bearded dragon owners should be wary of feeding their pets to ensure that their companions remain healthy and more robust.
So, can bearded dragons eat carrots? You can feed carrots to your bearded dragons. Carrots are a great source of vitamins and nutrients such as Vitamin A and Beta-Carotene. These two elements are of great nutritional value for bearded dragons. Since these bearded dragons are naturally nocturnal and omnivore creatures, they enjoy feeding on carrots, in addition to being able to eat them. However, if you are supplementing your pet lizard with Vitamin A, you should be careful with feeding it anything else that is rich in Vitamin A such as carrot.
This post will delve into the nitty-gritty including carrots in your bearded dragon meal, including the ideal parts of a carrot to need your bearded dragon, as well as the number of carrots to give to your pet reptile. This way, you will be better informed on how to deal with your pet’s nutritional needs. Read on to find out.
When it comes to nutritional requirements, humans and bearded dragons are different. This often means that foods that are considered healthy and good options for humans aren’t necessarily nutritious for bearded dragons. The excellent news about carrots is that they have been certified to be completely safe to feed a bearded dragon; however, most bearded dragon owners wonder whether all parts of a carrot can be provided to a bearded dragon.
Bearded dragons can eat all parts of a carrot in their natural habitat. This is because all aspects of a carrot are highly nutritious; the root being more nutritious than the head. However, for a tamed bearded dragon, the bulk of their plant-based nutrients often come from the dark leafy greens that are high in calcium. Therefore, feeding your pet lizard the green leafy part of a carrot comes highly recommended more than the roots. This is mainly because the leaves are high in calcium which is instrumental in bone formation.
However, this does not mean that you should not feed the carrot roots to your bearded dragon. Since they contain high amounts of Vitamin A, it is recommended that provide your bearded dragon with small quantities of carrots sparingly, most preferably, at least once a week.
When it comes to feeding your pet lizard carrots, it’s essential to keep in mind that carrots need to be added as part of a balanced diet to other diets such as salads and insects high in calcium. Today, most owners provide their pet lizards with multivitamins to guarantee that their companions are getting all the vitamins and minerals they require.
While this can be relatively easier than only feeding several different types of veggies to cover all the nutrients, it’s essential to know the number of nutrients you give to your bearded dragon and the nutritional density of the actual diet.
The concept of domesticating bearded dragons is pretty new. The vast majority of bearded dragon owners have little or no idea what to feed their pet lizards, let alone knowing which part of the food is ideal for providing their pet companions.
Therefore, if your bearded dragon is getting Vitamin A supplement, you should be extra careful feeding it with carrots. This is mainly because feeding your bearded dragon both Vitamin A supplement and carrots at the same time will result in Vitamin A toxicity.
Importantly, avoid feeding baby carrots to your bearded dragon. This is because most suppliers use preservatives to make the baby carrots appear fresh. These preservatives are usually toxic to your beardie. Therefore, to avoid such situations, it’s advisable to go for fresh carrots in your trusted grocery store. The same applies to other fruits and vegetables.
How Many Carrots Can a Bearded Dragon Eat?
As a bearded dragon owner, you probably know that they are incredibly picky eaters. Like small children, these reptiles will turn their noses up at every food offered to them. While this makes feeding your pet lizard a healthy diet quite challenging, determining the ideal amount of food to provide them is more daunting.
Carrots are not their staple diet. After all, you cannot expect them to come across carrots in their natural habitat. Therefore, you don’t have to feed your bearded dragon carrots daily. Even so, when you decide to provide your pet lizard with carrots, ensure to give them a small portion of the entire carrot.
After grading the carrot into small pieces, offer them only an ounce at a time. While at it, ensure to give them carrots 5 to 7 times a month. This is mainly because carrots are notoriously intense with Vitamins A and they can be toxic to the bearded dragon when taken in high amounts. By giving your bearded dragon carrots occasionally, it will be made to get plenty of additional nutritional value that carrots provide without necessarily going overboard.
Do Bearded Dragons Eat the Carrot’s Green Top?
For a bearded dragon, a healthy diet consists of leafy green vegetables, fruits, and insects that provide the much-needed proteins. When it comes to vegetables, carrots reign supreme in providing these lizards with Vitamin A. Even so, carrots are often offered as supplements to their main diets.
Bearded dragons love carrots for a good reason; therefore, they can eat the carrot’s green tops. The green tops are rich in nutrients that are usually enjoyed by bearded dragons. However, the carrot’s main part contains Vitamin A, which is known to be toxic in dragons when in high doses. Therefore, while you can freely feed the carrots green tops to a bearded dragon, ensure to be mindful when feeding your bearded dragon with the body of the carrot.
Do bearded dragons eat celery?
Bearded dragons thrive in terrestrial environments where food is sparse; this prompts them to accept a variety of foods. When it comes to bearded dragons, you should assess both the safety and nutritional value of the foods you give them. Therefore, whether your bearded dragon can eat celery or not, depends on the nutritional value it offers your pet.
Bearded dragons can eat celery, but you should not feed them this vegetable as a staple. This is because celery has a low nutritional content and is unreliable if you want to bring up a healthy bearded dragon. In most cases, this vegetable is a filler and is useful if you want your pet to get satisfied fast. Thus, you should include raw and chopped celery in your pet’s diet as part of their balanced diet.
Bearded dragons are omnivores and will eat both vegetables and insects. Younger dragons prefer insects more than plants, and you should give them a diet comprising more bugs and insects than vegetables since these animal proteins are essential as building blocks for their brain and physical body. However, as bearded dragons age, they tend to prefer vegetables more than insects, and giving them a handful of celery will be ideal.
To prepare celery for your bearded dragon, start by washing the celery to clean any contaminants such as fertilizer or pesticides. Giving your pet contaminated food will predispose them to illnesses that can be fatal. You can then take a celery stalk and chop both ends, then slice the remaining stock into small cubes for your pet.
If you want, you can chop both the stalks and leaves together and feed them to your pet. Chopping is useful to prevent choking hazards, given that bearded dragons have a small throat and stomach.
After chopping your pet’s celery, place them in their food bowl and mix it with other vegetables such as bell paper, asparagus, collard greens, and squash, then present it to your pet for feeding. Occasionally, you can feed your pet with celery only but mixing it with other vegetables is important to meet its nutritional requirements.
It is important to note that while bearded dragons can eat celery, this vegetable is not readily available for the wild bearded dragons since it is a domestic vegetable. Therefore, bearded dragons in the wild will enjoy the fruits and leaves in the wild. However, they can quickly adapt to eating this food once you adopt them.
Before preparing your pet’s celery, you should ensure it is fresh. If possible, you should feed your pet with organic celery since they are free from agrochemicals. Also, giving raw celery to your pet than a cooked one is better. This is because cooking celery will remove some if not all of the nutrients, and you will end up feeding your pet with raw fiber that lacks nutritional benefits.
Another ideal way to feed your bearded dragon with celery is gut loading. This entails feeding the bugs and insects you are breeding for your bearded dragon with celery and then feeding the insects to your pet. Due to the low nutrition of celery, this method is not commonly used.
While feeding your pet with celery, you can bridge nutritional gaps by dusting their food with dietary supplements including vitamin D3 supplements. You can sprinkle calcium and vitamin D3 supplements in your pet’s food at least two to three times a week.
You should dust these supplements to small portions of the salad and ensure your pet starts consuming this portion first to get the most benefits. Usually, bearded dragons will take about 10 to 15 minutes to eat their food, after which you should remove any leftovers.
While bearded dragons will meet most of their water requirement from food, morning dew, or rain, you should supply them with clean water in their tank. To do this, use a bowl that you should clean and fill daily to ensure a clean water supply.
You can also mist vegetable matter in your pet’s tank to ensure your pet is well hydrated. Alternatively, you can soak your pet in the water a few times a week to keep them hydrated. Soaking your pet also aids in the shedding process to ensure they have attractive skin.
Do Bearded Dragons Eat Celery Leaves?
Besides your bearded dragon-loving celery as a delicious snack, this vegetable offers additional health benefits to your pet. Celery is rich in flavonoids and antioxidants that reduce inflammation and promote good health. It is also rich in vitamin C, an immune booster, and beta carotene that promotes your pet’s vision, growth, and reproduction. Celery’s water content is also perfect for your pet as it will meet most of its water requirements and keep it hydrated.
Bearded dragons can also eat celery leaves. To give them celery leaves, chop the stalks together with the leaves and give them to your pet. Celery leaves are rich in calcium, vitamin E, and fiber, beneficial to your pet’s health. The calcium-phosphorus ratio is 1.6 to 1 in celery. This range is ideal for the growth and development of your pet’s bones and body.
This is because phosphorus binds calcium preventing its absorption, and this may result in metabolic bone disease (MBD), which causes pain and paralysis, and even death if untreated.
Celery, a crunchy and tasty snack, is one of the most common delicacies for rabbits, but domestically bred bearded dragons love it. Also, it is important to young beardies since celery has a higher calcium ratio. The calcium in celery is easily absorbed, which aids in the strengthening and quick development of your beardies bones.
Is Celery Good for Reptiles Like Bearded Dragon?
Bearded dragons, like other reptiles, rely on a balanced diet for healthy growth and development. Their diet should comprise insects and vegetables in different varieties, and the vegetables should be fresh and chopped. You can also add fruits such as blueberries and apples to your pet’s diet, herbs, and water.
Celery is good for bearded dragons for its nutritional benefit, high water content, and fiber. However, you should not give this food to your pet often because it is rich in oxalates. Oxalates bind calcium, resulting in its deficiency, which causes MBD. Giving your dragon too much celery may result in severe illness or even death.
If you are careful with the portions of oxalate-rich foods you give your pet, this should not worry you. Giving your bearded dragon celery at least once a week is ideal, but you should mix it with other vegetables.
Calcium in celery promotes good health in bearded dragons, but you should vary the supplies to ensure your pet benefits the most. Celery is also low in sugars, making it suitable for bearded dragons. High sugars can cause obesity, stomach upset, tooth and gum problems in your pet. The bearded dragon’s teeth are directly rooted into the jaws. This means that any problem on your pet’s teeth caused by high sugar consumption will affect their jaw, forcing you to make several trips to the vet.
Other vegetables you can give your bearded dragon in place of celery include alfalfa, collard greens, and mustard greens. Besides having the right calcium and phosphorus balance, these vegetables are also rich in vitamins and minerals. However, you should also note that not all vegetables are healthy offers for your pet.
Spinach, lettuce, and avocado are high in oxalates and inhibit calcium absorption in reptiles if excessively consumed. There are other foods that may also be toxic for bearded dragons, which is why you should always consult with your vet if you are uncertain about some foods before giving them to your pet.
Other Foods To Feed Your Bearded Dragon
Since bearded dragons are omnivores, part of their diet must comprise insects, vegetables, and fruits that are edible to humans. However, as a pet owner, you should ensure that all the foods are healthy and free from pesticides. As such, you should also avoid giving your pet lizard insects that have parasites.
While this might sound easy, ensuring that your companion gets the best food is not a walk in the park. It all boils down to how you source and choose nutrition. While you can pick vegetables and fruits from your backyard, getting your hands on formidable insects will require that you assess a certified pet food store. By doing this, you will be guaranteed of feeding your pet lizard the best and safest food.
While at it, you need to consider that a baby bearded dragon requires a different kind of diet than an adult. For instance, a bearded baby dragon involves food that is high in protein in its early years due to the rapid growth. In such cases, you will have to include about ⅘ of their diet as insects and the remainder as vegetables. Even in vegetables, ensure that the young ones get more leafy greens to give them the necessary fiber to digest the insects.
Finally
While bearded dragons can eat carrots, it’s highly advisable not to feed them carrots every day. However, wherever you provide your bearded dragon carrots, please make a point of mixing them with other foods that are nutritious such as insects and fruits.
While bearded dragons are omnivores, their dietary preferences will vary depending on their age. Adult bearded dragons will prefer more vegetables than insects compared to the younger bearded dragons due to the differences in growth stages. However, while feeding your pet with vegetables such as celery, you should mix it with other vegetables in salads or insects, to promote good health.
When feeding your pet with celery, you should watch out for the calcium supply to ensure they are getting enough and minimize MBD risk. You can also offer supplements and other foods to your pet to meet their calcium requirements. While selecting other vegetables to include in your pet’s diet, you should avoid those high in oxalates as this inhibits calcium absorption.
Finally, you should prepare celery by chopping it before giving it to your pet to minimize choking risk. Given the above, it is evident that celery is good for your bearded dragon if fed with other vegetables and dusted with supplements and giving this vegetable to your pet will promote good health and healthy bones.
