List of Foods for a Bearded Dragon

A bearded dragon needs a balanced diet of meats, vegetables and fruit to be healthy. Young dragons will eat mostly small insects and will eat more vegetables and fruits as they grow. A balanced diet consists of 80 percent meats and 20 percent leafy greens. You may offer a small amount of fruit on a daily basis to round out their meals. Young dragons require two to three feedings a day and adults do well with two feedings a day.

Adult bearded dragons can eat small mice for their main source of meat and protein. Small hatchlings cannot eat mice because of their size but they can consume small insects as flies, mosquitoes and small cockroaches. Other protein and meat sources for dragons include worms of all kinds such as king worms, earthworms, wax worms, mealworms and crickets.

Bearded dragons consume more vegetables as they grow to supplement their diet. All green leafy vegetables supply nutrients to your pet, but remember that dragons cannot eat iceberg lettuce. They are not able to digest this type of green well. Other greens, meaning the tops of the vegetables only, that dragons eat, include kale, collards greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, Swiss chard, bok choy, kale, escarole, occasionally beet and spinach greens. Vegetables that dragons enjoy are peas and green beans, broccoli, okra, summer squash and zucchini squash, sweet potato, grated carrots and frozen mixed vegetables. Do not feed canned vegetables to a bearded dragon because the preservatives may cause illness over time. Feed them all fresh greens and vegetables from the store or your garden. Wash all foods first so that there is no pesticide or fertilizer residue on his food.

A bearded dragon enjoys many different types of fruits. The harder large fruits like apples need to be bite sized so that they can eat them easily. If the pieces are too large, a dragon may walk away from the fruits and not eat them. Nutrient rich fruits include papaya, cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, kiwi, figs, dates, grapes, peaches, apricots, and strawberries.

Pet stores carry a balanced diet for bearded dragons that are fortified with all of the nutrients in the correct amounts for a healthy pet. This type of food can be the only source of nourishment for a healthy dragon because they will not need additional vegetables, meats or fruits.