# How serious is it if Bearded Dragon only eats live food?



## sherylfuller (Jan 19, 2014)

I am looking for some advice on feeding. I have a 3 yr old bearded dragon who will not eat any veg or fruit. 

The guy at the shop said that it didn't matter if she doesn't eat any veg or fruit as long as the locusts she eats are gut loaded?

I am paranoid that I need to get her to eat veg but I don't know how.

I have tried putting mealworms in the bowl with leaves so they wriggled. She ate a few bits of rocket by mistake but then had very bad poos with undigested worms in so I don't want to give them to her again.

Help please...


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## Dawson (Jun 8, 2008)

To answer your question I am not sure how serious it is if they only eat live food, but I do know that too much of certain live foods is bad for your beardies health.

I would agree with the pet shop that it is essential to gut load your insects before feeding them to your beardie, If the insects eat the veggies then in turn so is your beardie.

As for the undigested meal worms this has more than likely been caused by the lighting and heating problems that you have been having, once this is resolved your beardie will have a much better chance of digesting his food.

Does your beardie have a favorite live food? Mine love wax worms so I put them in with the veg so that he sees the veg moving and it is more appealing to him. After a while they do get wise to this and get better at just fishing out the worms but they still inadvertently get a mouthful of veg.

I would continue with this method, like you have been using mealworms with his veg, mix it up using meal worms, wax worms etc and eventually he should learn to go to the salad bowl.

You must be careful if using wax worms as these are very fatty and should only be used as treats and not as a staple.


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## sherylfuller (Jan 19, 2014)

Ok - I got really worried about the meal worms after her horrible poos. She loves wax worms and will eat them until I stop giving them!

I have read lots of things that say that meal worms are not too good because of the hard shell so I am still nervous to give them. How many and how often should be safe?

Thanks


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## Dawson (Jun 8, 2008)

I am not sure about meal worms as I don't get them very often as my wife refuses to go anywhere near them and I work shifts so sometimes she does the feeding.

As for wax worms I would only give a few a week as they are really fatty, I only use them as treats and don't use them every week.

Worms are best to put in with the veg because they wriggle around in there and catch the beardies attention so if you are wanting to use a worm that can be used more often you could try silkworms, phoenix worms or superworms.


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

Adult beardies eat mostly vegetable matter in the wild. Being fed just insects (which are high protein) can cause strain on the kidneys and shorten the life of the lizard.While they are growing they can use this high protein diet to grow fast. But excess protein is not good for them when they are adult. 

If you want your lizard to eat veg the first thing you have to do is to stop feeding it insects. let is get hungry. 

You are never going to get a child to more veg if you feed it chocolate pudding before dinner, and it is the same for beardies.


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

p.s. where do you buy the livefood ? Who benefits from that ? (Rhetorical questions)


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## dougal (Dec 2, 2009)

Has the previous poster said you basically need to make your beardy hungry cut the live food right down to a couple of crickets or locusts a day to keep the intake of supplements going and keep offering spring greens. Ours took about 6 months and is still really fussy but loves a bowl of spring greens, butternut squash and pak choi.

Where in Sussex are you from? Have you considered joining E.S.R.A.S?


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