# salad for bearded dragon HELP



## rex15 (Oct 27, 2015)

I've got a British baby leaf salad which contains baby red leaf, baby spinach and red chard. Is this safe for my beardie? Please help


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## jarich (Mar 23, 2012)

Safe, yes, but not something you should be using often. Red leaf is not that fantastic nutritionally, and both spinach and chard have pretty high oxalates. Its ok to use every once in awhile, but try to go more with things like mustard greens, dandelion greens, escarole, endive, etc. Again, variety is important.


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## rex15 (Oct 27, 2015)

Ok its a bag I got from Tesco so which bag would be best to get coz only other one at my local was just rocket would that be ok with pepper and pumpkin?


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## rex15 (Oct 27, 2015)

Will just rocket be ok to mix with veg and fruit?


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## Salazare Slytherin (Oct 21, 2009)

No you want a good mix of leafy greens to rotate around. 

Here is a list of greens you can consider feeding to your little scaley friend, you will find these with relative ease in most UK supermarkets. 

Spring Greens 
Rocket 
Water Cress 
Peashoots. 
Sweetheart cabbage. 
Carrot Tops. 
Raddish Tops. 
Romanine. lettuce
Little gem lettuce
Lambs leaf lettuce
Frisee lettuce (also known as endive) 
Escarole (bativian lettuce) 
Mustard Cress 
Texel greens. 
Chicory. 
Broccoli leaves 
Basil 
Mint 
Rosemary
Lemon balm
Sage 
Tarragon 
Tyme 
Oregano 
Pack Choi. 

Things like turnip greens, Amaranth, Alfalfa mustard greens can be grown with relative ease to add in more variety

Foods you can forage or collect. (personally I would aim to mix in around 3 of those per veggy feed) and one from the bottom depending. 

(dandelion leaves) 
Clover 
Ribworth plantain 
Round plantain 
Dead nettle 
Stinging nettle 
Sowthistle. 
Milkthistle
Cats ears
Purslane
Prickily thistle. 
Buddlia 
Hawthorn. 

Occasional greens (Once a week or less) 

Curly Kale 
Swiss Chard 
Spinach 
various other cabbage varieties. 
Cauliflower Leaves 
Squash shoots (save the seeds from your squash and plant them on a window sill in pots of soil) 

Good fruits 
Blackberries 
Figs
Papaya
Mango 
Prickily pear (lucky to find that in the summer months) 
Dates 

Good veggies
Parsnip
Okra
Butternut Squash 
Acorn Squash 
Turban Squash 
Carnival Squash. 
Sweet Potatoe 
Grated Carrot. 

Anything else just rotate in for a variety. 

That should give you a good idea. 
Aim to feed around five different foods per veggy mix. : victory:


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## Azastral (Jun 6, 2015)

Salazares veggie lists are pretty damn good and even if you only manage to get a handful of different ones every few weeks the variety is the key thing.

Consider getting yourself a set list of everyday veggies and then buying occational veggies that you vary as much as possible.

So something like Spring greens, butternut squash, rocket and pea shoots that you keep a constant supply and feed daily. 
(you can prep a weeks worth of these and put in a sealed container in the fridge, mist them lightly with water every other day)

Then with that you mix it up by getting regular/occational veggies like bell peppers, celery, lambs lettuce, cucumber, kale, brocoli etc that you can rotate throughout the week.

You can then add "treat" type things on a random basis like sliced apple, papaya, strawberries (no citrus fruit, or very very rarely and in very small amounts).

As a cheat, or short notice veggie bag from the shops Florette "crispy" is pretty much safe for regular feeds, i get this if i have a bad week in terms of work etc and i get caught out for a few days but DONT feed this constantly, it has a mix but its not a long term solution.
You really do want to mix the veggies about as much as possible, and it will give noticable results with your beardies where their nutrition is much better this way.


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## rex15 (Oct 27, 2015)

Its just I'm a new owner I recently rescued a 2 year old that has never been fed salads so I'm just introducing him to it at min , every morning I've been giving him bell pepper and cucumber and apple with dandelion greens and what I've mentioned b4 but took the spinach from what I've read about it n that was all I could get for the time being but there isn't any shops here that sell most of that.


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## Azastral (Jun 6, 2015)

rex15 said:


> Its just I'm a new owner I recently rescued a 2 year old that has never been fed salads so I'm just introducing him to it at min , every morning I've been giving him bell pepper and cucumber and apple with dandelion greens and what I've mentioned b4 but took the spinach from what I've read about it n that was all I could get for the time being but there isn't any shops here that sell most of that.



Morrisons, Tesco and Asda all sell Spring Greens, Butternut Squash, Rocket, Cucumber, Curly Kale, Bell Peppers 
Pea shoots i have seen in morrisons and asda and tesco too, often pre-bagged just dig through the veg/whole salad bags area.

The list i wrote up had nothing in it that isnt available easily, i know because i use supermarkets myself and even order from them online at times. Keep with the supply of dandelion greens (they love those too) but be careful how you source them. Too much cucumber can lead to runny poo i have found just where its almost pure water but its good for hydration every other day or so. Treat aple more like a treat food (same with any fruit for them) its kinda like a dessert really.

Getting your beardie used to veg is slightly different, try starting with butternut squash it tends to be a firm favourite (i think something to do with the orange/bright yellow colour and its a little bit sweet)
Also, putting veggies in first thing every day and making sure its there available all day and only feed insects in the afternoon and every other day. Do not over feed on insects, depending what you are using give set amounts dont just feed as many as it will eat.

Regulate their food and watch their weight, they are opportunist eaters and will binge on insects and then not eat the salad as they wont be hungry after.


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## rex15 (Oct 27, 2015)

*greens*

What about dandelion leaves is it best to grow them of pick them and wash or is there somewhere I can buy them?


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## rex15 (Oct 27, 2015)

I've recently rescued a 2 year old bearded dragon and the owner before me never fed him salads just locusts and I've tried every solution that I have read on here and none of them work. So every morning i give it him on a flat lid and stopped feeding him locust for a week now and still nothing. I've tried doing it with the worms as advised but still nothing. Do they need the salad if so can u help me


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## Azastral (Jun 6, 2015)

You can pick them but you need to be careful about where from, avoid places like sides of the road due to car emmissions, be careful of parks as these will likely be sprayed with chemicals if maintained by the council.

They grow all over the place so any fielda/parks that are only mown every few weeks not actively tendered. Very easy to grow but you will need to put the seeds in the fridge for a few weeks they seem to be triggered by the cold weather. Bag of compost or something and scatter the seeds on top, leave somewhere with good sunlight exposure in the garden for example.

You are trying to avoid things like petrol fumes and chemical treatments, so pick them somewhere thats had little chance of exposure or grow your own to be safe.

If very resistant to eating veggies you can withdraw insects altogether for several weeks so they end up eating the veggies out of hunger, but you need to be careful that the lizard is a good weight to start with and monitor its weight, you also have to be able to be strict enough that you dont give in and feed insects.


As well as this, locusts are not the best insect to feed as regular live feed, look at dubia roaches or crickets.
Locusts, morio worms, mealworms and regular "additional" type insects, so feed alongside the regularl live feed every other live feed or similar.

Waxworms are treat type feeds maybe once a month or two months.
A beardie that is raised badly will show issues like you are experiencing, poor diet, picky about what it will eat and stubborn to change.


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## Salazare Slytherin (Oct 21, 2009)

rex15 said:


> What about dandelion leaves is it best to grow them of pick them and wash or is there somewhere I can buy them?


You can collect them from the wild for free, just avoid road sides, and other peoples gardens.  

Feilds, Forests, parks, and even surrounding farm land you should be okay feeding, just give them a good rinse but honestly, even if there is bugs on them, highly improbable to hurt your dragon  

It is the same for the rest of listed foraged foods, if you are unsure of the identification of some, check out the tortoise care guides wild edible plant charts. If they can eat it, your dragon definitely can


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## Creed (Apr 2, 2014)

I tend to use this website: Plant Food for Tortoises - The Tortoise table I would recommend getting either a book about plant determination or using an app. There are dozens of species that you're able to feed, you only need to recognize them.

Books tend to work better than most apps (at least the ones I'm familiar with), but you should be able to determinate most plants without much problems either way.


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