Can bearded dragons eat blueberries?? I am a fruit addict. I always have leftover fruit in the fridge and I have other reptile owners always asking me what their bearded dragons can eat
If you have some leftover blueberries and you’re wondering “can my bearded dragon eat blueberries” you’ve come to the right place.
Can Bearded dragons eat blueberries
I made another full post on what can bearded dragons eat and it will be linked here for you
Blueberries are absolutely safe for your bearded dragon to eat! Just like these foods as well
- mangos
- strawberries
- Peaches
- grapes
- bananas
and much more
Blueberries are probably the most delicious fruit (in my opinion)
My Bearded Dragon LOVES blueberries
If it was up to him he would be eating them every hour of the day
Let’s talk about why your bearded dragon should be eating blueberries
Why Your bearded dragon should eat blueberries
Blueberries are full of great stuff. All these points apply to humans too! Here is a list of what blueberries do for your beardie
- Full of healthy carbs which provide energy for your beardie
- Helps with blood pressure
- Bone strength
- Diabetes control
- helps with Cancer prevention
- They also help with mental health
- Blueberries contain a ton of water too which helps with hydration
There is something inside blueberries called flavenoids. That flavenoid is called anthocyanin which is what gives it the blue color
They are technically an antioxidant that is going to fight cancer and keep your beardie healthy
The vitamin C content in blueberries is sky-high. A couple of blueberries and your beardie has a ton of vitamin C to work with for the day
Vitamin K1 is also contained in blueberries which helps with blood, bone, and heart health
Why Bearded dragons Can’t have blueberries all the time
Bearded Dragons need to avoid lots of sugar. They are much smaller than humans (obviously) and can’t have too much sugar.
Too much sugar will cause issues with their digestive tract and inflammation.
Remember that sugar is a carbohydrate really. Carbs are energy and if that energy is not burned off it will be stored.
Bearded dragons in the wild are constantly burning off this energy by running from predators, running after prey etc
Bearded dragons that are in captivity don’t really move around too much
unburned energy will be stored and if its too much it can cause issues to the body
Blueberries contain quite a bit of sugar so you must restrict the amount of blueberries they intake
Its totally fine on occasion but you should give them quite a bit of time away from fruits in general
Calcium and phosphorus
Bearded dragons need calcium in order to thrive and be healthy along with vitamin D
These two things together help with bone development and sustainability in your beardie
There are certain foods that take away from your bearded dragons bone health and those two things are oxalates and high levels of phosphorus
phosphorus isn’t totally a bad thing but when its too high it will stop your bearded dragon from being able to absorb calcium properly. Same thing goes with oxalates
This causes a massive problem over the long run called Metabolic bone disease (MBD for short)
Metabolic bone disease is nasty and can really affect your bearded dragons quality of life
i left a link for you to check out so you can learn all about it
A little amount of phosphorus is no problem. Its when its prolonged is the issue
What i do is i have a week every single month where my bearded dragon will be able to eat fruit a few times during that week
Then i will cut them off of fruit for about 2-4 weeks and only feed them vegetables and calcium dusted protein (insects that are gut loaded too)
That way they are able to get lots of calcium into their bloodstream
Now sometimes if you overdo it your bearded dragon can get yellow poop or green poop
Yellow poop means there is too much calcium and green poop usually comes from the vegetable contents
The color of your bearded dragon’s poop will tell you a lot about their health and brown firm poop is what you’re looking for
The best way to give bearded dragons blueberries
This video will show you how crazy beardies go for blueberries
What new owners usually think is that you should give it to them thawed out which is what i do
it makes it easier for them to eat and it is how they would eat it if they were in the wild
always try to mimic how they would eat things in the wild
I usually just thaw them out
The only concern I have is that they have organic food
This is what I eat myself and I feed my beardie the best food available
I still wash the fruit when I bring it home and see if anything is inside the containers they come in but 99 percent of the time everything is good
Blueberries are small so you don’t have to slice them. As you can see in the video above they gobble them right up
If you’re going to put them in the enclosure just remember that the tank is hot and the fruit will rot quickly
Never leave rotting food in the tank with them. It’s just a bad idea
typically at the end of the night I will do a quick 5 minute clean and get rid of any poop that might be there and any rotten food
How many blueberries can my bearded dragon eat at a time?
I only feed my beardie about a handful at a time
They will eat as much as you can give them but again blueberries have too much sugar and water
Conclusion
Don’t overthink fruit really
just know you can’t feed them fruit too often because of the phosphorus and calcium requirements
phosphorus will bind to the calcium stopping it from absorbing correctly
Once in a while is fine and make sure you stick to a schedule
i feed my bearded dragons like this
- 60% vegetables
- 30% protein
- 10 percent fruit during fruit weeks
sometimes more fruit or less but honestly they will be OK if take time from fruit and give them lots of calcium
