Introduction
How many crickets should I feed a bearded dragon (adults & babies)? What insects can bearded dragons eat? Well, these cute little reptiles can eat a wide variety of living organisms, such as crickets, mealworms, and king worms. They also eat various kinds of fruits.
In the wild, bearded dragons mainly eat insects, such as crickets, cockroaches, and worms, making up at least 75% of their diet. Therefore, your beardie should replicate what he or she would eat in the wild. It should include weeds, greens, meat, and fruits. So, for our topic today, we will discuss how much and how often we can feed our bearded dragons. We should always remember that the right diet plays a crucial part in their lives, as does the correct habitat setup.
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What Is the Best Baby Bearded Dragon Feeding Schedule?
Baby bearded dragons can grow very quickly if they consume lots of protein every day. Therefore, planning and following a strict different feeding plan is a must. Based on our research, the correct protein ratio should be 75/25, meaning you should feed your lizard with 75% insects or crickets (protein) and 25% plants every day. However, owners should feed their reptiles crickets for the first two months throughout the day.
To be exact, you can start with two crickets every 15 minutes when your beardie is at the hatchling stage. You can feed them less often as they grow, at least three times a day.
Moreover, make sure to cut up all vegetables and greens into bite-sized pieces before giving them to your baby bearded dragon. Pieces should be smaller than the distance between the beardie’s eyes.
Here’s a sample feeding schedule for your baby bearded dragon.
- Day 1 AM
- Ten crickets
- Two kale leaves
- One small pumpkin slice
- One blueberry
- Day 1 Noon
- Ten dubia roaches
- Two small collard greens
- One small squash slice
- One peach slice
- Day 1 PM
- Ten crickets
- Two small kale leaves
- One small pumpkin slice
- Day 2 AM
- Ten dubia roaches
- Two small kale leaves
- One pumpkin slice
- One blueberry
- Day 2 Noon
- Ten crickets
- Two small collard greens
- One squash slice
- One peach slice
- Day 2 PM
- Ten dubia roaches
- Two small dandelion greens
- One bell pepper slice
- One strawberry
What Is the Best Adult Bearded Dragon Feeding Schedule?
You can feed your adult bearded dragon a maximum of once a day. You can split 75% for vegetables and fruits and 25% for crickets and other vertebrates. This ratio is good enough to provide enrichment and keep them interested in their everyday food.
We highly suggest live crickets for baby and adult bearded dragons since they stimulate our pets. Usually, 500 crickets only cost about five pounds, which is affordable for most owners. Besides that, they are all available online or in pet shops.
Here is a sample feeding schedule for your adult bearded dragon.
- Day 1
- Five crickets
- Five dubia roaches
- Two kale leaves
- Two sweet potato pieces
- Two bell pepper pieces
- Three blueberries
- One strawberry
- Day 2
- Two dandelion greens
- 2 Bok choy
- Two baby carrots
- Two pumpkin pieces
- Two peaches sliced
What Are the Best Crickets for Bearded Dragons?
Currently, bearded dragons can eat over 900 species of crickets. However, here are the best five that you should give to your cute little reptile.
- House crickets or brown crickets (Acheta domestica)
- Tropical house cricket (Gryllodes sigillatus, also known as banded crickets or Indian house crickets)
- Two-spotted cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus, also known as African or Mediterranean Field crickets)
- Jamaican crickets (Gryllus assimilis)
All crickets listed above provide the best nutritional content for our beardies, especially iron, protein, and calcium (try this calcium powder with vitamin D). They also have softer exoskeletons than dubia roaches, making them suitable for baby beardies.
Besides that, we found out that the crickets listed are very effective gut load, making it easier to provide our pets with essential nutrients and vitamins.
How Many Crickets Should I Feed a Bearded Dragon? (Adults & Babies)
For Babies
We can feed baby bearded dragons to almost 60-80 crickets per day. However, we should only feed them three to five times a day. Since our baby beardies don’t have developed bites, they need softer insects for easier digestion. Plus, they don’t have good hunting skills yet, so that small crickets would be better.
For Adults
Adult bearded dragons can only eat a maximum of ten crickets per day. Why? Because adult beardies need only 20% of protein every day. If you want to give yours some daily treats, fruits can be an excellent choice.
You can feed your adult beardie five crickets per feeding session twice daily. Always remember that bearded dragons need less protein as they grow, especially once they stop growing. It is because their metabolism can slow down. Hence, we need to transition to vegetables and fruits rich in fiber and moisture.
Tip: Give your beardie this multivitamin supplement for a stronger immune system.
Can You Feed a Bearded Dragon Dead Crickets?
Yes and no. Why? Yes, if the purposely dead crickets are freeze-dried, frozen, or canned crickets. These are still safe to eat, especially if you don’t want to handle live crickets. However, it would be best not to give your pets any dead cricket found elsewhere since we are unsure of the loss of life’s cause, which could affect your dragon.
Conclusion
At first glance, a bearded dragon’s diet can seem challenging, especially because these lizards are omnivores. Besides that, juveniles and babies should have different diets than adult beardies. We always remind our readers that changing a bearded dragon’s diet is crucial as they grow.
Fortunately, these reptiles are not very picky eaters. They are very agile and know how to hunt live prey in the wild. In case you didn’t know, these bearded dragons can crush crickets and mealworms with their powerful jaws every day. However, adult beardies should be fed in captivity at least once a day.
How many crickets should I feed a bearded dragon (adults & babies)? When it comes to juveniles, they require more protein to grow rapidly, meaning you should feed them at least three times a day. Plus, they should eat more insects and crickets than adults. Many bearded dragon owners said that hatchlings should eat crickets constantly.
