Food Menu

I thought that it would be a good idea and see if anyone wanted to contribute a list of foods that they offer to their dragons. It seems that a lot of times when you look at the "care sheet" for dragons they all involve the same thing. I was wondering if anyone who breeds dragons or have a large number of dragons wanted to give advice like when they have a preg-o female what they do for food and what works best to keep the weight up or maybe even what people do as far as worms, roaches, salads mixed in the daily feeding. Just seeing if people have some tips on what to do to help keep dragons nice and plump to help save some money, we all have different ways of feeding so just wanted to see if anyone wanted to share.

Thanks for your time!!

Brad

My dragons LOVE mulberry leaves from my tree [ remove the spine on the big leaves and just shred the leaves by hand, even the babies love them ] They also love the clover from my yard. There are 2 types of clover in my yard, the type they like bears the small pinkish-white flower in the spring/ summer. They also like 2 types of flower that I have in my yard, impatiens and hibiscus. My dragons will also eat earthworms.

I should have mentioned the beardies like the green leaf of the clover, not the flower. It's the short, dark green type, not the tall leggy type.

Nice, Thanks Angie for the input!!

I like taking mustard greens, and taking a small scoop of the Rapashy gecko diet and shaking it together for them.. just a random thing i began doing lately...

Each week I alternate red leaf lettuce and green leaf lettuce with shredded carrots and sometimes some (painstakingly) chopped blueberries. I usually feed crickets of course, every now and then meal worms to the adults and phoenix worms. The veggies are always chopped finely and mixed for my babies or sliced to half inch-inch long pieces and mixed for my adults. The blueberries are just treats every now and then when my beardies are not so fast on their greens. My male is tempermental about his greens, sometimes he eats them and sometimes he doesn't, when I add the blueberries he is more likely to eat all his greens. I used to add apple peels, never anything more than that from an apple because anything too close to the core my poison your beardie. The red color also attracts my beardies to their greens when they are being snobs about their greens. LOL!! I've tried mustard and collard greens but my breeders won't eat them even mixed with others, they are very picky. I can't get Bok Choy here so I haven't been able to mix that in with their salad. Every now and then I used to mince fresh strawberries into their salad as well. Again, Duke is a very picky eater when it comes to his greens. What I add is usually dependent on the growing season. My dad feeds his frozen mixed greens from the grocery store. I stay far away from spinach. Too much and the iron supposedly blocks calcium absorbtion so I'd rather be safe then sorry. That and when I did mix in spinach Duke wouldn't eat it either so I threw my hands up at spinach altogether. I can't get waxworms, butterworms, or superworms without ordering online so I haven't fed my dragons any of that, but as a breeder in cali they took to them quickly. My dragons did like diced bell pepper when i mixed it in and there were never any leftovers, i usually went for the brighter colors since Duke has already shown his preference for red colored food. Lucy my female will eat anything I give her and Solair is showing the same picky habits as Duke. Really whatever I can get I will try on my dragons and see what they like best and what is healthy for them.

Good thread!

One of my dragons became ill and lost a lot of weight. I've gotten all the weight back on and then some. They seem to really like the fat super worms from my colony. Big roaches too.

sagespyder, it's interesting that you mention the bit about red being in the salad. Mine two beardies won't eat the salad if it's just green.

I'll also have to try the CGD in the salad. They really don't like it when I put vitamins or calcium in the salad so I try to just leave it alone.

[quote=jfreels;1102125]
sagespyder, it's interesting that you mention the bit about red being in the salad. Mine two beardies won't eat the salad if it's just green. QUOTE]

I get lucky once in a while and mine will eat just the greens but they tend to like color in the greens.........Good stuff!

Originally Posted by jfreels

They really don't like it when I put vitamins or calcium in the salad so I try to just leave it alone.

I usually only dust the crickets and mealworms and leave the salad alone. Also when I have extra money i order a lot of phoenix worms. The site says that they have a 1.5 ratio of calcium to phosphorus which is ideal for reptiles. Because they wriggle a lot my dragons go crazy for them.

Also I am not really surprised that adding extra color to the salad triggers a feeding response, after all would you have a plain salad or do you want all the extras on it?

I alternate between what i feed everyday, so there can be any of the following in there diet...
Romaine, Green Leaf, Red Leaf, Spinach, Hibiscus leaves and flowers, Yellow Trumpet Flower, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Carrot, Sweet Potato, Tomato, Blueberries, Grapes, Blackberries, Raspberries, Strawberry, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Crickets, Mealworms, Superworms, Calci Worms, Butterworms (only once a week), and a pinkie here and there