Valley Dragons
New member
Hi guys. I was wondering if anyone has heard of any studies done on the long-term results of feeding bearded dragons a diet mainly consisting of commercial foods (pellets). The only answers I seem to get are the typical, "well, I would not recommend it because.....uh, just because." Now I realize that natural foods - greens, veggies, insects, etc. contain many micro-nutrients that cannot easliy be re-created in a lab and put into a processed food - BUT - there are millions of dogs, cats, ferrets, and other animals that lead long, healthy lives on a commercial diet. So it seems totally feasible to me that a bearded dragon could live a healthy life on a man-made diet. I am not sure if any of the formulas available today would be right for optimal health. But, I would still like to hear from anyone who has actually used pellets as a main food source, and how your dragons seemed to fare on it - growth rates, health, weight, longevity, and what kind of pellets you used. I am playing with he idea of creating my own formula. I think that it would be awesome to develop a truly nutritious commerical food source for bearded dragons to replace the hassle of insects (I say this as a couple escaped crickets run by my feet, lol). I wonder if any nutrtional analysis has ever been done on the native Australian insects and plants that the beardies eat...So anyway, I would appreciate any thoughts, ideas, or experiences that anyone has to offer!
Jamie
Jamie
