Salad vs bugs

[Cch9413]

My dragon is about 9 months old now and eats almost everything I put in front of him and I was wondering at this age what the ratio of salad vs bugs should be.
The greens are a mixture of collard greens, arugula, endive, bok choy, Swiss chard, kale, parsley and red leaf lettuce.
The bugs are hornworms, silkworms, crickets and waxworms.
I fill up his salad bowl 3x daily and he almost always eats it all and I hand feed him the bugs, he must eat 10-15 at a time about twice a day.

 

[Skybug]

A dragon isnt fully grown till around their second year, id be doing maybe 50/50 right now, (some bearded dragons take easily to veg than others)(all i can get mine to eat is an occasional flower and a bite of something)(i heavily gut load my bugs as a result) if i can recommend to you cutting out one of ur bugs, the wax worms are almost pure fat, he gets enough fat from the supers, hornworms, silkies, you want hard chitinous bugs like roaches, super worm beetles, these actually help clean your bearded dragons teeth (along with veggies that have hairs) I understand roaches are gross, but dubias and discoids DO NOT infest homes, they take months to breed, and are actually really clean bugs, at least compared to crickets.

 

[Jrodkw]

A dragon isnt fully grown till around their second year, id be doing maybe 50/50 right now, (some bearded dragons take easily to veg than others)(all i can get mine to eat is an occasional flower and a bite of something)(i heavily gut load my bugs as a result) if i can recommend to you cutting out one of ur bugs, the wax worms are almost pure fat, he gets enough fat from the supers, hornworms, silkies, you want hard chitinous bugs like roaches, super worm beetles, these actually help clean your bearded dragons teeth (along with veggies that have hairs) I understand roaches are gross, but dubias and discoids DO NOT infest homes, they take months to breed, and are actually really clean bugs, at least compared to crickets.

Dubias live waaaay longer than crickets too.

 

[Sadie]

My dragon is about 9 months old now and eats almost everything I put in front of him and I was wondering at this age what the ratio of salad vs bugs should be.
The greens are a mixture of collard greens, arugula, endive, bok choy, Swiss chard, kale, parsley and red leaf lettuce.
The bugs are hornworms, silkworms, crickets and waxworms.
I fill up his salad bowl 3x daily and he almost always eats it all and I hand feed him the bugs, he must eat 10-15 at a time about twice a day.

For a juvenile his ratio should be 80% insects and 20% salad--- but if hes eating alot of salad thats good -- insects will put weight on them so its good hes more salads - feed the waxworms sparingly -- they are fatty and too many and too often can lead to liver damage --

 

[Dragon1129]

My dragon is about 9 months old now and eats almost everything I put in front of him and I was wondering at this age what the ratio of salad vs bugs should be.
The greens are a mixture of collard greens, arugula, endive, bok choy, Swiss chard, kale, parsley and red leaf lettuce.
The bugs are hornworms, silkworms, crickets and waxworms.
I fill up his salad bowl 3x daily and he almost always eats it all and I hand feed him the bugs, he must eat 10-15 at a time about twice a day.

Hi
I am just sitting here amazed and so about your dragon will eat his salads regularly at 9 months old! Honestly, my girl (she is 10.5 years old now) did not even come around to trying a salad and even thing it’s was not steady. INSTERSTING thought - I have recently read that Swiss Chard was not a good green to use ... which for so many years I was told / had heard it was! But every resource I do to knows says Swiss Chard is a no go anymore. But good for you for using the collards, arugula and bok choy and endive - those are great. My 10 year became 100% set in. WCollards and Mustards only - but hey - I’ll take it! She truly didn’t eat those regularly until about 2 years old. I believe the ratie is 80% proteins / 20% green until full adult (around 1.5 years) and that just switched over /flips to 80% greens / 20% greens. I personally feel if you can get a 50/50 intake - that’s great - to ensure both are going in the body and getting what they need. And the fact that he’s only 9 months and is interested in it already eating itnt - bravo to you AND him! It truly seems like your guy is getting a plethora of diverse greens and diverse proteins/live feeders. The only this I would add is to limit kale - use it sparingly for the calcium issue - as well as the red lettuces. But if he’s happily eating The bok, colllards, endive and arugula are super efficient and spot on. You have a nice balance of proteins there - so that looks great.

 

[Cch9413]

Hi
I am just sitting here amazed and so about your dragon will eat his salads regularly at 9 months old! Honestly, my girl (she is 10.5 years old now) did not even come around to trying a salad and even thing it’s was not steady. INSTERSTING thought - I have recently read that Swiss Chard was not a good green to use ... which for so many years I was told / had heard it was! But every resource I do to knows says Swiss Chard is a no go anymore. But good for you for using the collards, arugula and bok choy and endive - those are great. My 10 year became 100% set in. WCollards and Mustards only - but hey - I’ll take it! She truly didn’t eat those regularly until about 2 years old. I believe the ratie is 80% proteins / 20% green until full adult (around 1.5 years) and that just switched over /flips to 80% greens / 20% greens. I personally feel if you can get a 50/50 intake - that’s great - to ensure both are going in the body and getting what they need. And the fact that he’s only 9 months and is interested in it already eating itnt - bravo to you AND him! It truly seems like your guy is getting a plethora of diverse greens and diverse proteins/live feeders. The only this I would add is to limit kale - use it sparingly for the calcium issue - as well as the red lettuces. But if he’s happily eating The bok, colllards, endive and arugula are super efficient and spot on. You have a nice balance of proteins there - so that looks great.

I was not aware of the Swiss chard! Thank you for letting me know. I am aware that kale and red lettuce are less beneficial so he doesn’t get those sparingly. He just likes variety. Yeah, so he wasn’t always interested in greens, he became gravely ill about 2 months ago, he was impacted and days away from his death bed. I did everything I could possibly think of to help him and he didn’t eat for 9 days straight. Once he passed the blockage, which turned out to be from mealworms (I know!! I am learning as I go, my kids brought these lizards home and I was winging it. When he got sick I started reading up on everything bearded dragons and joined this forum) anyway, he started feeling better but doesn’t seem to see very well so wasn’t able to catch bugs so I started hand feeding him the bugs otherwise he wouldn’t eat. I moved him to a larger enclosure and put some artificial leaves up and saw him try to eat them. He hardly ate the greens out of his bowl so I tried buying the fresh batches of bok choy and endive and putting a whole branch in to mimic the fake leaf branches he tried to eat and it worked. He liked eating the leaves off of the bigger branches, so I slowly started moving it closer to his bowl and after a few days started breaking it up into his bowl and now he is a savage. He loves his greens.

 

[Sadie]

I was not aware of the Swiss chard! Thank you for letting me know. I am aware that kale and red lettuce are less beneficial so he doesn’t get those sparingly. He just likes variety. Yeah, so he wasn’t always interested in greens, he became gravely ill about 2 months ago, he was impacted and days away from his death bed. I did everything I could possibly think of to help him and he didn’t eat for 9 days straight. Once he passed the blockage, which turned out to be from mealworms (I know!! I am learning as I go, my kids brought these lizards home and I was winging it. When he got sick I started reading up on everything bearded dragons and joined this forum) anyway, he started feeling better but doesn’t seem to see very well so wasn’t able to catch bugs so I started hand feeding him the bugs otherwise he wouldn’t eat. I moved him to a larger enclosure and put some artificial leaves up and saw him try to eat them. He hardly ate the greens out of his bowl so I tried buying the fresh batches of bok choy and endive and putting a whole branch in to mimic the fake leaf branches he tried to eat and it worked. He liked eating the leaves off of the bigger branches, so I slowly started moving it closer to his bowl and after a few days started breaking it up into his bowl and now he is a savage. He loves his greens.

Kale is a great staple feeder in fact it's better than collards- the red lettuce not so much- it's great he's those greens tho

 

[mybeardieandme3in1]

My dragon is about 9 months old now and eats almost everything I put in front of him and I was wondering at this age what the ratio of salad vs bugs should be.
The greens are a mixture of collard greens, arugula, endive, bok choy, Swiss chard, kale, parsley and red leaf lettuce.
The bugs are hornworms, silkworms, crickets and waxworms.
I fill up his salad bowl 3x daily and he almost always eats it all and I hand feed him the bugs, he must eat 10-15 at a time about twice a day.

Salad 70% and bugs 30%