hi looked at geting a bearded dragon but not to keen on feeding live food is there an alternative?

Question

trying research before i make a desision to buy a bearded dragon.my kids love them as do i but none of us like the idea of feeding it live food is there any dry food available or any other ideas,thanks

Answer 1

Not any that would keep your bearded dragon as healthy as it recommended diet. I suggest not getting any animal that you are uncomfortable withs diet.

Answer 2

Most smaller lizards wont react to food that is not moving. Also, some frozen/dehydrated food sources will lose nutrients over time or processing. My advice is to get a small aquarium with crickets. Put cardboard egg holders and things like that for them to hide in. Put indoor/outdoor carpet along the bottom. Now put the crickets in. Feed them dog/cat food and fresh fruit and veggies. Oranges are great. Put a jar lid or similar with a sponge in it filled with water so the crickets can drink and not drown. Change this often. Keep in mind, the better the crickets eat, the more nutrients your lizard will recieve. When it comes time to feed your lizard, pick up a section of egg cardboard and transfer it into the habitat. Your lizard will be able to eat the crickets, you wont have to watch. Come back later and put the egg board back in the main cricket cage. The reason for this method is 3-fold. 1) Your crickets can get gut loaded by eating good food (gut loading is where you feed something a food that you want the thing eating it to benefit from) 2) Your crickets can breed, saving you money! 3) When your lizard isnt hungry, you wont have to worry about full grown crickets trying to bite HIM! Dont be concerned with the crickets biting you or anything like that. They are pretty harmless. If you are creeped out by handling bugs, have someone else do it for you, at least twice a week.

Answer 3

Do not buy a reptile if you are uncomfortable with it's natural diet, and you would rather make IT uncomfortable by changing it's diet for your pleasure and convenience. And if you are new to reptiles, a bearded dragon is not something for beginners. I suggest geckos or an anole first. But reptiles are not suitable for pre-teen children either in my opinion.

Canned, processed, or dried commercially manufactured foods ( like pellets, freeze dried worms and crickets ) are inferior, unhealthy, and are for the lazy reptile keepers who are looking for shortcuts. Stay away from them. They are just as bad for your herp as McDonalds is for your kids, and for many of the same reasons.

Answer 4

No, no, no, no, no.

The dry pellets they market for bearded dragons are meant to SUPPLEMENT a live diet. NO REPTILE can survive without live, fresh foods. You would have a very sickly creature that would eventually die from malnutrition.

If you can't stomach feeding live insects or rodents, a reptile is not for you. Get a hamster or a parakeet instead.

Answer 5

Short and sweet they need their protein/live feeders. If your to worried just get a full grown adult dragon. They'll eat 80% veges and 20% protein. You can feed superworms as a protein intake and you wont need that many to sustain em.

They still need live food however, there are substitutes but the arent nearly as good or healthy for them.

Answer 6

there are canned feeder insects ou can buy i forget the name of the brand but they are farm raised insects that are cooked inside of cans you might have to use a shakey food dish to get you dragon to eat it or start while the dragon is very young

Answer 7

bearded dragon can be fed fruits and veggies. That's all that I feed mine and I've had it for 4 years.

Answer 8

no they need their insects. there is no way to get around that.

Answer 9

NO