If you have read our bearded dragon diet guide, you know that bearded dragon’s diet should consist of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and feeder insects. While younger bearded dragons should eat more feeder insects such as crickets, this changes with age. In this post, we will discuss reasons why your bearded dragon is not eating salad/vegetables and what you can do to solve this problem.
How much salad/veggies and fruits should bearded dragons eat?
- Hatchling and baby bearded dragons (0-4 months old) should eat less salads and greens than insects – around 20-40% vegetables and greens and 60-80% feeder insects.
- Juvenile bearded dragons and sub-adults (4-7 months, and then 7-18 months old) should consume 50% of greens and 50% of feeder insects.
- Adult bearded dragons (18 months old and over) should eat 70-85% vegetables and greens, and 15-30% feeder insects.
Fruits should not make more than 10% of the overall diet (treat once a week). Don’t forget that your bearded dragon can also eat different flowers, such as dandelions, hibiscus, nasturtiums and many more. Read this post to find out the best staple greens, vegetables and flowers for your bearded dragon.
So as you can see, the role of veggies in bearded dragon’s life is crucial, especially as it matures.
How many times a day should you feed your bearded dragon?
- Hatchlings and baby bearded dragons (0-4 months old) – insects 2-3 times a day + bowl of salad in the tank at all times. Offer as many insects, such as crickets, as your bearded dragon can eat in 15 minutes.
- Juvenile bearded dragons (4-7 months old) – insects 2 times a day + salad in a bowl at all times in the tank.
- Sub-adult bearded dragons (7-18 months old) – insects once a day or every other day + salad other days (such as insects 3 days a week and salad 4 days a week). Gradually move to 3 days a week with insects.
- Adult bearded dragons (18 months and over) – insects 2 times a week, salad 5 times a week. Or you can even feed insects 2 times a week, salad 3 times a week, and two days – feed nothing.
The best time to feed your bearded dragon is in the morning. If you need to feed twice or three times, create equal gaps between feedings. The last meal should be 2-4 hours before your bearded dragon goes to sleep.
Why is my bearded dragon not eating salad and vegetables?
- Your bearded dragon got used to eating insects only, at a young age.
- You are offering too many feeder insects and only little salad.
- Your bearded dragon doesn’t understand what salad is.
- Bearded dragon doesn’t like the taste of specific vegetables.
Problem number 1: Your bearded dragon got used to eating insects only at a young age.
As we have mentioned, bearded dragons at a young age only need around 20-40% of vegetables in the diet. From 0 to 4 months old, your bearded dragon will mainly eat crickets and other feeder insects that you offer.
Leave a salad bowl with some finely chopped staple greens in the tank at all times. This will allow your bearded dragon to see vegetables and familiarize with them. And even though your baby bearded dragon is very unlikely to eat a lot of them, something still counts.
Place the bowl with salad early in the morning, before you offer insects, so your dragon is slightly forced into trying veggies. Wait for some time before offering a normal meal of insects. Also, start offering vegetables on your hand as your dragon becomes more familiar with you.
As your bearded dragon matures, you will need to offer less insects and more salads. Start working on this more seriously when your bearded dragon turns around 5 months old, so you can train it to eat vegetables by the time it’s an adult.
Remember, if you don’t offer vegetables and greens from a young age, your dragon will refuse any greens later in life and will only eat bugs.
Problem number 2: You are offering too many feeder insects and only little salad.
Another problem is when you feed your bearded dragon mainly feeder insects, and only little salad. As your bearded dragon grows older, salad portions (or at least what your dragon eats) should increase.
Some owners make a mistake by not increasing amount of salad that their dragon eats. It’s fine when a baby eats few pieces a day, but amounts need to increase with age. Not only frequencies should increase, but also portions of salads. Refer to the points above on how many days a week you need to offer salad.
Problem number 3: Your bearded dragon doesn’t understand what salad is.
Another problem that is also caused if you don’t offer salads from the beginning. If you suddenly offer your dragon salads at the age of 5 months, it won’t know what salad is and will refuse it.
You will need to train your bearded dragon to eat veg and greens gradually by using some tricks. We will discuss them below.
Problem number 4: Bearded dragon doesn’t like the taste of specific vegetables.
Your bearded dragon might not like the taste of specific veggies, and this is often because of what you have offered in the past. Most bearded dragons develop their taste by adulthood. Many bearded dragons refuse trying new salad and greens.
Same is with bugs – bearded dragons often have their favorite feeder insects. If you want your bearded dragon to eat specific vegetables, you will need to train it.
Start offering new staple greens and flowers, to see if your bearded dragon likes them. Maybe veggies that you are offering now are not its favorites.
How to train your dragon to start eating vegetables and greens?
- Start training as soon as possible
- Mix the vegetables, greens and flowers with some fruits
- Offer new interesting salads and flowers
- Hide its favorite treats under the salad
- Add insects in the salad bowl
- Offer food when your bearded dragon is more hungry
- Place few pieces of veggies in the basking area
- Offer some vegetables on a paper towel
- Place small pieces of vegetables inside dragon’s mouth
Way number 1: Start your training as soon as you have found out that your bearded dragon is refusing to eat salad. If your bearded dragon is still very young, you can offer veggies and flowers by hand. Also, have the salad bowl in the tank at all times (clean at the end of the day).
Way number 2: One of the best methods that helps train your bearded dragon to eat vegetables is to mix some fruits with salad. Add some blackberries, figs, prickly pear, strawberries, apples and some other fruits to the salad.
Don’t add too many pieces, just few, and try to place most of them under the salad. This way, it can eat more salad before finally getting to the fruit.
Way number 3: What is more, offering a variety of new staple vegetables, greens and flowers will help your bearded dragon develop a new taste.
Don’t offer too many fruits (only a very small portion once a week). You will also find out its favorite greens. Find a list of staple fruits, greens, veggies and flowers in this post.
Way number 4: Another method that really helps with training is to hide your dragon’s favorite treats under the salad. Make sure your bearded dragon can see your putting the treats under the salad. It will also smell it, and will eat the salad to get to the bottom of the bowl to reach the treats.
Way number 5: What is more, you can add your dragon’s favorite insects on top of the salad. Keep adding them one by one, so that your dragon eats few pieces of vegetables with each insect.
Your dragon will miss the bug, and will eat some of the salad, too. If it’s not helping, you can add some new bugs, such as hornworms or Phoenix worms and place them under the salad.
You can even place the bug in the salad, and when your dragon flick its tongue to get it, quickly throw a piece of salad in front of it!
Way number 6: Waiting a bit longer for your bearded dragon to become more hungry can help you train it, too.
When your bearded dragon is more hungry, it will be forced to eat what you are offering. It will also show more interest in other foods. Don’t starve your dragon, but wait a little longer past its normal meal time.
Way number 7: You can place few small pieces of vegetables in the basking area. This is because bearded dragons often lick this area, so it’s very likely to eat the veggies. If your dragon tends to lick another spot, you can place the veggies there.
Way number 8: If you place some vegetables on the paper towel and present it to your bearded dragon, it’s likely to eat them. This is because bearded dragons become interested in the contrast of white and green or other color vegetables and fruits.
Keep adding vegetables gradually, and when your bearded dragon is eating vegetables, remove the paper towel and feed from a salad bowl.
Way number 9: If nothing is working and your bearded dragon is still not eating any vegetables, you can try few other things. Try to chop the greens in small pieces and place them one by one inside of dragon’s lip, on the side of its jaw. This way your dragon is very likely to eat the pieces. Feed like this one by one.
With training, your bearded dragon will understand that vegetables and greens are also food. Be patient and try offering a range of staple foods to encourage your dragon to eat more vegetables as it grows older.
If your bearded dragon is not eating any vegetables or greens, you can offer it commercial foods that contain fiber, protein, carbohydrates and usually greens and some insects.
This omnivore mix, for example, has both veggies and insects and you need to add water to it before feeding. You can also try buffet blend, but make sure to provide water because pellets are usually low in water. Don’t feed pelleted foods on their own for a long time. Instead, use for training and treats.