Live Food for Bearded Dragons: Top 5 Picks

Bearded dragons are the most popular pet lizard in the UK.

They are a brilliant choice for new and experienced keepers alike, as their care covers a lot of the ground needed to keep more sensitive species, but they are also extremely resilient and have a great character. 

Part of keeping a bearded dragon happy and healthy is the live food portion of their diet. Though it is common knowledge that dragons love their live food, a lot of people don’t understand that not all live foods are as good for your dragon.

Here are our top 5 and how often they can be offered.

1. Brown Crickets

Brown crickets are the staple of many insectivorous and omnivorous reptile diets. Not only are they very nutritious and easy to digest, but they are also quite cheap and easy to find.

This is the bread and butter live food and should be present in all reptile or exotic pet shops you might visit. We have chosen the brown over black crickets, as they tend to be a little less noisy and aggressive.

If your dragon is having a hard time hunting them or just isn’t interested, black crickets would be a great alternative. The only potential downside to live crickets as bearded dragon food would be that they can burrow under food dishes and water bowls, so it is best to check before adding more.

2. Locust

Locusts are a much more active and colourful prey for your dragon. They almost have as much nutritional value as crickets but are not quite as easy to find and not quite as cost-effective. 

Normally, these will be bigger than the crickets you normally offer the dragon, so generally only put a half dozen in at a time. The bright yellow and black colouration makes them very easy to spot, and the fact that they leap around a lot makes them very easy to notice.

We normally use these if the dragon is having trouble finding its crickets or has been off its food for a little while. As they are less numerous, locusts can be easier to store and handle, so if these work out better for you, by all means, use them as the main live food for your adult bearded dragon or juvenile bearded dragon's diet.

3. Waxworms

Waxworms are a small, pale and silky larvae that we often use as a treat for our dragons. They aren’t very big and are very easy to digest, so we will also use them if we have dragons looking a little skinny or older bearded dragons struggling to eat their normal diet.

They have a really high-fat content, which makes them a good recovery food but not a great staple diet. We would normally provide them once every week or two as a treat or to achieve a healthy weight.

You can tweezer feed wax worms to your dragon or just let the dragon go crazy on a worm dish. 6-10 per feeding would be plenty for an adult bearded dragon. Give less for smaller bearded dragons.

4. Mealworms

Mealworms are one of the most commonly used live foods and are often recommended by pet stores, but we often find that dragons can struggle with them if they are the only live food, as they are harder to digest.

For this reason, we wouldn’t use them as the main live food in a bearded dragon diet. That being said, they are a brilliant addition to a varied diet, and when provided once or twice a week they can be a great treat for the dragon.

5. Cockroaches

Cockroaches are harder to come by, but they are an excellent addition to a bearded dragon diet.

In-store we often use medium or large dubia roaches with our dragons when they are available. They are extremely protein-rich and are normally a larger meal.

While they are very nutritious, we find that the size, ease of digestion and nutrition aren’t quite as good as crickets, so we use them as part of a varied diet rather than a main diet. 

Just a few cockroaches will be a fine meal, and we would normally only provide them 1-2 times per week.

Final Thoughts

As with all live food, we would recommend gut loading and dusting them before feeding them to the dragon.

For tips on the food your dragon eats, gut loading or suggestions on which reptile supplements would be best for your pet for a healthy life, please contact us at sales@reptilecentre.com or call us on 01604753823.