Bearded dragon owners have some important things to think about when choosing the right diet for their pet. As omnivores, beardies require both vegetation and protein from animal sources in order to meet their nutritional needs and prevent illnesses such as metabolic bone disease. If you wish that you could meet those needs without filling out an entire grocery list, Reptilinks is a simple solution.
In fact, our new Super Salad Bug Blend was created specifically with beardies in mind. Some of our other links can be good fits for your bearded dragon, but if you’re unsure, the Super Salad is a great start. Here’s why.
What to Look for in Your Beardie’s Diet
In the wild, bearded dragons live in Australia. Their native ranges are primarily arid environments like deserts, which means that they have to take what they can get. Food is scarce in these areas, and beardies are versatile eaters as a result.
This is important, because it informs how you should be feeding your dragon. Scientists looked inside the stomachs of wild bearded dragons to find that they ate a diverse mixture of animal proteins and plants, and those should show up in what you offer, too. While beardies most commonly found insects, they were just as eager to consume small rodents or even lizards for protein.
However, the other large part of their diet was greens: as many as they could find. So while bugs are a valuable part of their food rotation, you shouldn’t compromise on offering a diverse variety of vegetation. Many owners encounter a challenge here, though—their beardies are picky. While wild bearded dragons are opportunistic hunters, those that live in the comforts of home can afford to turn their noses up. That’s why Reptilinks are often a more convenient (and even more nutritious) solution.
Reptilinks’ Super Salad Bug Blend
The Super Salad link blend contains 50% insects (black soldier fly larvae, superworms, and mealworms) and 50% veggies (organic green beans, collard greens, dandelion greens, endive, and alfalfa). With all these ingredients mixed together, your beardie is less likely to notice a green they don’t like. As a result, they’re getting the diverse nutrition they need rather than eating the same thing again and again.
Additionally, the mixture of bugs helps to balance the risk of feeding only high-fat insects. Black soldier fly larvae (BSLF), for instance, are considered among the best feeders, but they can be hard to locate or source consistently for pet owners.
That’s why the Super Salad Bug Blend is ideal for a beardie’s needs based on the diet they consume in the wild. However, when it comes to why Reptilinks is the best food for your bearded dragon, there’s another factor you might not be considering.
Nutrient Absorption: Timing Matters
Did you know that some nutrients don’t get fully absorbed unless they’re paired with other nutrients? The most common example of this in reptile keeping is the interaction between calcium and vitamin D3. Some reptiles (including beardies) develop metabolic bone disease because, even if they’re being supplemented with calcium, they’re not receiving enough D3 to carry the calcium out of their digestion and into their bones. In this sense, one molecule (D3) works like a train, carrying another molecule (calcium) to a destination it struggles to get to on its own. Some calcium molecules might be able to walk all the way there without the train, but most won’t.
The same is true of vitamin A. This vitamin is fat-soluble, which means that it dissolves in fat. When that fat is moved and processed by the body, fat-soluble vitamins come with it, which helps them to get to where they need to go.
This is why Reptilinks are the go-to for many bearded dragon owners. If you feed a vitamin A-rich diet one day of the week and fat-inclusive bugs another, you’re stripping some of the nutritional value from those items, even if you provide a varied diet. Reptilinks blends all of these ingredients together so they work synergistically, supporting each other to be as advantageous as possible.
Other Links to Try
Not every beardie owner feeds their pet in the same way, and if you’ve got a specific blend that works well for you, you might find that the Super Salad link is overlapping with what you already offer. If that’s the case, Reptilinks has other foods that could help you cover dietary areas you might be lacking in.
The 25/25/50 links are one option. That’s 25% bugs, 25% ground whole rabbit, and 50% organic veggies. For people whose beardies already enjoy plenty of bugs for enrichment purposes, using 25% ground rabbit can help to diversify protein intake. If your beardie doesn’t like bugs, the 50/50 omnivore blend could be a more appealing protein option.
For some beardies, the shape of a Reptilink can be a little suspicious. That’s why we’ve also got the same formulation in pellet form. Offer pellets as-is at room temperature, or soak minimally with water to soften them depending on your reptile’s tastes. The pellets are still 25/25/50, so your beardie is getting multi-source protein and organic greens.
Regardless of which links you try, you might find that your bearded dragon has more energy than before thanks to the comprehensive blend of nutrients they’re eating. You can store links or pellets in the freezer for long-term use, so give them a try and then stock up for easy feeding!