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Bearded dragons are omnivores, which means their owners have tons of insect and plant-based meal options for them. They can eat insects like crickets and cockroaches and different types of worms. So, are earthworms suitable for beardies? Yes, earthworms are a safe food option for bearded dragons and have a nutritional composition that their bodies can use.
Beardies will try to eat just about any creepy-crawly that they find, including an earthworm. However, it would be best to make earthworms as rare treats that you provide only occasionally.
Why Are Earthworms Good for Bearded Dragons?
1. Alternative Source of Proteins
Beardie owners need to mimic the wild dragon’s diet when feeding their pets, which includes providing them with a substantial number of live foods as a source of protein. Luckily, you can do so with cheap and readily available live foods, such as earthworms.
These foods contain a lot of proteins that both juvenile and adult bearded dragons require for growth and maintenance. You can offer them to young dragons more often than to adult beardies, to facilitate their active growth stage.
2. Good Amounts of Minerals and Vitamins
Apart from proteins, earthworms contain minerals and vitamins, including amino acids, iron, manganese, and copper. These help break down and absorb food and repair body tissue.
They are also a rich source of calcium, which is a nutritional necessity for beardies. This component helps in the lizard’s skeletal development and helps prevent bone diseases, such as metabolic bone disease.
3. Good Source of Moisture
Bearded dragons require plenty of water. However, since they can’t comfortably drink water from bowls, you have to hydrate them by feeding them food with high water content. Earthworms are excellent options because they carry a lot of water.
4. Healthy Fats
Earthworms are high-fat foods that can act as energy stores for bearded dragons. When the fats are absorbed, they help regulate their body temperature and overall hormone production.
However, beardies require minimal amounts of fats. Excess calories can cause obesity and other weight-related diseases to your pet—all the more reason that earthworms should be occasional treats for an adult bearded dragon being fed for maintenance purposes only.
How to Prepare Earthworms for Your Beardie
Wash Them Thoroughly
After harvesting a steady number of earthworms, wash them in plenty of water. This should apply to all earthworms, whether bought from a pet store or gathered from your breeding stores.
This will allow you to wash off any chemical contamination and dirt on the earthworm’s skin. It is equally important to dispose of any dead worms before offering them to your pet. Earthworms are more appealing and exciting to dragons if they are moving prey.
Dust the Earthworms With Calcium Supplements
Although earthworms contain calcium, it is recommended that you supplement live foods with calcium before feeding your beardie. You only need to sprinkle calcium powder on the live food.
You can use a sugar or salt shaker to coat the earthworms and increase their nutritional value. Ingesting sufficient calcium helps boost your pet’s bone health.
How to Feed Your Beardie
Juvenile Beardie
One way to bond with your young lizard friend is to let it eat its food from your fingertips. You can also use a pair of tweezers to hold the food. However, it would be best if you slice the earthworms into smaller pieces beforehand. This will help prevent your pet from choking.
You can also offer them sliced baby earthworms, which are easier to eat and digest. However, you should only provide juvenile beardies with two to three earthworms because their diet should contain around 50% insects and 50% vegetation.
Adult Dragon
An adult dragon’s gut is well-developed and can comfortably digest earthworms. Therefore, you may not need to slice the worms.
Hold the worm out with your finger for the beardie to eat. You can also place one or two in a bowl and allow the beardie to eat them using its mouth. Ensure that the bowl’s edges aren’t too high so the dragon can easily access the food.
Where to Get Earthworms for Your Bearded Dragon
Purchase Earthworms From Pet Stores
The best way to get your worms is to purchase them from a trusted pet store, one that breeds and designs earthworms for pet food.
You can buy earthworms in various sizes, ranging from 1/4 of an inch to 1 inch. It is vital to remember that the younger your beardie, the smaller the worms should be. Try finding worms on a strict diet, ones that are gut-fed with nutrients that’ll boost your lizard friend’s health.
Buy From Bait Shops
You can also buy earthworms from bait shops. These breed earthworms to use as fishing baits. For this reason, the bait worms do not contain contaminants like pesticides or chemicals that could endanger the fish.
However, ensure that these worms are not dyed. Bait shops sometimes dye earthworms to make them more visible in water and make trapping easier. This dye could harm your lizard friend.
Breed Your Own Earthworms
You can breed and harvest earthworms in your home. This idea is an excellent option if you want to cut down on your pet’s feeding expenses. Home worm production is easy, and you only need a bin set-up to use for breeding.
You can feed them your compost waste, such as potato peels, lettuce, bread, fruit peels, corn, or spaghetti, and help conserve the environment in the process. The good thing is that earthworms lay eggs and reproduce fast as long as the dirt is moist enough.
Order From Online Vendors
There are enormous online markets that deal in vermiculture (worm raising). These vendors breed earthworms and sell to bait and pet stores at wholesale prices.
Therefore, you can get worms directly from them online. However, you should check for business documentation and determine whether breeders and sellers are registered before buying. Feeding earthworms to your pet shouldn’t be on a trial-and-error basis because bad worms can harm your bearded dragon.
Why You Should Avoid Feeding Your Beardie Earthworms From Your Garden
Chemical Contamination
Although earthworms alone aren’t toxic to bearded dragons, wild earthworms and those from the backyard could be contaminated. These worms crawl across grounds and plants with fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, insecticides, and various other harmful chemicals. Feeding such organisms to beardies may intoxicate them and even cause their deaths.
Parasites
Parasites like microscopic worms and organisms can infest an outdoor worm’s body. If you offer your beardie these earthworms, you’ll be transferring harmful organisms to your pet, harming or killing it in the process.
Possibility of Blockage and Impaction
When your beardie accidentally eats a large earthworm or you provide them with a random earthworm bigger than the space between their eyes, it can cause blockage and impaction in their gastrointestinal tract. This effect can lead to constipation or worse, paralysis.
Summary
Earthworms are readily available and a cheap food option and have nutritional content to benefit a bearded dragon.
Like with insects, the number of worms that you should feed your bearded dragon depends on their age, growth stage, and reproductive status. It’s best to consult with your veterinarian if you have doubts about what you’re feeding your bearded dragon.
Although inexpensive, earthworms should still be carefully sourced to ensure that they don’t harm your beloved pet. In addition, it’s best to serve them gut-loaded and dusted with calcium powder to offer your bearded dragon the best nutritional benefits.
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Featured Image: Witaya Proadtayakogool, Shutterstock
