Bearded dragons belong to the reptile family. They are the most famous pet reptiles in the world. Bearded dragons was coined out from the “beard” of the dragon that is found underneath its throat. Bearded dragons have flattened bodies, spiny scales arranged in rows, and broad triangular heads. When a bearded dragon feels threatened, the scales on its throat and back of its head get expanded. They use their scales to scare off predators. Most adult bearded dragons are territorial, and that’s why they express aggression in their social hierarchies. Insects make the most of the diets of juvenile and baby bearded dragons. This is because they need more significant amounts of proteins. Crickets and dubia roaches are the most common insects bearded dragons consume. They also eat other insects like hornworms, fruit flies, silkworms, locusts, spiders, butter worms, and mealworms.
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Bearded dragons can eat darkling beetles called mealworms, but you shouldn’t feed your bearded dragon with them because it is pretty tedious for it to eat. A darkling beetle has a hard exterior, a high-fat content, and low nutritional benefit in its larva form. Bearded dragons can eat anything it sees in its cage that’s why you should constantly monitor whatever enters its cage. A mealworm is not a worm like the name implies. It is the larval stage of the yellow mealworm beetle that is also known as the darkling beetle. The darkling beetle is nocturnal. The female darkling beetle lays a lot of eggs and hatch them into mealworms (larva stage). After the larva stage, it enters the pupa stage, and then it grows into an adult darkling beetle. At first, the color of the adult beetle turns brown before it eventually turns almost black. The whole life cycle can last for up to a year.
If your bearded dragon consumes the wrong foods, it can be detrimental to its health. Your bearded dragon can get an upset stomach if it consumes a laxative like an aloe vera. Bearded dragons also like consuming sweet foods like apricots.
What Are Darkling Beetles?
Darkling beetles belong to the large family of beetles called Tenebrionidae. There are over 20,000 species of Tenebrionidae in the world.
The larvae of a darkling beetle are called mealworms (Tenebrio), and they serve as food to pets like fish and birds. The smaller flour beetle (Tribolium confusing) and the mealworm are used as pests in dried foods.
Darkling beetles can create water internally, so they don’t rely on external water to live.
Darkling beetles are decomposers and scavengers. They feed on rotting wood, dead leaves, and other decaying plant matter. They also feed on living plants, seeds, fruits, and fungi. Mealworms can be seen in logs, under rocks, and inside rotting stumps.
Darkling beetles are considered great food sources for many animals like lizards, birds, spiders, rodents, and other predatory insects.
When a darkling beetle feels threatened, they raise their rear ends and spray some natural chemicals known as quinones. These chemicals have bad smells that chase predators away from attacking them.
A darkling beetle can be as long as 1.5 inches. Darkling beetles have a segmented pair of antennas, notched eyes, three pairs of legs, and a smooth, armor-like protective shell black in color. Darkling beetles have elytra, that is, fused wings that are attached to their bodies.
Some fishermen use darkling beetles as bait to catch fish. Darkling beetles are also used as model organisms in laboratories to conduct investigations on the ecology, genetic, and biology of insects. They undergo a total metamorphosis from egg to larva to pupa and an adult insect. A female darkling beetle can lay close to 500 eggs in the ground. Larvae hatch after a few weeks, and they are called mealworms. Larvae have a golden brown color and cylindrical bodies with six legs that aid their movement. It takes 10 to 20 times for larvae to molt for two months. After that, it goes underground and becomes a pupa. After two or three weeks, a white-colored adult insect comes out from the cocoon. After one day, it becomes an entirely black adult darkling beetle.
While some species of darkling beetles complete their life cycle within 3 to 4 months, others take years. Many darkling beetles live for only a few months because of their predators.
Is Darkling Beetles Good For Bearded Dragons?
It would be best if you did not feed your young bearded dragons with darkling beetles or mealworms. They are not healthy for them because of their hard skin. It can even lead to the death of your pet.
Darkling beetles are also not good for your adult bearded dragons, although some bearded dragon owners feed their pets with them, and it doesn’t cause any health issues for them.
The digestive system of your bearded dragon is not well structured, it is located close to its spinal cord, and if a mealworm goes in there, it can destroy it. Feeding your young bearded dragon with darkling beetles can lead to hind-limb paralysis.
Your pet should not consume any more enormous insect than space in between the eyes of your dragon.
Darkling beetles lack the necessary nutrients that your beardies need to survive. Allow your pet to consume other nutritious insects like crickets, feeder roaches, and others.
Young bearded dragons should be fed with plenty of insects that they can consume in one sitting, at least thrice a day, with small quantities of greens.
Feed your adult bearded dragon with enough insects in one sitting, twice a week, and greens.
Leaving leftover insects around your bearded dragon 15 minutes after it’s done eating can lead to stress, which is not suitable for your dragon.
How Much Darkling Beetles Should You Feed Bearded Dragons?
The amount of darkling beetles you should feed your bearded dragon with depends on its age and size. Young bearded dragons within six months and two years can eat up to 20 beetles in one sitting. For adult dragons that are above three years, they can eat more than 50 darkling beetles in one sitting.
What Bugs Are Toxic to Bearded Dragons?
It is usual for most bearded dragons to consume any insect they find around them. That is why you should constantly scrutinize their cage. Some insects are toxic to bearded dragons, and if your pet eats them, it can be detrimental to its health. It would be best if you only allowed your bearded dragon to eat safe insects.
The following bugs are toxic to bearded dragons, and you should not allow your bearded dragons to consume them.
- Fireflies
It is very dangerous for you to feed your bearded dragon with this insect that glows. It is not healthy for your bearded dragon.
- Elder Bugs
These bugs are also toxic to your bearded dragon. Keep them away from your pet.
- Bees
They are nasty and not healthy for your bearded dragon.
- Wasps
This is another toxic insect for your bearded dragon that you should avoid.
- Scorpions
Scorpions have poisonous content, and you should not allow your bearded dragon to consume them.
Don’t allow your bearded dragon to consume insects that are used as baits for fishing, glowing insects, insects inside or outside your house. They may contain parasites that are not healthy for your bearded dragon.
Give your bearded dragon at least 15 minutes to consume its bugs. When your bearded dragon is done eating, make sure you take out all the bugs that it could not eat because if you don’t, they might end up hiding beneath its body and biting your bearded dragon or making it consume more than it should.
You can buy your bearded dragon’s insects from feeder insect supplies or any pet store online or around you.
Apart from bugs that are toxic to your bearded dragon that you shouldn’t feed it with, there are other foods that your bearded dragon should not eat too because they are not healthy for it. Some of them are:
- Avocados
They are very toxic to your beardies. Avocados are vegetables that contain a large amount of oxalic acid that is poisonous to your beardies. A small number of avocados can make your bearded dragon sick, while an enormous amount can poison it.
Most bearded dragons prefer leafy vegetables to avocados because it doesn’t fit into their regular diet.
- Beets
Beets contain magnesium and Vitamin A that are healthy for any animal, but it also has a similar chemical like the one found in spinach that is not good for your bearded dragon’s health. This chemical stops your pet from adequately absorbing calcium. And your bearded dragon needs calcium in its system because a lack of it can make it suffer from a metabolic bone disease.
Although beets served in small quantities are not so poisonous to your pet.
- Rhubarb
These plants are very poisonous to your beardies. If your bearded dragon consumes this mistakenly, quickly give it water to drink before taking it to a vet.
- Lettuce
Many bearded dragon owners always feel lettuce is good food for their pet because it is fresh, but they are wrong. The nutritional benefits of lettuce are minimal, plus it can give your bearded dragon diarrhea. Please don’t feed your pet with lettuce.
- Spinach
Spinach also contains the same chemicals in beets that are not very healthy for your bearded dragon. If you must feed your bearded dragon with spinach, let it be in small quantities.
Other Insects For Your Bearded Dragon
Your bearded dragon is omnivorous, so it consumes both meat, vegetables, fruits, and greens. As your bearded dragon grows older, you will need to limit the amount of meat you feed it with to get obese. Your old bearded dragon won’t have much energy to be often exercising as it used to when it was much younger; that is another reason why you should feed it with less meat.
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What are some insects that serve as meat for your bearded dragon to consume?
- King worms
- Crickets
- Waxworms
- Earthworms
- Cockroaches
- Locusts
- Butterworms
- Silkworms
- Phoenix worms
- Dubia roaches
If you must feed your bearded dragon with mealworms or superworms, you must make sure they are adults. Because their skin is hard and feeding your young beardies with them can lead to impaction. Be very careful with feeding your beardies with mealworms or super worms. Consult your veterinarian for advice on what’s best for your beardies to consume.
There are also a wide variety of fruits you can feed your bearded dragon with. Some of them are:
- Strawberries
- Guava
- Pears
- Grapes
- Raisins
- Apricots
- Figs
- Melon
- Apples
- Mango
- Papaya
- Dates
- Peaches
- Apricots
- Plums
- Kiwi
For the kiwi fruit, it is very soft and sweet, and feeding your bearded dragon with it always can give it teeth problems. You should reduce the number of times in a month that you provide it with this fruit. It could be once a month.
Below is a list of vegetables and greens you can also feed your bearded dragon with. Check them out.
- Okra
- Kale
- Collards
- Parsley
- Clover
- Dandelion greens
- Peas
- Green beans
- Courgette
- Butternut squash
- Sweet potato
- Bell pepper
- Ocra
- Turnip greens
- Mustard greens
- Endive
- Rocket
- Coriander
- Broccoli (serve in small quantity once a week)
- Acorn squash
- Cabbage
- Kohlrabi
- Parsnip
- Bok choy
- Yellow squash
- Asparagus
- Celery
Once in a while, you can feed your bearded dragon with grated carrots, banana, cucumber, grapes, tomatoes, sprouts, blueberries, and pears.
For fruits that need peeling, remove the peels and cut them into tiny bits to aid easy consumption by your bearded dragon.
Don’t allow live insects into the water of your bearded dragon; if they mistakenly creep in, remove them immediately.
If your bearded dragon is not comfortable eating some insects, fruits, or vegetables, talk to a vet to suggest what could be wrong.
Conclusion
Darkling beetles are not very healthy for your bearded dragon because of their tough skin and low nutritional value. So, explore other options of foods available in this article for your bearded dragon to enjoy a variety of safe foods for it.
Keep the cage of your bearded dragon clean after a meal so that unwanted insects will not remain under the body of your pet and bite it later.
Keep insects or bugs that are toxic to your bearded dragons away from their cage, so they don’t end up consuming them.
Do well to contact a veterinarian if your bearded dragon consumes any insect that is toxic to its health.