Can Bearded Dragons Eat Silkworms? 3 Benefits | Full Guide

Feeding an exotic animal can be challenging for the owners, and difficult for bearded dragon owners to provide them with the proper meal. Due to the lack of knowledge, it has become difficult for beard owners to understand which meal is good for them and what things are unhealthy for them.

Bugs might click in thinking about food, but the concern is, are they safe for bearded dragons? Can a bearded dragon eat insects? 

There are many kinds of insects, such as grasshoppers, mealworms, silkworms, beetles, etc. As everyone knows, lizards mostly rely on insects for their nutrition. So, a query arises about can bearded dragons eat silkworms?. Will silkworms be nutritious for beardies or not? Let’s uncover this doubt by knowing about silkworms and their nutritional count for the bearded dragon.

Can Bearded Dragons Eat Silkworms?

Yes, bearded dragons can eat silkworms without any side effects on their body. The nutrition count is perfect because experts suggest adding them to the diet of a beardie. Silkworms have a good count of calcium and various vitamins, such as vitamins A and B, and a good moisture count. A feeder can add as many worms as possible to the diet of a beardie.

Although bearded dragons love to eat insects and can serve as a good snack for their diet routine, adding silkworms to the meal is a decent idea. A feeder can give these little squishy worms to baby and juvenile beardies, too, as they are easy to ingest and digest. Silkworms are safe and easier to consume for your bearded dragon. However, ingesting larvae is better than feeding only silkworms. It is because larvae have a high-fat value that can create an imbalance in the body of beardies.

How Often Can Bearded Dragons Eat Silkworms?

Adult bearded dragons can be fed silkworms twice a week or can feed as a staple to them. It is directly developing their internal organs stronger than before.

Bearded dragons can eat silkworms on their regular diet. However, it should not add more than 10% of the total diet. Undoubtedly, there are many benefits associated with adding silkworms to the diet of beardies. However, it can have certain risks as well.

Adding bugs to other food items, including fruits and veggies, can be a good choice. For making a routine of giving silkworms to beardies, try feeding the beardie with one silkworm, then gradually increasing the amount the bearded dragon likes to eat. Remember to remove uneaten silkworms because they can become hazardous to health as there are high chances of carrying parasites. This way, a feeder can introduce silkworms to the beardies in the best possible way.

3 Benefits of Silkworms for Bearded Dragons

There are many health benefits of feeding silkworms to beardies. No other insect can ever beat the nutritional count of silkworms. Silkworms contain various vital nutrients essential for the beardies to grow efficiently. Several benefits of the silkworms feeding to the beardies:

1: Low-Fat Count Helps In Weight Maintenance

Silkworms are a terrible source of other valuable nutrients required for growing beardies. However, the low-fat count can be a good reason for beardies to maintain their body weight. Apart from this, fat composition is also a must for increasing beardies, so adding them to the diet of baby beardies is not much more efficient than adding them to the diet of adult beardies. Though, adult beardies must perform some exercise to ensure their health is safe by consuming excess fat.

2: Mineral Content is Good for Growth

Many feeders always try to maintain an optimal diet for their pets, such as beetles. Adding all the vital nutrients is important because growth is the only thing visible after eating good quality food. Calcium plays a vast role in the body’s building, and phosphorus requires for extracting calcium from the food beardie eats. Experts suggest a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio to be 2:1 for maintaining the functions in the body.

3: Moisture Maintaining Capacity

Silkworms are soft and squishy to eat, and they have jiggly body which is moist to the touch. The moisture count of silkworms is very high, making them a safer food to be added to the diet of a beardie. However, bearded dragons require a good amount of moisture to sustain themselves in the dry season, and this can be easily accomplished by eating silkworms as a staple in dry seasons. These are the several benefits of eating silkworms for bearded dragons.

2 Risks of Feeding Silkworms to Bearded Dragons

Feeding any food has some side effects always. It doesn’t matter how many risks they are, but an over-feeding of anything can also negatively impact the body. Silkworms are also challenging to ingest sometimes and can cause blockages in the organism’s digestive system. Several risks of feeding silkworms to bearded dragons are as follows:

1: Possible Parasites Presence

Worms are wild and infested with parasites and nematodes that cause a high risk of their presence in the silkworm larvae. Due to this issue, silkworms might contain parasites, and bearded dragons are also prone to parasitic attacks.

2: Dragons Can Become Obese

If the feeder adds a lot of insects to the beardy diet, it can cause health issues. However, silkworms have low fat, but adding bugs can make a bearded dragon obese. Obesity is never responsible for affecting the movement of an animal, but it affects various organs functioning in the body. It can also affect the lizard’s reproductive, digestive, and excretion systems to a greater extent, which can’t be curable. Obesity has never been a friend of any living organism, drastically affecting the bones from being overweight. So, feeding any animal without considering any precautions is hazardous for a beardie’s health.

So, adding any bug will have many positive and negative impacts on the bearded dragon’s health.

How to Feed Silkworms to Your Bearded Dragon

To draw the attention of any animal towards the food, try some feeding techniques that will help make the feeding process easier. Feeders should always try specific techniques to help develop feeding patterns for the dragon.

Pick with Tweezers and Offer Them

Silkworms are small jiggly, and squishy worms that are very soft to eat. They are larvae of the moth Bombyx Mori. For feeding silkworms to bearded dragons, pick them with the help of tweezers from the jar or any storage and bring them near the dragon. The jiggly movement of the silkworm attracts the attention of the beardie. They will use their tongue to catch the worm and eat it.

Mix Them With Fruits And Other Insects

Add fruits and bugs like mealworms, super worms, and caterpillars to make a beardie and not get bored from eating the same meal every other day. It helps the beardie explore their interesting food with different tastes of other fruits and bugs. This way, a beardie maintains their diet and remains healthy. It is well-known that bearded dragons are omnivores, mostly insectivores that rely on insects.

Conclusion

While feeding the bearded dragons: Can bearded dragons eat silkworms? The answer is yes. Silkworms are the healthiest insects that a feeder can add to the diet of their pet beardies. 

These squishy insects are highly rich in calcium and proteins, which helps develop the bearded dragon’s body to a greater extent. Silkworms are good for bearded dragons; they love to eat them anytime.

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