Unlike most other animals, Bearded dragons are picky eaters. So, before offering anything to your bearded dragon, you must consider and reconsider whether it’s safe for the little creature or not!
Broccoli is a nutritious vegetable, and vegetables are important for the health of bearded dragons. But, can a bearded dragon eat broccoli?
Yes, your bearded dragon can eat broccoli, but in a small portion and not frequently. Consuming broccoli in huge portions or most frequently becomes harmful for your beardie.
When evaluating the nutrition, you’ll find that the veggie’s containing more phosphorus than calcium.
Keep reading on to learn the suitability of broccoli for the bearded dragon!
Read also: How Many Cups of Broccoli in A Head
Can A Bearded Dragon Eat Broccoli?
Technically, broccoli is one of the healthiest vegetables for the bearded dragon. Still, a query often appears, can a bearded dragon eat broccoli?
Indeed, the bearded animals can eat the nutritious and healthiest plant, broccoli; Even you can feed finely chopped and shredded broccoli stalks and leaves to your bearded dragon.
But, make sure you’re not feeding the broccoli, its leaves, and stalks to your bearded dragon in large portions. Before offering the leaves and stalks to your beardie, make sure they’re finely chopped; Otherwise, it’ll cause a choking hazard to this little creature.
The broccoli includes more phosphorus than calcium, and too much phosphorus isn’t good for your beardie’s health.
The bearded dragon needs calcium more than phosphorus for its bone development. Contrarily, the excess phosphorus puts your beardie at risk of metabolic bone disease development.
How Often Can Bearded Dragons Eat Broccoli?
Consuming too much broccoli might impact the thyroid function of your bearded dragon. So, before you offer broccoli, the nutritious food to your bearded dragon, let’s first learn if broccoli can be added to a regular diet of your beardie.
Well, the straight-cut answer is absolutely not!
Your beardie mustn’t eat broccoli regularly. Regular feeding broccoli to your beardie becomes too much compared to his physical needs, which aren’t good.
Instead, Consuming broccoli once or twice every month is good enough for your little bearded dragon. You can feed broccoli to your beardie once or twice after 2 to 4 weeks. But, feeding the broccoli more than once might become too much.
So, it’s recommended to consult with a veterinarian before enlisting the broccoli to your beardie’s diet chart.
Can Bearded Dragon Eat Cooked or Frozen Broccoli?
Both the cooked and frozen Broccoli is unsafe for your beardie’s health.
So, don’t give cooked or frozen broccoli to your bearded dragon; because both are harmful to your beardie’s health. Feeding the cooked or frozen broccoli might cause an unpleasant effect on your beardie.
Sometimes, eating the cooked broccoli leads to diarrhea as your beardie has a sensitive stomach.
Therefore, avoid feeding cooked or boiled broccoli to your bearded dragon in case he becomes sick. Also, Cool the raw frozen broccoli before giving it to your bearded dragon.
But, it’s unrecommended to feed the frozen broccoli to your little beardie. That’s because frozen foods lose some required nutrition during the freezing process.
Read also: How Long Does Cooked Broccoli Last in The Fridge
How Much Can Bearded Dragon Eat Broccoli?
The broccoli includes more phosphorus compared to calcium, for which you cannot feed vegetables to your beardie regularly or excessively.
Instead, you can feed him a little portion of raw broccoli to provide him with a good part of the nutrition.
Consumption of a little portion of broccoli boosts up the nutrition and energy of your bearded dragon.
Can A Bearded Baby Dragon Eat Broccoli?
It’s safe to feed the broccoli to an elder bearded dragon, but that doesn’t mean the broccoli is safe for your baby dragon too. But older bearded dragons and baby bearded dragons aren’t the same. The needs for nutrition in their body is also different.
So, when it comes to feeding broccoli to baby dragons, there’s a big no!
The baby dragon should eat the insects more than the plants or vegetables. According to research, the diet of the baby dragon should include a maximum of 20% plants and vegetables.
So, it won’t be wise to include broccoli, a riskier plant, into the beardie’s diet chart.
How to Prepare Broccoli for Your Bearded Dragon
You cannot randomly give the broccoli to your bearded dragon just by purchasing from the market. Before allowing the broccoli to your beardie, you must go through the following procedures.
Step 1: Buy fresh and organic broccoli for your bearded dragon. If you’re feeding the fridge broccoli to your beardie, then at first thaw it.
But, it’s unrecommended to give fridge food to your beardie. Even though you give cold vegetables to your beardie, make sure it’s fresh and organic.
Step 2: Now, wash your bought broccoli through the freshwater, even though it’s organic. Standard washing will remove some insects from the broccoli. To remove the hidden insects, you must follow our next step.
Step 3: Take a bowl larger than the broccoli and soak the broccoli into the bowl with water. The hidden insects and pesticides will come out when you soak the broccoli for at least 15 minutes.
Step 4: After 15 minutes, bring out the broccoli from the bowl and take it for cutting. Cut the vegetable, its stem, and stalk in a small but manageable size. Serve the broccoli to your beardie, taking in a small bowl.
FAQs
Broccoli rabe isn’t safe for the bearded dragon, as it contains a high amount of oxalic acid. The accumulation of oxalic acid leads the bearded dragon to several types of health issues. The development of bladder stones is one of those health issues.
Contrarily, consumption of broccolini isn’t that hazardous for the health of bearded dragons, but not every day. Instead, you should feed the broccolini to the bearded dragon once or twice a month.
Yes, the bearded dragon can eat food rich with phosphorus, but in a balanced amount. Give 10-gram phosphorus to your bearded dragon in every 100-gram portion.
Instead of phosphorus, it’s preferable to offer calcium-rich food to your bearded dragon. The food ratio of calcium and phosphorus should be 2:1.
As the dandelion doesn’t include any toxin, it’s a safe and beneficial foodie for Bearded dragons. The dandelions contain essential nutrients like minerals, calcium, phosphorus, and vitamins A, C, K.
All of these nutrients and vitamins are essential for your bearded dragon.
The Courgette or Zucchini contains at least 90% water in it like the watermelon and cucumber; so, it’s not as nutritious as you think. Still, you can feed the Courgette to your beardie as it doesn’t contain any harmful toxins.
The Sum Up!
Surely, there’re tons of vegetables to feed your bearded dragon except for broccoli. Indeed, you can feed a little amount of broccoli to your bearded dragon but not every day or every time.
So, the answer for, can a bearded dragon eat broccoli is straight and clear! Without keeping the veggie in your beardie’s regular diet chart, your beardie can eat the broccoli once or twice a month.
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