Bearded Dragons and Cat Food

[Snakegirl55]

Hi,
I was wondering if it was ok for bearded dragons to eat cat food. I have had my 2 for over a year now and have always fed crickets however the supplier I use is currently out of stock and my beardies are pretty picky about vegetables (they eat carrot and sometimes broccoli or bok choy). I work at a zoo and one of the keepers told me that you can feed bearded dragons cat food (specifically 'jellyroll' cat food or something like that) and that you can grate up veges to mix with this cat food. I just want to find out if this would indeed be ok as I don't want my beardies getting sick and all the things ive read online have been pretty inconclusive.
Thanks

 

[SarahScales]

Skinks are fine to eat cat food, in general, as they eat carrion and scavenge in the wild. Bearded Dragons are omnivorous too, but primarily their diet is vegetation with roughly 20% also consisting of insects. They have been known to eat mice in the wild if they are lucky enough to catch them but I doubt making up 1% of their yearly diet. Consequently, the digestive tract of the BD is not designed to accommodate such high levels of fat or protein in a single meal.

Stick to your salad and insects, your beardies will thank you for it

 

[Chris1]

your beardies will be fine on salads till you can get proper feeder insects again. high levels of fat and protein damage their livers.

(if youre in the hornsby area i have a poop load of roaches, youre welcome to have some)

 

[Snakegirl55]

Thanks for the help. I guess I'll just have to try and get them to eat some more veges and hope that the suppliers get some more stock soon.
P.S Any suggestions on what veges they can eat daily? A lot of websites say that they should only have the veges I mentioned earlier occasionally but not everyday. Also a lot of sites say collard greens, but what exactly are collard greens? id never heard of them.
Sorry for so many questions these are my first lizards and I don't want to mess up haha

 

[spud_meister]

Thanks for the help. I guess I'll just have to try and get them to eat some more veges and hope that the suppliers get some more stock soon.
P.S Any suggestions on what veges they can eat daily? A lot of websites say that they should only have the veges I mentioned earlier occasionally but not everyday. Also a lot of sites say collard greens, but what exactly are collard greens? id never heard of them.
Sorry for so many questions these are my first lizards and I don't want to mess up haha

I give my beardy mostly pumpkin, green beans and apple. At a ratio of 3:1:1 of each food. I found pumpkin goes well because he's attracted to the colour and is more likely to eat it. I do feed a little bit high quality canned dog food with minimum salt and no preservatives if I can't get insects.

This site: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html says pumpkin is a good daily food for them.

 

[Chris1]

mine seem to love rocket, chinese brocolli (the leafy green stuff) bok choy and pak choy, ive never managed to locate collard greens either.

If you feed mostly pumpkin make sure you supplement with calcium, ive had a 2 girls pick out the pumpkin and ignore the greens and those girls ended up with early signs of calcium deficiencies, they do love it, but it doesnt have enough calcium. I limit their pumpkin now.

 

[danceswithdingo]

Ive been feeding mine "wombaroo" powder made into small pellets