The basic feeding for the bearded dragon across the different ages are the same. There are few guidelines are essential to follow.
In general, beareded dragon need to consume large amount of food. They are high metabolism reptiles. Each feeding time should be around 10 to 15 minutes.
After each meal, you may need to check if the pet have satisfied with the amount if intake. If they looked full, then it should be enough food for them.
If the crickets or preys can’t be finished, do not leave them in the enclosure with your bearded dragon over long period of time or overnight. It they are in the cage, they might nibble on your dragons. It will be disturbance and hurt your pet.
Try not to feed your bearded dragon with large size of prey. If you are shopping the crickets from the pet shops, try to look for crickets with smaller size as bigger size preys may create health issue such as impactions or paralysis. It is vital especially baby bearded dragons. It is good to breed your own crickets because it is cleaner and there will always be wide range of cricket in different sizes available, specially smaller crickets. If you would like to breed your own crickets, Crickets Breeding Made Simple is the best book for reference.
Although bearded dragons live in dry habitat, it is good practice to provide them water in the enclosure. Try to prepare fresh water daily to avoid bacteria growing. The other options in providing the bearded dragon water are misting the decors and wall of the enclosure, spray on the pets or drop the water at the tip of their mouth. They will more likely to drink from the droplets. Vegetation is another source of water for bearded dragons.
As long as the guidelines for feeding bearded dragons mentioned above are met. The bearded dragons should be happy and healthy living in the captivity.
