Can Bearded Dragons Eat Blueberries?
Learn why bearded dragons can eat blueberries, how many they can eat and how often, as well as how to prepare blueberries for bearded dragons
Last Updated: January 10th, 2022
By: Steve
Table of Contents
Can bearded dragons eat blueberries? Yes, bearded dragons can eat blueberries and most love them. They should only be fed as a treat though, since they’re high in sugar and water content. They have barely any calcium, indeed almost no nutritional value aside from some fibre and carbohydrate for a bearded dragon. But they are very tasty and sweet and can be used to dress a salad occasionally if it helps your dragon’s desire for more salad.
Are Blueberries Good For Bearded Dragons?
Blueberries are, perhaps unsurprisingly, a small blue, soft berry and are known to contain lots of anti-oxidants as well as Vitamin C and K. In many ways you would be forgiven for thinking that these delicious berries would be extremely good for bearded dragons to eat every day. However, like many fruits that are good for humans, they’re not quite so good for bearded dragons.
Blueberries are commonly found in most temperate climates even in the colder parts of the temperate areas. For example, Blueberries grow in the wild in places like Finland and Canada.
Blueberries are not harmful to bearded dragons in moderation.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Blueberries?
Bearded dragons can eat blueberries as an occasional treat. They offer very little nutritional value, but are a good source of water and do taste nice. Many bearded dragons do like blueberries and mixing a few into their salad here or there will be unlikely to cause any drama. One big advantage to blueberries is that their size requires no further processing – so they’re quick and easy to throw in as part of a salad and this can help entice stubborn dragons to actually eat their salad.
We recommend not overfeeding blueberries though as they are high in water content and sugar. Both can lead to digestive problems.
Advantages Of Blueberries For Bearded Dragons
Disadvantages Of Blueberries For Bearded Dragons
How Should I Feed Blueberries To A Bearded Dragon?
Having said that blueberries are a safe and enjoyable treat for bearded dragons, this leads us to how do we feed blueberries to them. Generally speaking they can be simply washed and a small amount ( 4 to 8 ) added to a mixed salad in a bowl and left in the vivarium for them. There’s no need to cut them up any further, unless your bearded dragon is really small.
You can also feed blueberries by hand to your bearded dragon – but do be aware that since they’re quite small there’s not going to be much distance between your fingers and their teeth. Yes, bearded dragons do have teeth. You could use some small tongs if you wanted to keep your fingers out of the way. Hand feeding your bearded dragon is a good way to bond with them.
How Many Blueberries Should I Feed A Bearded Dragon?
Blueberries should be given as a treat. They can be given a little more often than some of the other fruits we talk about here at Bearded Dragons Rock, but should still only be fed once a week or so, with a portion size of 4 to 8 blueberries. They are high in sugar which will potentially cause digestion problems.
Nutritional Data For Blueberries For Bearded Dragons
| Nutritional Item | Content |
|---|---|
| Water Content (%) | 84.2 |
| Fat (%) | 0.33 |
| Protein (%) | 0.74 |
| Dietary Fibre (%) | 2.4 |
| Carbohydrate (%) | 14.5 (moderate) |
| Calcium (mg/100g) | 6 (0.006%) |
| Potassium (mg/100g) | 77 (0.077%) |
| Phosphorous (mg/100g) | 12 (0.012%) |
| Vitamin A (ug/100g) | 3 |
| Vitamin C (ug/100g) | 9.7 |
| Oxalates (mg/100g) | Unknown / 100g – 4mg / cup |
Can I Grow My Own Blueberries?
Blueberries can be grown in cooler temperate environments such as northern Europe, the UK, Canada and the USA. They can be planted over winter time and then harvested in summer and autumn. They can be kept in containers and should be watered with rainwater and not tap water. Although blueberries are found in some fairly cold places around the world, from a cultivation point of view they should be protected from frost – especially if it’s also wet and they’re in pots.
The Royal Horticultural Society gives intricate and detailed instructions for growing your own strawberries.
Summary
In this post we looked at whether bearded dragons can eat blueberries. The answer, we discovered, is yes, bearded dragons can eat blueberries, as an occasional treat. We also looked at how to feed blueberries to your bearded dragon and discovered it was relatively easy to do this, either as part of a salad or by hand/tongs.
We learnt that growing your own strawberries is fairly easy, depending on your climate – and discovered the nutritional value of blueberries is really quite low. But as a nice, sweet treat for your bearded dragon every now and then, they’re a good option.
Frequency: OCCASIONAL TREAT.
For more information on other vegetables that Bearded Dragons can eat, please see our larger overview post at ‘What Vegetables Can Bearded Dragons Eat?’
References
1: US Department of Agriculture FoodData Central. Fetched on 16th September 2021 from https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171711/nutrients
2: Oxalate (oxalic acid) content of 750+ foods, with numbers from university and government sources – sourced from https://oxalate.org/ on 16th September 2021.
Featured Image by József Szabó from Pixabay