Can Bearded Dragons Eat Green Beans?
Learn whether bearded dragons can eat green beans and whether green beans are ok for bearded dragons in this in depth post
Last Updated: January 10th, 2022
By: Steve
Table of Contents
Can bearded dragons eat Green Beans? Are Green Beans For Bearded Dragons OK? Yes, bearded dragons can eat green beans regularly.
What Are Green Beans For Bearded Dragons?
Green beans are the unripened, and often slightly smaller as a result, version of one of the four the common bean known as Phaseolus vulgaris. The young seed pods of the Runner Bean, those of the yardlong bean and the hyacinth bean are also known collectively as the green bean. They can also be called French beans, snap beans, string beans or even snaps.
Green beans are usually eaten whole, that is the seed pod itself is cooked and eaten including the beans inside. It’s for this reason that beans aren’t allowed to mature, as the pod becomes more stringy and hard as they do so. Picking them early keeps the pod softer and more palatable.
Noting that humans generally eat the entire pod gives us an idea as to how a bearded dragon might also eat them. That is to say, whole.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Green Beans?
Bearded dragons can certainly eat green beans, they are a good source of fibre and can be fed regularly as part of a balanced vegetable diet. Fresh green beans are best as these will retain more of a crunch when eaten. Tinned green beans have already been cooked and are therefore much softer and the nutritional value of these may vary.
Fresh green beans are also a good source of water, meaning they’re good for keeping your bearded dragon hydrated or providing hydration for gutloading insects.
Advantages Of Green Beans For Bearded Dragons
Disadvantages Of Green Beans For Bearded Dragons
How Should I Feed Green Beans To A Bearded Dragon?
Green beans can be fed to bearded dragons either raw or cooked. We tend to prefer most vegetables raw when it comes to feeding our bearded dragons.
They can be sliced or chopped depending on how your bearded dragon prefers them – and the beans can be separated from the pod if you or your dragon prefer that way too.
Bearded dragons often like a bit of a crunch to their vegetables which is another good reason to go for the raw version – but do try to go with the smaller variety of green bean as these are less likely to be woody in nature and less stringy.
Green beans, like most of the vegetables will require a calcium dust a few times a week to ensure your bearded dragon gets enough in its diet.
Green beans can be mixed in with other vegetables and placed in a bowl in the cool end of the vivarium. They’ll generally last most of the day in a reasonably hydrated state – unlike things such as watercress which will generally shrivel and dry. Sprinkling some water droplets on them before placing them in the vivarium can help keep them hydrated too.
Once they start looking shrivelled and worse for wear they should be removed. But while they’re fresh they can stay in the vivarium until a couple of hours before lights out. We recommend removing all food a couple of hours before lights out to ensure sufficient digestion time in the warm.
How Much Green Bean Should I Feed A Bearded Dragon?
Your bearded dragon can eat green beans every day as part of a balanced salad diet. We wouldn’t suggest providing just green beans, but mixed in with other salad items they can be fed regularly.
You can feed as many green beans in your salad bowl as your bearded dragon will eat. It’s extremely unlikely that they’ll eat too much – indeed most bearded dragon keepers have more problem getting their bearded dragons to eat enough greenery. We find a bit of organic bee pollen can help ‘sweeten the deal’ and coax the stubborn ones to eat a bit of salad.
You should mix in other vegetables to give your dragon some variety, but there’s no upper limit on how much they can have.
Nutritional Data For Green Beans For Bearded Dragons
| Nutritional Item | Content |
|---|---|
| Water Content (%) | 93.6 |
| Fat (%) | 0.39 |
| Protein (%) | 1.04% |
| Dietary Fibre (%) | 2% |
| Calcium (mg/100g) | 36 (0.036%) |
| Potassium (mg/100g) | 97 (0.097%) |
| Phosphorous (mg/100g) | 23 (0.023%) |
| Vitamin A (ug/100g) | 35 |
| Vitamin C (ug/100g) | 12 |
| Oxalates (mg/100g) | Moderate[3] |
Can I Grow My Own Green Beans?
Without a doubt. Runner beans are grown in huge numbers by amateur gardeners throughout much of the world. They’re certainly a favourite in the UK, often being seen climbing up makeshift frameworks made from bamboo sticks and tied at the top.
They’re relatively easy to grow but do require a good deal of water particularly during the summer – but also when they’re first sprouting in the spring.
They’re readily available in seed packets from almost any shop that sells seeds and are also available on Amazon, although almost everywhere seems to be out of stock at the time I’m looking!
Summary
So, can bearded dragons eat green beans and are green beans for bearded dragons OK? The answer is yes, green beans are perfectly good for bearded dragon as part of a balanced vegetable diet. They provide good hydration and aren’t bad in the level of calcium provided – particularly when considering the lower ratio of potassium and phosphorous.
They will need dusting with a good calcium powder twice a week just to boost that calcium level up even further.
Frequency: STAPLE.
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 6th February 2021 from https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168472/nutrients
2: Oxalate data sourced from St Josephs Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada fetched on 1st February 2021 from https://www.stjoes.ca/patients-visitors/patient-education/patient-education-k-o/pd-9447-oxalate-in-food.pdf
3: Lake Shore Pet Hospital Oxalates In Foods Fetched on 8 May 2021 from https://lakeshorepethospital.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Oxalates_In_Food.pdf