With a number of videos of pet bearded dragons going viral recently, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of people who have been looking to add a bearded dragon to their family.
This then results in a dramatic spike in the number of people who are looking for help and advice on how to care for a bearded dragon with more and more questions being asked by the community with each year that goes by.
One of the more commonly asked questions that we have seen from people who either already own a bearded dragon or are thinking of getting a pet bearded dragon is about how many mealworms they should feed their bearded dragon.
It is great to see so many responsible pet owners double checking things like this as mealworms are an excellent food option for bearded dragons but we often see people drastically overfeeding their pet bearded dragons which end up resulting in various health issues.
This is why we wanted to publish our own article going over the three main variants of the questions that we see people asking each month about how many mealworms they should be feeding their bearded dragon.
Our table of contents below makes it quick and easy to navigate the article helping you get to the specific section that you require help with but if you are a new bearded dragon owner then we would highly recommend that you at least skim over the full article if possible.
How Many Mealworms Should You Feed A Bearded Dragon?
The number of mealworms that you can feed your bearded dragon depends on their size, age, gender, and activity levels but most people should only feed their bearded dragons a maximum of ten per day with most people not giving their bearded dragon over five mealworms.
This helps to work in other food sources that deliver a healthy, balanced diet to keep your bearded dragon as healthy as possible while offering it a varied and interest interesting diet.
There is also the mealworms vs waxworm debate that we often see between people with both being great options but the majority of people generally just stick to high-quality mealworms for their bearded dragon.
Just keep in mind that mealworms are very calorie dense and can quickly result in unwanted and unhealthy weight gain for your bearded dragon if you do feed your pet too many of them.
This is why most people usually take the recommended number of mealworms per day for a bearded dragon of there age, gender, and size and then only feed them half of it.
You can then feed your bearded dragon a high quality bearded dragon food to make up the rest of its daily calories.
This can also help to keep your pet bearded dragon’s diet more balanced and easy to manage helping to make it more nutritionally complete.
What Happens If You Give Your Bearded Dragon Too Many Mealworms?
Although bearded dragons do love mealworms, they are not the perfect food due to being calorie-dense and not nutritionally complete for a bearded dragon’s requirements.
This means that your pet bearded dragon can quickly gain weight while not having its required vitamin and mineral profile met with the foods that you give it.
This is one of the more common reasons that bearded dragons end up with various health issues but thankfully they can easily be corrected by simply increasing the amount of actual bearded dragon food you give to your bearded dragon rather than mealworms.
Another thing that more and more people are starting to take advantage of is reptile multivitamin as it is a quick, cheap, and easy way to top up their nutrient intake.
You then have to factor in the calorie intake of giving your bearded dragons too many mealworms as it can be very difficult to get your bearded dragon to lose weight.
This is due to their lower activity levels as well as a large calorie deficit in their diet often being a bad thing that is not healthy for a bearded dragon for an extended period of time making weight loss difficult.
Should You Even Feed Your Bearded Dragon Mealworms?
Mealworms are an excellent treat food for bearded dragons that bearded dragons tend to love eating.
This is why they are such a popular option as a treat food for the majority of people who keep bearded dragons as pets.
Provided you feed your bearded dragon mealworms in moderation, often less than ten per day, they are usually fine to add to your pets diet.
This is ten mealworms maximum and some bearded dragon foods contain mealworms so you also have to count these into the number of mealworms that your pet bearded dragons eat.
Keep in mind, more and more bearded dragon owners are switching over to the five mealworms per day limit to help fill in vitamins and minerals from other food sources throughout the day while also saving calories.
As we mentioned earlier in the article, there are constant debates between mealworms and other bug types as a treat food for your pet bearded dragon.
Mealworms are still the most common by far and exactly what we recommend but there are a number of valid alternatives but they can be more difficult to safely fit into your bearded dragon’s diet.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over how many mealworms you should feed a bearded dragon each day to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand when you can and can’t feed your pet bearded dragon mealworms. They really are an excellent treat food option but too many people overfeed their bearded dragon’s mealworms and end up with issues with their pet so be sure to control the intake of mealworms that your bearded dragon is able to have access too.
