Can bearded dragons eat apples? Yes, they can.
However, due to the high sugar content of this fruit, you should feed it to your pets sparingly and no more than once a week.
Bearded dragons are true omnivores and will eat anything. You should limit the number of fruits they eat, though, since it’s not a significant part of their natural diet.
Never give your beardie apple seeds or skin because they pose a choking hazard.
In This Article
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Apples?
Can bearded dragons eat apples? They can, but only in small amounts and only once a week.
Feeding bearded dragons apples is a good idea since they contain useful nutrients and minerals.
However, a bearded dragon’s diet doesn’t naturally contain sugars, and apples are loaded with sugars (approximately 10 g of sugar per 100 g serving).
To avoid health issues associated with excessive sugar intake, don’t allow your bearded dragon to eat apples more than once a week to avoid health issues associated with excessive sugar intake.
If you give your bearded dragon no more than You can safely feed your bearded dragon five or less bite-sized pieces of apple a week.
How Do You Feed Apples to Your Beardie?
When feeding apples to your beardie, it’s important to prepare them correctly. Here’s how:
- Wash the apple thoroughly to remove any trace chemicals from the transporting process.
Pro Tip: Always buy organic apples to avoid poisoning your beardie with pesticides or other agricultural chemicals.
- Dry the apple and peel it, removing all the skin around the section you’ll be feeding to your beardie.
- Cut the apple into quarters, then cut each quarter into quarters.
- Your apple is now cut into 16 pieces. Take one-sixteenth of the apple and ensure that it has no seeds in it.
- Cut the piece of apple into smaller pieces that your beardie will be able to eat in one bite.
- You should get around four to five bite-sized chunks. If you get more, only remove four or five to feed to your dragon. Young beardies should only get one or two.
- Place the apple pieces in a shallow dish.
- Add some leafy greens and other healthy vegetables, cut into appropriately sized pieces.
- Mix the apple and the other vegetables.
- Dust all the food in the bowl with a high-quality calcium supplement.
- Feed your dragon!
Preparing the apple pieces is essential because the peels and seeds can make your bearded dragon choke.
Always dust your dragon’s fruit with an appropriate calcium supplement to keep the correct ratio of calcium to phosphorus.
Advantages of Feeding Apples to Your Bearded Dragon
The following are the health benefits to your dragon when apples are fed in the right amount.
Let’s take a look at some of the main ones.
- Apples are rich in fiber which helps to aid digestion.
- Apples contain high amounts of Vitamin A and Vitamin C, which improve growth, eyesight, and immunity.
- Apples contain various trace minerals like iron and zinc, which most animals require to some degree to remain healthy.
Disadvantages of Feeding Your Beardie Apples
When feeding your dragon the right amount of apples, you’ll avoid most of the potential problems, which include:
- Apples contain too much sugar. In the wild, a dragon’s diet consists mostly of proteins, like live insects and fiber-rich greens.
Dragons can’t handle large amounts of sugars as it isn’t part of their natural diet.
Most fruits, whether plums, raisins, or apples, contain large amounts of sugar.
Pro Tip: Red apples have a higher sugar content than green or yellow apples.
Overfeeding apples to dragons can lead to health problems like tooth decay, fatty liver disease, and obesity.
Besides offering fruit in moderation, ensure that your dragon has access to fresh water so that it can flush the excess sugars from its body.
- Apples have the wrong calcium to phosphorus ratio.
Beardies have very specific requirements when it comes to phosphorus and calcium.
They require a 2:1 ratio of calcium to phosphorus. Apples offer almost the exact reverse of this ratio, with twice as much phosphorus as calcium.
While this may not sound like a major problem, the wrong calcium to phosphorus ratio can lead to metabolic bone disease (more about that later).
It’s especially important to ensure that younger dragons receive the correct ratio as they grow and while their bones are still forming.
- Apple peel and seeds are a choking hazard.
Most bearded dragons tend to wolf down their food and not chew properly.
The chewier parts of the apple, like the peel and seeds, can cause a problem if you don’t remove them.
Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD)
MBD is one of the major reasons why you shouldn’t feed your dragon too many fruits like apples.
When young beardies take in too much phosphorus and not enough calcium, it can have a devastating effect on bone formation.
MBD is a debilitating disease that occurs when beardies are given an improper diet.
Symptoms of MBD include:
- A lack of appetite
- Limping or moving strangely
- Weak bones which break or fracture easily
- The dragon has difficulty lifting its body off the ground.
- Hard, bony lumps on the dragon’s legs, spine, and jaw
- Sluggishness or lethargy
- The lower jaw appears unusually soft, and it moves in an abnormal way.
If a young beardie suffers from MBD, there’s a chance of correcting the problem by changing the diet and calcium ratio of the dragon.
In some cases, however, the damage is too intensive, and some signs will persist even when the dragon is an adult beardie.
MBD makes it difficult for a dragon’s immune system to function properly.
Since the bones are fragile, the animal is more prone to internal injuries. If you suspect that your beardie has MBD, get it to a vet immediately.
Always ensure that you feed your dragon apples with calcium supplements dusted on them. It will help to partially correct the problem with the fruit’s calcium to phosphorus ratio.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Green Apples?
Yes, bearded dragons can eat green apples.
Bearded dragons can safely eat any apple color, but there are differences in the nutritional and sugar values of the colors and varieties.
As an example, the Granny Smith apple ( a green variety) contains 5 g of calcium in every 100 g portion.
A Fuji apple (a red variety) contains 6 g of Calcium in every 100 g portion.
Both types contain 10 g of Phosphorus in every 100 g portion.
Bearded dragons can eat green apples, but we’d suggest varying the type of apples you feed your bearded dragons.
They can benefit from the different minerals and nutrients.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Apples Every Day?
Can bearded dragons eat apples every day? Certainly not.
While apples are less harmful to your bearded dragon than many other fruits, eating apples daily can lead to serious health issues.
In the wild, bearded dragons eat a low-sugar diet. They live mostly on insects and foliage, which are high in proteins and fiber.
To accommodate their high-protein, high-fiber diet, the bodies of these animals have adapted to run on low levels of sugars.
Feeding high-sugar fruits like apples and strawberries daily can lead to problems like obesity and fatty liver disease.
Can Baby Bearded Dragons Eat Apples?
Baby bearded dragons CAN eat apples.
Just like adult bearded dragons, baby bearded dragons love an apple snack.
However, baby beardies can’t handle the same sugar intake as an adult bearded dragon.
Only feed one or two small bite-sized pieces every second week.
Nutritional Value of Apples
Apples contain an excellent assortment of nutrients and minerals which help your bearded dragons stay healthy.
As we said earlier, there are some minor differences between the nutritional value of green and red apples.
We’ll take a look at both green and red apples to show you why you should feed apples, but avoid feeding apples to your bearded dragon in large amounts.
According to the USDA, a 100 g serving of Granny Smith apple (green) contains the following:
- 85.1 g of water
- 0.27 g of protein
- 2.5 g of fiber
- 10.6 g of sugar
- 5 mg of calcium
- 10 mg of phosphorus
- 5.1 mg of magnesium
- 116 mg of potassium
The same source reports the following nutrient content for Red Delicious apples:
- 84.7 g of water
- 0.19 g of protein
- 2 g of fiber
- 12.2 g of sugar
- 5 mg of calcium
- 9 mg of phosphorus
- 4.7 mg of magnesium
- 95 mg of potassium
As you can see, the largest portions of an apple’s nutritional value consist of water and sugars. Your dragon can get water other ways, and their sugar requirements are low.
Your dragon will get all of its nutritional needs when fed a proper diet.
Both green and red apples contain useful amounts of minerals like magnesium, and ripe apples contain around 4.6 mg of vitamin C. These nutrients make apples beneficial.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Apple Peels?
NO, bearded dragons cannot eat apple peels.
Unlike most mammals, who can safely eat apple peels, bearded dragons can’t eat apple peel.
These animals have adaptations for eating foliage rather than fruit, and a peel can cause a serious problem that they’re not equipped to handle.
- It poses a choking hazard.
- They may not be able to chew it completely.
- It can cause impaction or a stoppage in the dragon’s gut
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Apple Skin?
No, bearded dragons cannot eat apple skin.
You should remove the skin of an apple, also known as the peel, before feeding the apple to your bearded dragon.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Applesauce?
A constipated bearded dragon CAN eat applesauce to help relieve its stomach issues.
Preferably, any applesauce you give your adult dragons (who are more prone to constipation) should be organic.
Non-organic applesauce can contain traces of herbicides and pesticides, which might be toxic to your pet.
Also, ensure that the applesauce doesn’t contain any added sugar, maple syrup, or honey. Only ever feed unsweetened applesauce.
As we demonstrated in the section about the nutritional value of apples, more than 10% of an apple is sugar.
When you puree apples to get applesauce, you combine many apples. The resulting sauce thus contains the sugars of multiple apples.
Feeding a small amount of unsweetened applesauce is like feeding apples to your dragon every day for a week: it contains a lot more sugar than the usual portion.
Feeding sweetened applesauce can lead to fatty liver disease and tooth decay.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Apple Seeds?
Bearded dragons cannot eat apple seeds.
When you prepare apples for your bearded dragons, ensure that you remove ALL the apple seeds.
The seeds of these fruits can be a choking hazard if your bearded dragon eats them.
Apple seeds also contain Amygdalin, a chemical that produces cyanide when digested. Though a few seeds will most likely not harm your dragon, avoid giving them to your pet.
What Other Fruits Can Bearded Dragons Eat?
Most fruits are high in sugar, so avoid making them the main feature in your dragon’s diet.
Let’s look at some of the most common fruits and whether your dragon can safely eat them.
- Strawberries – Yes, but only as an occasional treat
- Tomatoes – Yes, but only once a month
- Bananas – Yes, in small amounts once or twice a month
- Melons – Yes, but only in small amounts, as an occasional treat
- Oranges – No, oranges contain many sugars and oxalic acid
- Kiwi fruit – Yes, a few small bite-sized pieces once or twice a month
- Pears – Yes, a small piece once or twice a week
- Passion fruit – No, passion fruit is too acidic
- Grapes – Yes, in small amounts and only as an occasional treat
Creating A Balanced Diet for Your Bearded Dragon
Bearded dragons require a balanced diet for them to stay healthy.
In the wild, a dragon will eat mainly live foods and foliage, which is what their digestive tract has adapted to deal with.
Things to avoid include too much fiber and too much sugar. Your dragon can safely eat many other things, though.
Young bearded dragons require a higher protein intake than your adult beardie. Around half of their diet should consist of live foods like feeder insects. Excellent choices include:
- Mealworms
- Crickets
- Superworms
- Feeder Earthworms
Pro Tip: Avoid feeding your dragon waxworms since these animals contain too much sugar and have a high-fat content.
For a beardie that’s over a year old, they can safely eat a diet that’s around one-third protein and two-thirds vegetation.
While dragons can eat apples, your dragon’s diet should never consist of more than one-fifth of fruit.
Most fruits contain a lot of sugar, or acid, or both, and your dragon can’t deal with either of those things.
The majority of your dragon’s meal plan (at least one-third) should consist of vegetable matter. The following are all excellent options:
- Leafy vegetables like mustard greens and kale
- Beans
- Sweet peppers
There are many, many other feeding options for your dragon. You can read more about them in our comprehensive bearded dragon diet article.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this article about bearded dragons and apples.
There’s a lot to learn about these spectacular animals.
Check out some of our other articles, like the guide to bearded dragon substrates and the bearded dragon lighting guide, to learn even more.
What’s your beardie’s favorite fruit? Let us know in the comments.