Feeding

Feeding for frilled dragons:

Food items should consist of 75% insects and 25% greens as juvies. and 50/50 as adults says most care sheets, though some frilled dragons refuse greens entirely for their whole life. i feed dubia roaches that have been gut loaded with leafy greens like turnip greens, mustard greens and sometimes collard green. I also gut load with squash, apple, oranges, and some fruit. I NEVER use cat food to feed my roaches. Cat food contains animal proteins, and animal proteins can be deadly for some reptiles. Animal protein breaks down differently then insect or vegetable proteins. If a frilled dragon consumes to much animal protein, for example to many mice/rats, then it can lead to gout. Gout is caused by high uric acid, uric acid is created when a reptile can not absorb and break down the animal proteins properly, there is to much "left over" uric acid and it can build up in their system and leave deposits of crystals on their joints, it can eventually lead to kidney failure since the kidneys over work to remove the uric acid. it is best to feed these reptiles what is best for them and avoid feeding pinkies, mice, or rats more often then 1-2 a month.

Horn worms are great. I purchase my horn worms from Great lakes hornworm. mulberry farm does sell horn worms but i do not like the food they provide for the horn worms. The food they provide is silk worm food, and horn worms dont seem to do that great on the mulberry food. great lake horn worms arrive in better health and provide more wide spectrum of nutrient because of the special formulated horn worm diet they consume.

items i feed my frilled dragons, in this order:

• • dubia roaches

  • great lake horn worms

  • super worms

  • turnip greens

  • mustard greens

  • pinky mice (once a month)

common items i do not feed my adult frilled dragons

• • meal worms

  • butter worms

  • wax worms

  • silk worms

  • CRICKETS

These are commonly fed items that i do not feed my frilled dragon as juvies to adults. Meal worms may be a good treat for very small hatchlings, but do not offer much for a juvi to adult frilled dragon they have a high shell to meat ratio and could easily cause constipation and impaction you would have to feed to many meal worms to provide enough food for your frilled dragon to grow if you feed just meal worms you can expect stunted growth and possible dehydration and impaction. Butter worms can not be gut loaded, i see no use for them. Wax worms are ok but my frilled dragon hatchlings dont find them interesting at all. They also have high fat content and should not be fed often. Silk worms have no immune system, can be hard to keep, and they only eat mulberry food thus can not be easily gut loaded with nutrient like horn worms can be. Hornworms will eat most any food offered(prefer to stay with correct chow) where as silk worms will die if they consume anything but mulberry food.

lastly, crickets! i only feed crickets to hatchlings. they love to chase them. but as the frilled dragon gets older crickets dont offer much to a frilled dragon unless feeding in large quantity, seeing that i hand feed. i could feed 50 crickets or, 15 large dubia roaches. i also noted faster growth rate when feeding dubia roaches and a slower growth rate when feeding crickets as main food item. crickets just dont cut it for a growing frilled dragon especially Australian or hybrids.