Fennel is a sweet flowering plant and a hardy perennial herb found in the carrot family. Bearded dragons should eat both plants and insects in their regular diet. Fennel is full of flavor. Yes, bearded dragons can eat fennel. When your bearded dragon is fully grown, it should eat 80% of plants and 20% of insects for its diet to be balanced.
However, when your bearded dragon is still a baby, you should feed it insects and little plants. When young, you should feed your bearded friend 80% insects and 20% plants.
Apart from fennel being flavorful, it contains nutrients that bearded dragons need for their daily survival. Feeding your bearded friend fennel is great since some of the elements it contains will help in boosting their immune system and promoting their excellent vision.
Fennel contains calcium, phosphorus, water, protein, fat, and fiber and it is acidic. Despite, fennel being very nutritious and full of minerals, you should not feed it to your bearded friend regularly.
You should feed your bearded dragon fennel in moderation maybe once or twice a week at most. This is because fennel contains both calcium and phosphorus. Feeding your bearded friend, a lot of fennels may lead to a high concentration of phosphorus in their body.
This may lead to phosphorus binding with calcium and then blocking its absorption into the bloodstream. Since calcium is essential in bone development in bearded dragons, poor absorption will lead to a range of health-related issues.
The health-related conditions brought by low calcium in your bearded friend’s body include kidney stones and metabolic bone disease that can be very life-threatening to them. Apart from low calcium, feeding your bearded dragon fennel regularly may cause a reduction in Vitamin B1 levels in their bodies.
Nutritional Value of Fennel
Fennel is packed with a lot of nutrients that will benefit your bearded dragon if you feed them. However, you should feed your bearded friend fennel moderately. Fennel contains a lot of elements and nutrients that are essential in your bearded dragon’s daily survival.
Here are the benefits of feeding your bearded dragon fennel:
Fibers
Fennel is high in fibers and they will help your bearded dragon as a stool-regulating aid. Additionally, the fibers in the fennel will help your bearded dragon to maintain healthy digestion. In their natural habitat, the bearded dragon gets plenty of exercises and therefore they do not get obese. Fibers in fennel will also help your bearded dragon in keeping a reasonable body weight since they do not get much exercise as in the wild.
Folate (Vitamin B-9)
Fennel also contains a reasonable quantity of Vitamin B-9 which will be essential for your bearded dragons’ skin and tissue.
Potassium and Iron
These minerals are also found in fennel. It will help your bearded dragon in maintaining the proper functioning of its kidneys and muscles. Additionally, potassium will also help your bearded friend in regulating their blood pressure.
Beardies dragons also require potassium for their nerve function. The iron in the fennel will help your bearded dragon in keeping its blood flow oxygenated. Iron will also help in maintaining bearded dragons’ bone and blood health.
Vitamin C
This is one of the most essential vitamins that animals need. Vitamin C in fennel will be essential in aiding growth, organ development, and the regeneration and repair of your beardies body tissues.
Protein
This will help your bearded friend when it comes to the regeneration and formation of bones and body tissues.
Carbohydrates and Vitamin B1
Your bearded friend will use carbohydrates as a source of energy. Vitamin B1 is also essential in converting carbohydrates to energy in beardies.
Calcium
This mineral is very essential to the well-being of your bearded dragon. This is because your bearded dragon will need the mineral for its development and in keeping its bone and teeth healthy. Calcium will also help in the prevention of debilitating conditions like calcium deficiency and Metabolic Bone Diseases (MBD). Calcium will also be essential in the egg-binding prevention in bearded dragons.
Vitamin B6
This vitamin will help in the development of your bearded dragon’s brain and in maintaining a healthy nervous and immune system.
Manganese
It will help your beardie to regulate metabolism and blood clotting.
Magnesium
The bearded dragon will need this mineral in maintaining healthy muscles and brain.
Zinc
Bearded dragons may get injured. Therefore, they will need zinc to help in maintaining recovery, especially after an injury.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Fennel Bulb?
Yes, the bearded dragon can also eat fennel bulbs. When you cut the fennel bulb into reasonable pieces, you can serve your bearded dragon to eat. The fennel bulb is rich in elements such as vitamin C, manganese, potassium, and calcium.
The manganese in the fennel bulb is essential for metabolism regulation in bearded dragons and cellular protection. Additionally, the fennel bulb also contains vitamin C which is essential in bearded dragon protection against cellular damage and tissue repair.
Further, the fennel bulb also contains antioxidants that will help in fighting oxidation in your beaded friend.
There are small amounts of vitamin A in the fennel bulb that your bearded friend will need. Vitamin A will help in promoting healthy skin, promoting the immune system, and improving your bearded friend’s eye health for better vision.
Like the fennel, you should not serve your bearded dragon fennel bulb regularly. Despite the fennel bulb being nutritious, it contains a small quantity of vitamin A.
When you feed your bearded dragons’ fennel bulb regularly, they may suffer from vitamin A toxicity. This may lead to your bearded friend having various issues such as loss of appetite, weight loss, dehydration, and even decreased energy.
There is a lot of phosphorus than calcium in the fennel bulb. When you feed your bearded friend a lot of fennel bulbs, their body will have a large concentration of phosphorus.
This may lead to your bearded friend suffering from a range of health-related conditions such as kidney stones and metabolic bone disease (MBD). This is due to the low ratio of calcium to phosphorus. Phosphorus may bind with calcium and then block its absorption leading to your beardie’s calcium deficiency.
How to Feed Fennel to Your Bearded Dragon
You can serve your bearded dragon both raw and cooked fennel. However, it is best if you feed your bearded dragon raw fennel. This is because when you cook fennel some of its nutritional value reduces.
While bearded dragons can eat fennel, you should feed it the plants occasionally. You should also ensure that the fennel is prepared in the right way before feeding your beardie. This will help in preventing your bearded friend from having health complications.
Make sure the fennel is healthy
Just like choosing the fennel that you want to prepare to eat, the process of selecting fennel for your bearded dragon is the same. You should select the ones that are rich in color, fresh, and healthy.
Wash it thoroughly
This step is very important and you should never skip it in any way. This is because fennel can contain traces of pesticides and herbicides on the skin.
When your bearded dragon ingests too much fennel that is not thoroughly washed and contains pesticides or herbicides, it may suffer from various health complications.
After washing the fennel thoroughly, you should rinse it under cold running water to get rid of any remaining dirt.
Cut the funnel into sizeable pieces
When you want to feed your bearded friend cooked fennel then cutting it into small chunks is quite fine. However, when you want to feed them raw, then you should treat the plant differently.
You can use a slicer to trim the fennel into tiny sizeable and manageable pieces for your bearded dragon. This will help in reducing the chances of accidental choking.
Feed your bearded dragon
Feeding your bearded dragon fennel is not very complicated. You can mix the trimmed sizeable pieces of fennel or cooked pieced with other greens in the feeding bowl. This will enable your bearded friend to eat other things that you have placed in the bowl.
The bowl should be shallow so that your bearded friend can reach all the food inside without it tipping over. Besides a shallow bowl will reduce eating-related stress to your beardie.
Summary
Bearded dragons can indeed eat fennel. Fennel is quite flavorsome and nutritious. The nutrition content in fennel is essential in bearded dragons’ daily survival.
The ratio at which you should feed your bearded dragon fennel may differ with age. When they are young, you should feed them 80% insects and 20% plants. When grown, you should feed your bearded friend 20% insects and 80% plants. Feeding your bearded dragon fennel will help in supplementing their supplementary needs whether they are grown or young.
However, you should not feed your bearded dragon fennel regularly. You should serve it as an occasional treat. This is because fennel contains a high concentration of phosphorus than calcium.
Regular feeding of fennel may lead to phosphorus binding with calcium and them preventing its absorption. This may lead to your bearded friend lacking calcium and suffering from various life-threatening conditions such as metabolic bone disease.
Proper preparation is needed when you want to feed your bearded friend fennel. This is essential in getting rid of any pesticides or herbicides that may cause your bearded friend harm.
It is best if you serve your bearded dragon raw fennel. This is because raw fennel is very nutritious than when it is cooked. Besides, feeding it raw will help give your bearded dragon the opportunity to enjoy eating like in the wild.
Bearded dragons are very active and playful pets. Having them in your home will help in keeping you entertained and occupied as you will get a chance to interact with them.
My name is Brad and I am the main editor of BeardieZilla.com.
The only goal of this site is quite simply to be able to help you. To help you by the means of my experiment, of the relation which I maintain with my bearded dragon as well as some of my knowledge about beardies.
I hope that you will find answers to some of your most pressing questions here.
Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the blog!
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