Your bearded dragon’s diet may vary quite a bit as you try to get them a solid mix of essential nutrients as well as variety so they don’t get bored with what they’re eating. This means you’ll be switching up their bugs, vegetables, and what fruits you’re giving them often enough to keep them from rejecting their bowl.
While fruit is not something you should be giving your buddy every day, it makes a great addition to a weekly bowl as a treat.
Your beardie might start getting tired of the same old grapes and apples though after awhile. With their diets being so selective though, you’ve got to be careful when adding something new as it could possibly be sub-optimal for their nutrition needs. If you were to select a fruit like blackberries for your bearded dragon, how would they work in it’s diet?
Why don’t we find out?
Blackberries and Their Benefits
In all honesty, blackberries aren’t the best of the best when it comes to fruits to give to your bearded dragon. They have some similar benefits to blueberries in that they are packed with antioxidants and vitamins that help to boost your beardie’s immune system and stave off infections. They can help with repair and growth, as well as providing vital minerals to keep their organs and bones strong.
Their digestive system may also benefit greatly from blackberries and their water and fiber content. It is enough to help keep their digestion moving well without causing intestinal discomfort. Just be sure to limit the amount they get on a regular basis so you don’t accidentally give your beardie the runs.
Too much water and fiber can have the opposite effect you’re looking for.
There aren’t many benefits in blackberries for bearded dragons that you can’t find in other fruits. Blackberries honestly while tasty, offer more risk than reward and should be given sparingly if you decide to. They may make a tasty treat to break up the monotony of the same food over and over, but you’ll only want to give these to your beardie every other week or so if at all.
The Problems To Watch Out For
Blackberries, like most fruits, are high in sugar, which bearded dragon’s love, but sugar doesn’t love them. High volumes of sugar in a bearded dragon’s diet can lead to obesity, diabetes, mouth rot, as well as kidney and liver problems. A little bit every week of the right kind of fruits is the limit you should be looking at as far as frequency in their diet goes.
If you are planning on giving them sugar in controlled portions, you should be looking at what it offers versus what makes it not ideal. Blackberries while high in antioxidants, fiber, and water, are also high in oxalates and phosphorous. Both of these naturally occurring things can have really detrimental affects on your beardie’s calcium levels.
Bearded dragons need a lot of calcium in order to keep their bones strong and their bodies healthy. Without it they can suffer from injuries, Metabolic Bone Disease, and other issues with their bones and joints. Usually beardies get enough calcium from their diets as well as supplemental calcium dusting, but giving them fruits and vegetables that actively deplete or absorb the calcium they’re being given, it cancels each other out.
Buying blackberries for bearded dragons is a good idea, but we only recommend them as the occasional treat. If you want something with similar benefits that isn’t as high in phosphorous and doesn’t have issues with oxalates, blueberries are a great way to go.
What Else?
When you decide to give your little guy blackberries, you should prepare them accordingly so they don’t pose any potential difficulty or harm. Blackberries can be a bit firmer in texture which can be difficult for your beardie to chew up on their own. We recommend cutting them to be more bite-sized so even the harder parts are easier to ingest.
As long as you clean them properly and then clean up any residue once they’re done eating, blackberries can be a good treat for bearded dragons to help incentivize your beardie to eat some of the greens and veggies they don’t enjoy as much. They may be the perfect solution to your beardie’s diet fatigue if they keep having the same veggies and fruits over and over again. A little bit of blackberry can spice up their routine every once in awhile to keep things fresh.
So try them out, your beardie is certain to lap them right up!
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