Can Bearded Dragons Eat Spring Greens

Can bearded dragons eat Spring Greens? Are Spring Greens For Bearded Dragons OK? Yes, bearded dragons can eat spring greens regularly.

What Are Spring Greens For Bearded Dragons?

Spring greens are very similar to Collard Greens. They’re a leafy green vegetable in the Brassica oleracea family. The central leaves don’t form a particularly solid head and this puts Spring Greens akin to wild cabbage.

Spring greens are found primarily in Northern Europe and are loose leafed as opposed to forming a tight head. This means that all the leaves are exposed to light and atmosphere which makes them darker and generally tougher. For the same reason they are also more strongly flavoured than those cabbages that form a tight head. They are quite rich in Vitamin C and Folate as well of course, as dietary fibre.

Can Bearded Dragons Eat Spring Greens?

Yes, bearded dragons can eat spring greens regularly. We consider them a staple vegetable for bearded dragons and they can have them every day. It’s worth remembering that they tend to be found more in Europe and the UK than in the US where collard greens would be more popular. But the two are very similar.

Spring greens for bearded dragons are a good source of calcium, vitamin C, folate and dietary fibre whilst not having the fat levels that insects would carry of course.

Spring greens also make an excellent gut-loading vegetable for crickets and locusts and even to some extent Morioworms, although the latter don’t seem to eat all that much at a time. Locusts and crickets however will devour Spring greens down to the tough veins in a matter of hours if they’re hungry enough.

Advantages Of Spring Greens For Bearded Dragons

Disadvantages Of Spring Greens For Bearded Dragons

How Should I Feed Spring Greens To A Bearded Dragon

Spring greens should be fed daily to bearded dragons as part of a balanced vegetable diet.

Many bearded dragons are quite happy to have fairly large leaves of spring green in a bowl (along with other vegetables) and they often like to rip them up and parade around the vivarium looking very proud of themselves.

Other bearded dragons of course won’t go near spring greens – or any green vegetables. You may find that a little dash of bee pollen might help entice them to take on some vegetable matter for dinner.

Spring greens should be fed to your bearded dragon as raw, and fresh. You can decide whether your bearded dragon prefers larger leaves or smaller chopped or shredded leaves. Either way, it’s the green, more succulent portion of the leaf that they’ll want to eat rather than the whiter veiny looking parts. The veins are quite tough anyway and even the locusts or crickets will avoid eating those parts. You can definitely cut the green parts away from these thicker whiter veins.

If your bearded dragon has a thyroid problem you could try steaming the spring greens first to break down the goitrogens and reduce the thyroid issues associated with them. To be fair though, we’ve never tried to feed a bearded dragon on steamed or otherwise cooked spring greens, so we’re not sure if they’d even try it.

How Much Spring Green Should I Feed A Bearded Dragon?

Spring greens can be fed every day. They should be placed in a suitable dish in the morning and can be left in the vivarium all day – replacing when they get too dry or have been mostly eaten. You’ll not overfeed spring greens to your bearded dragon so don’t worry if they eat loads.

Spring greens should be dusted lightly with a calcium supplement to increase the calcium content at least twice a week. They can also be lightly sprinkled with some water before being placed in the dish to help keep them a little bit more fresh throughout the day.

Place the spring greens and salad mix at the cool end of the vivarium so that they last longer before drying out. Dried spring greens aren’t going to be appetizing for your bearded dragon. You may find you need to replace them at least once throughout the day if your bearded dragon hasn’t eaten them before they go dry and wrinkly.

You should mix in other vegetables to give your dragon some variety, but there’s no upper limit on how much they can have.

Nutritional Data For Spring Greens For Bearded Dragons

Can I Grow My Own Spring Greens?

Spring greens seeds are almost impossible to find in our experience. This seems to be because the term Spring Greens is a bit of a generic term for a particular variant of the Brassica oleracea plant – of which there are a number of variants. We have found some seeds that appear to be what we would understand as spring green seeds available on Amazon but these are specific variety of cabbage.

We would instead recommend, if you’re growing your own, that you would probably be better off with Collard Green seeds instead. You can find out more about Collard greens here.

Summary

So, can bearded dragons eat spring greens and are spring greens for bearded dragons OK? The answer is yes, spring greens are an excellent leafy green vegetable for bearded dragons. They can be fed regularly, although should form part of a balanced diet so mixed with other vegetables too. Spring greens are a good source of calcium, fibre and water.

Frequency: STAPLE.

For more information on other vegetables that Bearded Dragons can eat, please see our larger overview post at ‘What Vegetables Can Bearded Dragons Eat?’

References

1: Eat This Much website, fetched on 6th February 2021 from https://www.eatthismuch.com/food/nutrition/spring-greens,153295/

2: Oxalate data sourced from St Josephs Healthcare, Hamilton, Canada fetched on 1st February 2021 from https://www.stjoes.ca/patients-visitors/patient-education/patient-education-k-o/pd-9447-oxalate-in-food.pdf

Featured Image by Bearded Dragons Rock