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Can A Bearded Dragon Eat A Frog? (Important Read!)

A photo of a large bearded dragon in a vivarium

Can a bearded dragon eat a frog? Being omnivores, bearded dragons can eat a wide range of fruits, vegetables and insects. These reptiles need a diet that is varied, which means it’s always great fun feeding them and seeing what they like – particularly when it’s live food like crickets!

If you want to know what else bearded dragons can eat, read here

In the wild, bearded dragons would eat lots of animals. In fact, 75% of what they eat would come from animals like cockroaches, crickets, worms, and even mice! The rest of their diet would be made up of vegetables, greens, and fruit.

Given their varied diet in the wild, can a bearded dragon eat a frog? There are a number of reasons why I Bearded Dragon Should not eat a frog. The main reason though is that frogs and toads can secrete a poisonous toxin out their skin which could kill your Bearded Dragon, they also contain nasty parasites and pathogens.

Can a bearded dragon eat a frog when it’s wild?

As we’ve mentioned above, a bearded dragon’s proper diet includes vegetables, fruits, and a meat protein source.

Most bearded dragon owners choose to provide crickets to their pets as these are easy to get hold of and are fairly cheap.

However, there are always people who are wanting to vary what they give their pet and many people often ask about frogs.

Unfortunately, as fun as it might seem, bearded dragons shouldn’t eat frogs – even wild ones. This is due to the health risks that these animals can pose to bearded dragons.  There are many risks involved with eating wild frogs.

Impaction risk

When you feed your bearded dragon, you should always try to provide food that is small enough to fit through his digestive tract.

Even when you feed him crickets, you need to ensure that you don’t choose ones that are bigger than the space between his eyes. 

If food is too big to pass, it can cause a blockage in the digestive tract, which in turn can lead to an impaction. Impactions can become fatal if they are not noticed or not treated.

Risk of choking

Although choking doesn’t happen as often as impaction, bearded dragons do choke on things that are too big.

If your pet is choking, you might notice gagging or coughing. When this happens, you need to clear their throat.

If this happens when you’re not around, the choking could be fatal. Feeding a frog to your bearded dragon could cause choking due to their size.

Poisons and parasites

With frogs, especially wild ones, you run the risk of introducing parasites to your bearded dragon. Furthermore, you don’t know what the frog itself will have eaten and this could pose a risk to your bearded dragon. 

There’s no way of guaranteeing that a wild frog is free from parasites. It might also have been in contact with harmful substances when walking over an area (like fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides).

Can a bearded dragon eat a frog

Can a bearded dragon eat a frog?

Can a bearded dragon eat a frog when it’s from a store?

You might wonder whether store-bought frogs might be ok as you know where they’ve been and what they’ve eaten. However, your bearded dragon still shouldn’t eat a store-bought frog. Let’s look at some reasons why.

Frog skin

Bearded dragons can’t digest the leathery skin of frogs. This makes them a risk to bearded dragons as they could choke on the skin or it could cause an impaction. 

Bones

As well as not being able to digest frog skin, bearded dragons also find it impossible to digest the bones of a frog. This means that your bearded dragon could suffer serious consequences if he were to consume a frog.

Can a bearded dragon eat a toad?

For similar reasons to frogs, bearded dragons shouldn’t eat toads either. What’s more, toads secrete fluid from their skin. This is fatal to bearded dragons and can poison them. 

The difference between a toad and a frog is that a toad’s skin is bumpier. It’s rougher and drier, which means that toads can blend into their environment more easily.

Could a bearded dragon live with a frog or toad?

It’s really not a good idea to put a frog or a toad with a bearded dragon. Even though they bearded dragons shouldn’t eat these amphibians, they don’t know what and they would have a pretty good go at doing so!

It’s best for all if frogs and toads, and bearded dragons are kept separately. 

What can bearded dragons eat?

As we’ve said, bearded dragons are omnivores that eat vegetables, fruits and protein. If you’re wanting to feed your pet live food, mealworms, king worms, and crickets are a great option.

Otherwise, leafy greens like parsley and kale are great and they will also enjoy other vegetables like bell peppers and sweet potatoes. Fruit is fine but should be limited. 

Live foods and protein sources that bearded dragons can eat

There are many entertaining live foods that your bearded dragon is ok to eat. These include:

  • King worms
  • Crickets
  • Earthworms
  • Waxworms (as a treat because these are high in fat)
  • Locusts 
  • Cockroaches
  • Silkworms
  • Butterworms
  • Phoenix worms
  • Dubia roaches
  • Mealworms (only suitable to adults as they have hard skin and could cause impaction in juvenile and baby bearded dragons)
  • Morioworms (as a treat because these are high in fat)
  • Superworms (a larger mealworm – only suitable for adult bearded dragons)

For more information on the foods which you can and cannot feed to your bearded dragon, have a look at my bearded dragon diet guide.

Can you give your bearded dragons insects that you’ve captured from the wild?

This isn’t advisable because wild insects might contain parasites that are harmful to your bearded dragon. If you want to feed your pet live food, you should visit an exotic pet shop.

Another thing you should never feed your bearded dragon is fireflies. Any glowing insects are toxic to bearded dragons and consuming them can lead to death.

What other foods are unsafe for bearded dragons?

There are lots of things that bearded dragons can eat but some things on this next list of what they can’t eat might surprise you.

Bearded dragons will eat things even if they are harmful to them so it’s important that you don’t give them access to things that might make them ill. 

Bearded dragons shouldn’t eat:

  • Chives 
  • Onion
  • Mushrooms
  • Celery
  • Orange (the citrus upsets their tummy)
  • Lemon (similar to orange)
  • Iceberg lettuce (this is mostly water and has hardly any nutritional value)
  • Beet tops and spinach (these contain chemicals that can cause your bearded dragon to be calcium deficient. This can then lead to metabolic bone disease).
  • Rhubarb (this contains a high level of oxalic acid, which is poisonous to bearded dragons)
  • Avocados (these contain toxic chemicals for bearded dragons – a small amount will make them ill and a large amount will kill them).

Conclusion – Can a bearded dragon eat a frog? ?

So, can a bearded dragon eat a frog? As you’ve seen, bearded dragons can’t eat either frogs or toads. Frogs and toads could be carrying bacteria or other parasites that pose health risks to your pet.

What’s more, bearded dragons are unable to digest the leathery skin and the bones of amphibians like toads and frogs.

Toads can also be poisonous. Finally, size-wise, many frogs and toads are too large. Bearded dragons might attempt to eat them but choke or risk impaction because of their size.

Therefore, you should never attempt to feed a frog or toad to your bearded dragon as it would be bad for their health and could even kill them. 

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