It has hints of bitterness and is a popular dish. You either like it or you don’t. Asparagus is known as a healthy and nutritious vegetable for humans. But is it also safe to feed it to your bearded dragon and does it provide the health benefits as well?
The short answer is yes, beardies can safely eat small amounts of asparagus in their diet. However, don’t feed it as a staple in their diet and don’t feed it too often. Here you’ll find feeding instructions, nutritional information and alternatives to asparagus.
Table of Contents
Is Asparagus Healthy For Bearded Dragons?
As mentioned in the beginning it’s safe to feed asparagus to your bearded dragon. But it may surprise you that this vegetable doesn’t provide any real benefits to your beardie. We can’t feed them everything that’s healthy for us. That’s why it’s important to look for the nutritional value that a vegetable or fruit provides.
The nutritions of ½ a cup of asparagus¹ are the following:
- Calories: 13.5kcal
- Protein: 1.5g
- Carbohydrates: 2.6g
- Fat: 0.2g
- Fiber: 1.4g
- Calcium: 16mg
- Phosphorus: 35mg
Positive Aspects
However, asparagus is abundant in vitamin A,C,E,K and is a good source of antioxidants. Some of the healthy benefits this vegetable can provide:
- Strengthen the immune system – vitamin C and antioxidants can keep your beardie safe from diseases
- Better digestion – fiber will make sure to keep the digestion intact
- Improving kidney function – the high water content keeps the bearded dragon hydrated and the containing potassium strengthens the kidney.
- Building up damaged cells – vitamin E prevents inflammation and builds up damaged cells of your beardie.
- Regulating blood clotting – thanks to vitamin K in asparagus
Negative Aspects
This sounds like asparagus is the perfect vegetable for your bearded dragon. Unfortunately, it lacks in many important nutrients that your beardie needs to stay healthy. Let’s take a look at the aspects that are not perfect in your bearded dragon’s diet:
- Low amount of calcium and too much phosphorus (!) – that’s a really important aspect in the diet of your beardie. They need a lot of calcium and that’s why asparagus is not considered as a staple vegetable. On top of that there’s more phosphorus than calcium. About 2 times the amount. If your beardie consumes a higher amount of phosphorus than calcium it may develop metabolic bone disease and that’s something we want to avoid.
- Moderate amount of oxalates – this can prevent calcium absorption for your bearded dragon and can cause the same disease like a high amount of phosphorus.
So that doesn’t mean that this vegetable is not good but other vegetables are a better nutritional source and provide more value for your beardie. However, if you want to feed it to your bearded dragon than make sure to follow the following feeding instructions.
Feeding Recommendation
You can either feed your bearded dragon raw or cooked asparagus. The benefit of cooked asparagus is the lower amount of oxalates but at the same time reduces the amount of vitamins. Also make sure that you don’t serve it warm and wait until it has room temperature.
However, we think it’s better to cook it to reduce the amount of oxalates and reduce the health risks for your bearded dragon. The vitamins should be compensated with other vegetables anyway.
How to feed bearded dragons asparagus
- Make sure to buy organic asparagus, if it’s available
- Wash it before you feed it to your beardie. You never know where the vegetable was before and how many hands touched it.
- Don’t add any spices, salt or oil.
- Chop it into small and short pieces so it’s easier for your bearded dragon to swallow.
How often feed asparagus to your bearded dragon
Like we mentioned before asparagus doesn’t count as a staple vegetable. Therefore, you should avoid feeding it too often to your beardie. There’s no exact answer and it always depends on your bearded dragon’s diet. Experts such as the VCA hospitals recommend that only a small percentage in their diet² should include vegetables like asparagus.
Considering the bad phosphorus to calcium ratio and the amount of oxalates, we wouldn’t recommend feeding your bearded dragon asparagus more often than every 3-4 weeks. There are way better options than this vegetable available.
Alternatives
Asparagus is harmless for humans but it’s not for bearded dragons. That’s why we listed you a few alternatives that are better than asparagus and provide more nutritional value.
- Boc Choy
- Dandelion Greens
- Kale
- Mustard Greens
These are just a few examples. But don’t worry we got you a bigger list in the vegetables section. However, always make sure to have a good variety of vegetables available for your bearded dragon.
Further Information
We have you a few more informations³ about asparagus that you should know when buying it:
- Storage: use a rubber band to hold them together and store them in a container of water and put it in the fridge. However, before serving it you should wait until the asparagus has room temperature
- When to buy: you can get asparagus all year long. The peak season is in late spring. Choose stalks that have a slightly closed bud and that are rich in color.
Reference¹: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/270805#diet
Reference²: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/bearded-dragons-feeding
Reference³: https://www.verywellfit.com/asparagus-nutrition-facts-calories-and-their-health-benefits-4118017