In this article I’ve answered this question – can bearded dragon eat grapes? Grapes, whether red, green, yellow, pink or black, are either seedless or seeded clustered fruits that grow in temperate climate across the world.
- Answer; Yes – bearded dragon can eat grapes – just like other fruits and vegetables! Most species of bearded dragon eat grapes comfortably without any challenge – they actually like them.
- Grapes contains strong fiber content (needed to prevent constipation), relative water content (needed for osmoregulation), high potassium content (necessary for blood pressure control), low acid content as well as rich minerals and vitamin composition.
- Read Also: Can Bearded Dragons Eat Apples? See the bearded draons food.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Grapes? 7 Secrets
1. Rich/strong Fiber Content
Grapes have rich and strong fiber content that is necessary for digestion process of your bearded dragon. For every 150g of grapes, there is 1.5g to 2.8g fiber content – this is quite high value as compared to other fruits and vegetables.
Maybe you have vineyard or have seen some grapes in groceries and wonders whether your bearded dragon can feed on them. Would it be okay if you feed it with grapes leaves or vines?
Fiber acts as roughage and binds the food being digested within the alimentary canal. Normally, grapes fiber network will help prevent constipation (inability to release bowels) in your bearded dragon.
Moreover, the grapes fibers are strong, long and coiled (especially for seedless grapes) thus providing a strong grip on food being digested without breaking. This improves the peristalsis process too – the smooth flow of chyme within the digestive track of your bearded dragon.
NB: It is important to note that the fibers are never digested and are highly need in every diet that you feed your beardie.
Related: Can Bearded Dragons Eat Cantaloupe? 7 Tips
2. Relative Water Content Level
Ripe grapes have 45% to 68% water content – this variation is due to climatic conditions in areas they are grown. Also, red grapes have slightly higher water content than green and pink grapes.
Apart from eating the grapes, your beardie will even eat their leaves too. However, grapes shouldn’t be used as a regular diet for bearded dragon, since they have high calcium: phosphorous ratio (causes metabolic bone disease) and relatively high sugar content that may cause teeth decay, high blood pressure and diabetes.
However, on average, the water content in grapes is relative okay for your bearded dragon (if not overfed or when fed occasionally as advised).
For every 180g of ripe grapes, there is 80g to 121 g of water. This generally indicates that grapes will provide good amount of water (to your beardie) necessary for osmoregulation – this is a very crucial physiological process in beardies, which if not corrected will lead to high blood pressure or kidney failure.
Water also help in keeping your pet beardie hydrated thus preventing problems of dehydration such as dizziness, dry skin and dry mouth, constipation as well as low blood pressure.
Importantly, grapes’ water contain low glycemic index that helps control blood pressure and boost ultrafiltration process of your bearded dragon.
Note: You will need to be careful not to overfeed your beardie with grapes as this may lead to excess water intake that cause over hydration in your pet lizard. Actually, over hydration will make the beardie docile, have watery/runny poo, cause osmotic imbalance as well as diarrhea.
3. Low Acid and fat Level
The acidity level in either unripe or ripe grape is below 0.02mg for every 155g of grapes. In addition, the pH level of grapes on the chart ranges between 6.1 to 6.91.
This shows a strong indication that your bearded dragon has health safety when eating grapes as a diet.
We know well that high acid level in diet will cause discomfort and irritation along the alimentary canal (especially along the gullet). Moreover, acid will cause a burning sensation on the mouth inner lining and will cause indigestion problems to your beardies.
It‘s worth noting that grapes also have Antioxidants components such as phytochemical resveratrol (red grapes), lutein and zeaxanthin, which help control heart related diseases and reduces inflammation on your beardie. These chemicals also promotes reduction of allergies occurrence on your pet lizard.
Notably, the skin of red grapes has high composition of antioxidant compounds like flavonoids myricetin and quercetin that will help repair radical cells in the beardie’s brain thus initiating stress relief.
4. Rich Minerals and Vitamins Composition
Ripe grapes have rich vitamin C (27% of RDI), vitamin K (28% of RDI), vitamin B6 (6% of RDI) as well as vitamin A – these vitamins plays a crucial role in protecting your beardie against infection and boosts their pet’s vision.
Grapes also have compounds that reduces cholesterol absorption within the alimentary canal – this prevents cholesterol related diseases such as heart failure or obesity.
Thiamine and riboflavin found in grapes will richly boost the immune system of your bearded dragon further.
Grapes has high content of potassium that is necessary for controlling and regulating your beardie’s blood pressure, stroke and heart disease. Actually, for every 150 g of grapes, there is 288mg of potassium ions – relatively higher as compared to other fruits and vegetables.
Moreover, grapes also contains other minerals such as manganese, copper, magnesium, iron and zinc that will help build up bones, muscles and body tissues of your beardie, thus boosting its good health.
Read Also: Best Cages for Bearded Dragons
How to Prepare Grapes for Your Bearded Dragon
When preparing grapes for your bearded dragon, kindly follow the procedure below:
1. Pick fresh ripe grapes right from the vineyard as an entire cluster. Leave them to drain excess water for 1 to 2 days.
2. Wash the grapes with warm or treated water to remove any chemical or poisonous insects such as fireflies that may be on the skin.
3. For seeded grapes, remove the seed as they may chock and kill the beardie when swallowing. Normally, you should slice the seeded grapes into 2 or 4 parts for easier removal of seeds.
4. For seedless grapes, you can feed your beardie direct or mesh them to form a viscous meal, which it can lick with its tongue.
5. After slicing grapes (smaller pieces enables the beardie to roll them with its tongue), supplement them with other fruits like apples, guavas, apricots as well as vegetables to boost its nutritional value and balance the low calcium content.
6. Place the meal salad in a dish and let the bearded dragon feed itself. Avoid pouring food into the beardie’s mouth directly from above as it may cause impaction or chocking leading to death.
NB: Avoid feeding your beardie with wild grown grapes – normally, most of them are poisonous or cause illnesses to your pet lizard. Read Also: Can Bearded Dragons Eat Cucumbers?
Problems with Overfeeding Bearded Dragon with Grapes.
Grapes, unlike other fruits such as bananas or guavas, should be fed to your beardie occasionally. This is because these fruits cause various side effects to your pet if overfed and not monitored.
Feed your adult beardie once or twice per week with 100g to 150g of ripe grapes. Supplement grapes with main diet when feeding your pet always. After one or two months of feeding your beardie as advised, it is necessary to involve a vet to monitor its health condition.
1. High sugar levels.
For every 100g of grapes, there is 23.37 g of sugars. This amount is relatively high and if not controlled may cause your beardie to suffer from high blood pressure, heart failure and diabetes. In addition, the sugar may be deposited on their teeth in large quantities leading to teeth decay.
2. Relatively High Water Content
Grapes are 45% to 68% water content. This a lone is an indicator that the fruits should be taken in fewer quantities to prevent over hydration on your beardie. Excess water in your beardie will cause diarrhea, runny/watery poo, kidney failure or make your pet inactive. Feed your beardie with grapes that have low water content to curb these occurrences.
3. Imbalance calcium: phosphorous ratio
Major challenge of using grapes as main meal is the imbalance calcium: phosphorous ratio 0.5:1 This is far below the require/ideal ratio, which is usually 1:1, 2:1 or more.
Presence of high phosphorous as compared to calcium will inhibit calcium intake in the blood leading to metabolic bone disease. Since grapes has other high nutritional benefits, you will need to boost the calcium level using calcium powder or other feeds that have high calcium content.
Importantly, avoid using grapes species that has very high phosphorous content. It is also necessary to note that most grapes contain oxalate, which inhibits calcium intake. You will need to avoid using such grapes species for your beardie too.
Avoid feeding your beardie with unripe grapes – they usually have high acid content and low nutrition value. Grapes shouldn’t be used in excess as main meal for your bearded dragon for the different reasons.
Read Also: Can Bearded Dragons Eat Tomatoes?
Can Bearded Dragon Eat Grapes Leaves?
Apart from eating the grapes, your bearded dragon will also eat the grapes leaves. Actually, most beardie species love to eat grapes leaves more that the fruits.
You will only need to separate the leaves from the vines, clean and wet them a bit (for easier swallowing) before feeding your beardie. If possible, chop the leaves into small pieces for easier feeding.
Grapes leaves are more nutritious and rich in fibers, which help prevent constipation for your bearded dragon. Normally, the beardies don’t eat the stems – the stem are not succulent and the beardie’s teeth are not well adapted to peel off the back skin from the stems.
Read Also: Best Substrate for Bearded Dragons
Conclusion
Your bearded dragon will not only eat grapes, but it will also feed on their leaves nicely. Grapes are rich in fiber content needed to help in digestion and also contain high level of potassium content necessary for blood pressure control in your beardie.
In addition, grapes have rich vitamin composition and minerals that boost beardie’s immunity. For beardie’s good health, always involve qualified veterinary for checkup.
However, grapes should be administered as an occasional meal since overfeeding may lead to high water content, high sugar level as well as imbalance calcium: phosphorous ration your beardie.