Whether it’s strawberries, pineapple, or bananas, bearded dragons love fruit, and peaches are no exception. Although they can’t eat fruit every day due to the sugar content, it’s a nutritious way to sweeten their diet and coax them to eat greens. Let’s take a closer look at the question: can bearded dragons eat peaches?
Yes, bearded dragons can eat peaches! In fact, peaches are typically one of the safer fruits for bearded dragons, although they can’t be eaten all the time.
How Often Can Bearded Dragons Have Peaches?
Since peaches have considerable nutritional value for people and bearded dragons alike, beardies can have peaches once a week. If your bearded dragon gobbles up some fresh, ripe peaches, he’ll enjoy the following benefits:
- Hydration boost from 88% water content
- Improved digestion from fiber
- Strengthened immune system, vision, and growth thanks to Vitamins A and C
- Healthy blood pressure, nervous system, and water retention from potassium
Luckily for bearded dragons, peaches are not considered a high-sugar fruit. So bearded dragons can eat more peaches than, say, kiwi, which contains quite a bit of sugar.
Overall, peaches are an excellent choice for bearded dragons as a healthy and delicious salad topper or treat. Still, there are a couple reasons bearded dragons can’t eat them every day.
Why Bearded Dragons Can’t Eat Peaches All the Time
Peaches contain goitrogens, and their calcium to phosphorus ratio is off balance, making them unsuitable in large quantities or more often than once a week.
Goitrogens are compounds found in foods that can negatively impact a bearded dragon’s thyroid function. If your bearded dragon consumes a lot of food that is goitrogenic (high in goitrogens), her thyroid may become enlarged and begin malfunctioning. This can cause hormonal imbalances and related problems.
Phosphorus is a mineral that binds with calcium and prevents it from being absorbed into the dragon’s bloodstream. Calcium is vital for beardies’ health, so it’s important to know how much phosphorus is in the foods your bearded dragon eats. If a particular food has more phosphorus than calcium, it should be limited in your dragon’s diet (it’s also a good idea to dust it with calcium powder to help balance things out).
Peaches have more phosphorus than calcium, so even though this fruit is beneficial enough to be fed on a weekly basis, you should not feed it more often than that. And your beardie can really only handle a few pieces of peach at a time.
How Can Bearded Dragons Eat Peaches?
Does your bearded dragon like fruit? She’ll probably love peaches. All you have to do is get some fresh, ripe peaches (not canned due to harmful preservatives), and follow these simple steps:
- Wash the peach thoroughly.
- Remove the skin and pit since they present a choking hazard.
- Slice the peach into small pieces and feed them to your bearded dragon.
Toss together a salad of collard greens, bell peppers, carrots, and celery, and top it with some sweet peaches. Or offer peaches as a delicious dessert. Your choice!
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