Can Bearded Dragons Eat Celery? (Read First)

Celery is known to be a healthy food and it’s always a good idea to introduce your bearded dragon to new foods from time to time.

But can bearded dragons eat celery? Or is this a food that should be kept strictly off the menu?

In this post, we will take a deep look at the research and opinions of top reptile nutritionists and veterinary websites so you can be confident you are making the correct choice before adding celery to your bearded dragon’s diet.

So can bearded dragons eat celery? Bearded dragons can safely eat celery as part of their diet. Having said this, it’s not recommended to add celery to your bearded dragon’s diet on a regular basis. This is due to the fact that celery is mainly water and doesn’t offer much nutrition when compared to other available options.

Read on to learn…

• The nutritional information of celery
• The benefits and potential health concerns of feeding your bearded dragon celery
• How often should you feed your bearded dragon celery?
• How to prepare celery for your bearded dragon
• 5 lesser-known foods that are great options for bearded dragons!

Celery | Nutritional Information

When deciding if a food is either a good or bad option for your bearded dragon, it’s always best to look at the nutritional data.

This will give you a great insight into whether the food has the right kind of nutrients your beardie needs and also if it can be fed as a staple food or just as a treat.

It’s important to look at nutrients such as fat, sugar, protein and sodium as well as the calcium and phosphorus levels (we will explain this later)

We have included a table that shares the most relevant nutritional data for celery. Source:

You can check out the table below…

Can Bearded Dragons Eat Celery? (More Info)

As we mentioned earlier, bearded dragons can eat celery as long as it’s part of a balanced diet.

Many veterinary experts such as VCA-Hospitals don’t recommend feeding your beardie celery very often due to the fact that it’s minerally poor.

Bearded dragons have very small stomachs and everything they eat needs to be of high nutritional value to cater to their complex nutritional needs such as a high demand for calcium.

Unfortunately for celery, the nutrition it offers isn’t anywhere near the level of other available foods such as kale or swiss chard for example.

Having said this, celery is fine to feed to your beardie in moderation and also has some health benefits that we will take a look at shortly…

Can Bearded Dragon Eat Celery Leaves?

Celery leaves are also perfectly fine for your bearded dragon to eat.

You can opt to either feed your beardie just the leaves or combine the leaves and stalk in a mix together.

If you combine the leaves and stalk together then you should make sure to still only provide one complete portion.

For example, if you offer both the leaves and stalks then you should offer a half portion of each to make a full portion and not a full portion of each to total 2 portions.

Are There Any Benefits to Bearded Dragons Eating Celery?

Even though celery is known to be nutritionally and minerally poor, it still does have some good qualities when considering it as a food to add to your beardies diet.

Let’s now take a look at the positive nutritional factors of celery…

Celery Has a Good Calcium to Phosphorus Ratio

Looking at the table we provided above, you can see that celery offers 40mg of calcium and 24 mg of phosphorus.

The calcium to phosphorus ratio in foods is extremely important to bearded dragons.

This is because bearded dragons rely on high amounts of calcium to allow their bones and body to operate freely.

Phosphorus stops calcium from being absorbed in the body so it’s important for beardies to consume more calcium than phosphorus in their diet.

A ratio of 1:1 or even 2:1 in favour of calcium is recommended to allow calcium to be easily absorbed and keep your bearded dragon’s bones healthy.  Source:

This ratio doesn’t have to be met for every single food you feed your beardie but it does need to be met for their diet overall.

For example, feeding one food from time to time with a poor calcium to phosphorus ratio won’t do much harm to your bearded dragon but feeding them constantly as the main part of the diet will.

Again, celery offers a healthy ratio of these 2 minerals and you can safely add it to your beardies diet knowing that it won’t cause any problems to the way they absorb calcium.

Celery Is Low in Sugar

Something else that’s worth mentioning about celery is that it’s low in sugar. As you can see from the table above, it only contains 1.34g of sugar per 100g which is low and obviously good.

Too much sugary foods can be a problem for many animals including bearded dragons.

They can cause problems such as…

• Obesity
• Upset stomach and diarrhoea 
• Tooth and gum problems

One of the most overlooked factors in feeding your beardie too many sugary foods is the impact it can have on their teeth.

The teeth of a bearded dragon are rooted directly into their jaw bone as opposed to the teeth of mammals that are rooted into sockets.

This means that if your beardie suffers from any kind of tartar build-up that causes them to tooth pain then it can easily spread to the jaw as well.

This can result in several trips to the vets to rectify these kinds of tooth problems.

If you want to find out more about your bearded dragon’s teeth then check out this ‘easy to follow’ guide that shares all you need to know as an owner…

The good thing about celery is that the sugar content is really low so you don’t need to worry about any of the above problems including tooth and gum problems.

Are There Any Concerns to Bearded Dragons Eating Celery?

There aren’t really any health concerns to feeding your bearded dragon celery, however, this doesn’t automatically mean that it makes an ideal choice to add to your beardies diet on a regular basis.

Let’s take a look at the main reasons why celery might not be the best food choice for your bearded dragon…

Celery Is Mainly Water

Bearded dragons only have small stomachs and every mouth full they eat really needs to be of highly nutritious food that best serves their needs.

The big problem with celery is that even though it’s got a good calcium to phosphorus ratio and it’s low in sugar, the bottom line is that it simply doesn’t offer any key nutrients in high enough quantities.

In fact, celery is mainly water according to health.com with 95.43g per 100g actually coming from water.

This can be something to think about if you have a baby or juvenile beardie as every meal counts when they are going through such rapid growth.

You can see exactly how fat a bearded dragon grows from birth to adulthood in our guide with visual charts here.

Celery Is low In Calcium

Ok, so earlier in this post, we talked about how celery has got a good calcium to phosphorus ratio, however, the amount of calcium on offer is still pretty low.

Remember that celery only offers 40mg of calcium per 100g which low compared to kale which offers well over 200mg per 100g.

It can’t be expressed enough how important calcium is in the diet of a bearded dragon and celery just doesn’t offer much of this vital nutrient when compared to other readily available greens and veggies.

It’s much better to offer your beardie foods such as kale that dandelion greens that are packed with calcium and other nutrients rather than celery that isn’t really offering much more than a little variety at mealtimes.

You can see exactly how good kale is for your bearded dragon and how often it can be added to your beardies diet by checking out our recent guide with tables here…

How Often Can Bearded Dragons Eat Celery?

Due to the fact that celery doesn’t offer high volumes in any key nutrients that bearded dragons need, it’s best to treat it like a treat food.

We recommend you offer your beardie celery around once per week to once per month in small portions and mixed with other highly nutritious foods.

As we’ve mentioned earlier in the post, constantly feeding your beardie foods that are high in calcium on a regular basis is essential.

You can find out all you need to know about calcium and why it’s vital to the health and well being of your bearded dragon in our bearded dragon calcium guide here.

How should You Prepare Celery For Your Bearded Dragon?

Most foods that you offer your beardie will need some slightly different preparation.

Below is a quick predation guide to adding celery to your beardies food bowl…

• First, thoroughly wash the celery and stalks if you are opting to feed those too.

This is highly recommended by many of the veterinary experts to try to ensure the food is clean and free from as many pesticides as possible.

• Next, finely chop the celery into small cubes and finely chop the leaves too.

There’s no need to cook celery and providing it raw will preserve any of the nutrients it does contain.

• The last step is to add the celery to the daled bowl along with other nutritious greens. 

The best way to make sure you don’t feed your beardie too much celery is to only use it as a salad topper. Simply sprinkle a thin layer of the celery on top of the salad bowl and this is more than enough.

5 Lesser-Known Healthy Foods to Feed Your Bearded Dragons Instead Of Celery

Sometimes it can be difficult to keep your beardies salad bowl interesting and healthy at the same time.

The same foods constantly get talked about over and over again and sometimes you just want to give your bearded dragon variety or a healthy treat.

For this reason, we have researched the 5 lesser-known foods that are healthy for bearded dragons and make a great alternative to celery and the staple foods you feed them on a day to day basis.

These foods are…

• Turnip
• Butternut Squash
• Green Beans
• Sweet Potato
• Bell Peppers

We have also put all 5 foods side-by-side in a handy table with their key nutrients so you can compare them and decide which one of them you want to add to your bearded dragon’s diet.

Check out the table below…

Source:

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