While bearded dragons eat ants in the wild, there is no real nutritional value in feeding your pet beardie ants. So, to answer your question, yes, bearded dragons can eat ants, there is just no real reason to. Check out the Insect List.
While ants aren’t a bad treat every once in a while, they should not be the main part of your lizard’s diet. The primary reason is that there is practically no nutritional value in feeding them ants.
Insects Bearded Dragons Can Eat
- Can Bearded Dragons Eat Bedbugs
- Can Bearded Dragons Eat Beetles
- Can Bearded Dragons Eat Caterpillars
The Pros of Feeding Your Bearded Dragon Ants
If you’re insistent on feeding your dragon ants, there are a few advantages to this.
Ants are easy to find. No need to buy any ant food or have an ant farm.
Ants are cheap. It usually only costs a few cents for enough ants to feed your lizard for a day or two.
Ants are relatively short-lived, so you don’t have to worry about keeping them in your home too long if they aren’t eaten right away.
The Cons of Feeding Your Bearded Dragon Ants
They will eat the ants very quickly and likely not even taste them at all because of how fast they eat them.
There is no real nutritional value in feeding your bearded dragon ants. They do not provide any vitamins or minerals that are beneficial to lizards at all. So, while you think you are doing your bearded dragon a favor by feeding them ants, they really aren’t getting any nutritional value from them at all.
Ants can be difficult to digest for many lizards. While most beardies will eat and digest the ants just fine, some may have stomach problems and other digestion problems because of it. If this happens often, then maybe ants should not be fed as a treat to your lizard anymore.
My Bearded Dragon Ate Some Ants, Should I Be Worried?
It’s not uncommon for bearded dragons to eat an ant here and there. The only ants to possibly worry about would be ants your beardie discovered in the wild. The ants would be safe unless they had ingested a pesticide and then your beardie ate them. Even then he would’ve had to have eaten a lot of them. Overall, I wouldn’t worry about your bearded dragon eating ants. Monitor him/her for a few days following the incident.
Conclusion: Can Bearded Dragons Eat Ants? Yes, but they shouldn’t be fed as a staple of their diet. They may accept the occasional treat now and then without issue, but if their digestive systems cannot handle such small insects or if they continue to have digestive issues after eating ants on occasion, then it’s best to avoid feeding ants.