Can Bearded Dragon Eat Pickles? Pros and Cons

Knowing the right food to feed your bearded dragon is very important if you are looking to keep it healthy. In this post, we will take a deeper look into whether beardies can be fed pickled vegetables.

Can bearded dragons eat pickles?

Bearded dragons should not eat pickles due to their high acidity and sodium content. While bearded dragons can eat cucumber the primary ingredient in pickles. Vinegar, salt, and artificial sweeteners which make up pickles interfere with their pH. When fed to bearded dragons pickles will affect their health negatively.

Ingredients harmful to Bearded Dragon in Pickles

Vinegar

After water vinegar or acetic acid is the second highest ingredient in pickles. Vinegar helps in promoting the fermentation process. Vinegar also adds up to the sour taste of the vinegar.

The acidic nature of vinegar makes it a bad food item for bearded dragons.

Salt

Salt also make up a considerable part of the pickles and also lead to the total amount of sodium present in pickles.

High sodium content in the food of bearded dragons can be harmful to their health.

Other Additives

Other additives present in pickles that are harmful to bearded dragons include artificial sweeteners or sugars, dill weed commonly used to make dill pickles, garlic, cloves, black peppers and cinnamon.

Lastly, pickles also contain preservatives, stabilizers and colourants. These ingredients are all harmful to bearded dragons.

Can you wash pickles and feed them to bearded dragons?

No, you should not feed bearded dragons washed pickles, the process through which pickles are made allows them to absorb most of the ingredients that they are prepared with.

Therefore, washing them will not remove these ingredients which will end up harming the bearded dragons.

Conclusion

You should never feed pickles or any other preserved vegetable or fruit to your bearded dragon. The ingredients used in the preparation of pickles will end up causing health issues for your bearded dragon.