# Can Dragons eat cat food?



## Dr_Greenthumb (Nov 17, 2009)

Hi guys
Iv been told that u can feed ur CBDs cat/dog food as long as it does not contain fish
and that u can also use the dry food
Is this true?
If it is true can it be a staple of their diet or only a occasional thing?


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## JasonL (Nov 17, 2009)

Not all dragons will willingly eat dog food, esp dry. Usually it's a learnt behaviour when the animal is housed with bluetongues and the like that willingly eat dead meat products, esp with male beardies that are highly competitive.


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## Dr_Greenthumb (Nov 17, 2009)

If i can get them to eat it, is it ok as a staple or only now and then?


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## lilmissrazz (Nov 17, 2009)

what kind of dragon mate?


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## JasonL (Nov 17, 2009)

Dr_Greenthumb said:


> If i can get them to eat it, is it ok as a staple or only now and then?



every now and then, esp if it's kept indoors.


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## Chris1 (Nov 17, 2009)

why cat food? its not a cat,.....!!


beardies shouldnt have too much protien or fat in their diets, so its best to stick with what theyre meant to eat, which is insects and salads,...

adult beardies dont need much protien, mine get the occasional roach or superworm, (like probably 10roaches a month if that, its been alot less lately since i feed all the adult roaches off at the beginning of winter so i have all fresh adults at this time to start breeding again)) but the rest is just a big healthy salad (greens, butternut, beans, snow peas, etc) every second day and just greens on alternate days,...they love their salads and its so easy!!

much better for them and much nicer than having a stinky can of cat food sitting in the frigde,..

other things they seem to love is scabbing chicken (i peel off the nice fat free bits) or egg white from my plate when im eating,....so they get a bit as a treat now and then,...chub trys to dive head first into my bolognaise if she gets a chance,..lol,...so i pick out the carrots for her,..


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## Dr_Greenthumb (Nov 17, 2009)

Shouldnt they be having insects 5 times a week?


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## Crood (Nov 17, 2009)

Chris1 said:


> why cat food? its not a cat,.....!!
> 
> 
> beardies shouldnt have too much protien or fat in their diets, so its best to stick with what theyre meant to eat, which is insects and salads,...
> ...



You are not feeding anywhere near enough insects!!!!
Chickens are feed growth hormones which mimic steroids,Chicken is also usually bleached before going on sale at your butcher/supermarket.
Mince is treated with so many chemicals I would be here for ages explaining it all. Mince is treated with dye and many are also sprayed and mixed with a diluted formaldehyde.

My point is you are trashing greenthumb's question when you yourself aren't feeding your dragons properly


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## Serpentes (Nov 17, 2009)

Crood said:


> Chickens are feed growth hormones which mimic steroids,Chicken is also usually bleached before going on sale at your butcher/supermarket.
> Mince is treated with so many chemicals I would be here for ages explaining it all. Mince is treated with dye and many are also sprayed and mixed with a diluted formaldehyde.



Can you please provide more informantion on your comments above? Some of it is news to me, and I'd like to know more.

Cat food is high in Phosphorus and has an inappropriate calcium to phosphorus ratio for reptiles. Cats need lots of phosphorus, so ash is added to their commercially prepared meals. Reptiles, and dgos, require a diet higher in calcium to phosphorus. You can feed a little bit of dog food every now and then, the best way is to soak dry dog food in a little water for a couple of hours in the fridge then offer it.


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## Dr_Greenthumb (Nov 17, 2009)

its probably not much different to those beardy pellets


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## JasonL (Nov 17, 2009)

I feed my breeding and growing Dragons a ratio of about 80% insects daily to 20% greens, I feed a diverse range of insect as I can and regularly swap between woodies and crickets, and when I can feed silkworms and anything I can catch myself, for greens I just use wild weed / flowers like dandelions and hybiscus flowers from friends yards, certainly no need to buy anything special. I never "offer" canned pet food to beardies but have had a few that ate it when I was feeding the skinks that were kept with them at various times, only certain individuals would bother eating it though (and they were all males) as my beardies were spoilt with bugs. 
Feeding non breeding adult Beardies is a totally different kettle of fish though, as they easily get obese and you could probably raise them on as little as a 10 / 20 % insect intake.


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## grimbeny (Nov 17, 2009)

Chris1 said:


> why cat food? its not a cat,.....!!
> 
> beardies shouldnt have too much protien or fat in their diets, so its best to stick with what theyre meant to eat, which is insects and salads,...
> 
> adult beardies dont need much protien, mine get the occasional roach or superworm, (like probably 10roaches a month if that, its been alot less lately since i feed all the adult roaches off at the beginning of winter so i have all fresh adults at this time to start breeding again)) but the rest is just a big healthy salad (greens, butternut, beans, snow peas, etc) every second day and just greens on alternate days,...they love their salads and its so easy!!



If you fed a hatchie beardie this diet it would suffer pretty heavily. Do you know how old this guys beardie is before you tell him to feed his animals about 10 roaches a month... I know you stipulated that you were reffering to animals in that specific part but if a new members was to read that quote they may think a hatchy needs to be fed even less.


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## grimbeny (Nov 17, 2009)

Crood said:


> Chickens are feed growth hormones which mimic steroids,Chicken is also usually bleached before going on sale at your butcher/supermarket.
> Mince is treated with so many chemicals I would be here for ages explaining it all. Mince is treated with dye and many are also sprayed and mixed with a diluted formaldehyde.



Im also interested, do you have any resources where i can read about this happening in Australia? Also is there any reason why you think those chemicals would be worse for reptiles than humans, becaus ive never heard of anyone dyieng from eating a home made rissole.


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## Crood (Nov 17, 2009)

grimbeny said:


> Im also interested, do you have any resources where i can read about this happening in Australia? Also is there any reason why you think those chemicals would be worse for reptiles than humans, becaus ive never heard of anyone dyieng from eating a home made rissole.



I don't ever remember saying that it would kill you. Same as mouthwash it can be harmful if swallowed but I wouldn't go drinking a bottle of it just because it wouldn't kill me

I'm sure google will have some research. It is banned in Australia to use a lot of the chemicals but I know for a fact that many meat purveyors still do it. They can also get around this by buying meat from o/s.
They do the same with seafood. Prawns aren't meant to be bright red 2 weeks after coooking!


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## Dr_Greenthumb (Nov 17, 2009)

Thanks guys (particully Jason)
Lucky im not so new to this
People should not be giving advice like that
Id hate to think what would happen to juvenile on less than 10 woodies a month
Or what would happen even if an adult dragon on this diet got sick (it would have no reserves)
Just to answer a few question 
They are Pogona Vitticeps ranging from 10-12 months
Please guys just cos ur methods that u have been using ever since u got into herp keeping (11 months ago) have been working for you this does not mean it does not have long term affects


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## Chris1 (Nov 17, 2009)

Crood said:


> You are not feeding anywhere near enough insects!!!!
> Chickens are feed growth hormones which mimic steroids,Chicken is also usually bleached before going on sale at your butcher/supermarket.
> Mince is treated with so many chemicals I would be here for ages explaining it all. Mince is treated with dye and many are also sprayed and mixed with a diluted formaldehyde.
> 
> My point is you are trashing greenthumb's question when you yourself aren't feeding your dragons properly



umm, they get a tiny bit off my plate, as a treat, and i buy the hormone free stuff,...im not trying to save cash at the expense of my animals,...hence the 'trashing' cat food.

and when chub dives into my plate she gets carrot, 
i guess ur not capable of reading the complete sentence! 

sorry, i should have specified that was for adults, i came to the assumption that he was taking about adults since babies like live food and people are generally still happy to spend the cash on food for teh little ones! 
Strangely enough it seems i assumed correctly, 10-12 month old dragons are generally fully grown, ie. adults.


so i will add, for babies feed as many crickets/roaches that fit within the space between their eyes as they will eat in 10 mins 2-3 times a day,...should be between 50 and 100,....

what would happen on this diet if one got sick?
it'd lose some weight i hope,....i also aim for a food free day a week (2 for chub) in the hopes of getting them thin!!! 

....thats the main reason i had to stop the live food in the first place,...! 

but seriously, if u wanna feed ur dragon cat food, pizza, maccas or anything else go for it, my point was its not designed for dragons and theres better food available, since their adult diet should be 80-90% veg. u never know, it might even grow fur!


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## JasonL (Nov 17, 2009)

Chris1 said:


> but seriously, if u wanna feed ur dragon cat food, pizza, maccas or anything else go for it, my point was its not designed for dragons and theres better food available, since their adult diet should be 80-90% veg. u never know, it might even grow fur!




Ha, a few months back my wife went to the effort of heating me up a stir fry that I had made the night before, now she doesn't cook and that was alot of effort for her, she bought it out to the herp house where I was working but I had already grabbed something to eat on the way home and didn't want to tell her... after two mouthfulls I realised I wasn't going to finish it so I fed it to my male BD, he really enjoyed to curry stir fry :lol:, ate the vast majority of it...


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## Chris1 (Nov 17, 2009)

haha, can just imagine the bearded curry farts, lol,..!!

ur wife doesnt cook? lucky woman!!


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## JasonL (Nov 17, 2009)

Chris1 said:


> haha, can just imagine the bearded curry farts, lol,..!!
> 
> ur wife doesnt cook? lucky woman!!



nope, I love it and she hates it..... I had to bring something to the marriage..


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