Table of Contents Abstract 1 Acknowledgements 2 Introduction 3 Purpose 4 Problem 5 Hypothesis 6 Variables 7 Materials 8 Procedure 9 Pictures 10 Data Tables 11 Graphs 12 Analysis 13 Conclusion 14 Applications & Further Research 15 References 16
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to train a bearded dragon to eat healthier. When a bearded dragon does not get an appropriate variety of food, it may become weak form a bone disease called Metallic Bone Disease (MBD). Make a salad for the lizard, with 5 treats in it. Record the data after 1 hour of the salad being put in the lizards’ cage. The records will include how much of the salad has been eaten and if the salad was just eaten to just get to the crickets. This will be repeated for five days from day 1 to day 5, the amount of cricket treats will decrease. (5 crickets on the first day, 4 crickets on the second day, etc.). Then, on a sixth day, I will feed the lizard a salad with no treats, and see if he notices the difference. On the first day of the experiment, I can assume that the lizard was not so interested in the salad because only a little of the salad was eaten. As the experiment progressed, the lizard began to notice the smell of the treats. As the second day went by, the lizard took advantage of the new meal and ate until he found the treats, and then ate about half of every salad for the rest of the experiment, except for the day when there was no treats. I conclude that bearded dragons can be trained to live off of salad foods.
Acknowledgements
There wasn’t much to be done for this project, or much to be purchased, but I’d like to thank my mother for purchasing other things such as crickets, a cricket cage to help keep the crickets alive longer, and the salad ingredients for the lizard.
Introduction
This experiment is about bearded dragons. The bearded dragon that will be used in this project is almost 1 year old and 12-12.5 inches long. The average male adult bearded dragon lives around 8-10 years and reaches about 24 inches (Or 2 feet) long by the time it is 2 years of age. This experiment will test to see if a bearded dragon can be trained to eat a healthier variety of food. The recommended diet for a bearded dragon as a baby is about 20% vegetables and 80% meat/protein. As they reach about 1 year old, the diet should be about 50/50. Then, as they reach 2 years old, and for the remainder of their life, they should have a diet of mostly vegetables.
Purpose
The purpose of this project is to train a bearded dragon to eat healthier. When a bearded dragon does not get an appropriate variety of food, it may become weak form a bone disease called Metallic Bone Disease (MBD).
Problem
Can a bearded dragon be trained to eat a healthier mix of food to expand its life span?
Hypothesis
My hypothesis is that the lizard will like the salad and that he will get used to eating more veggies than meat/proteins like crickets.
Variables
Independent- The black crickets in the food (the treats) Dependent- The smell of the treats will vary during the different trials
Constants- The cage, the environment, the food bowl, and the ingredients for the salad
Control- The controls are the same as the constants.
