How we calculate it
Your feeding plan isn’t a guess.
It’s built from decades of field research on wild reptiles, adjusted for life at home, and grounded in quarterly lab testing of the actual feeders in your box. This page shows every step of the math — and where each number comes from.
The chain, end to end
We start with wild-animal science
How much energy does a lizard actually burn in a day? Field researchers answered this by tracking free-living animals with the doubly-labeled-water method — the gold standard for measuring energy use in the wild — across 55 reptile species. Nagy, Girard & Brown (1999) summarized the results, and we use their desert-lizard equation [1]:
Why this equation fits your pet. The dataset behind it includes Ctenophorus nuchalis — the central netted dragon, a wild Australian desert agamid and one of your bearded dragon’s closest studied relatives. It also includes three desert gecko species, which is why the same equation grounds our leopard gecko plans: leos are arid-habitat geckos too.
Nagy himself notes these equations tend to overestimate what captive animals need. That’s what the next step is for.
Adjusted for life at home
Your pet doesn’t hunt, patrol a territory, or dodge predators. Nagy’s guidance: active captive reptiles maintaining proper body temperature need roughly 60–70% of what their wild cousins burn. We build in a factor of 0.65, assuming an active animal in a properly heated enclosure.
This discount points the plan in the safe direction — against overfeeding, the most common feeding mistake in captive reptiles. One honest caveat: an under-heated, sedentary animal needs even less, which is one more reason the plan is a starting point, not a prescription.
Converted to calories
Dividing by 4.184 converts kilojoules to kilocalories — the "calories" on any food label. That’s the whole step.
Worked example — 60 g leopard gecko
Our planning engine reproduces this figure exactly — it’s unit-tested against the published math.
Split between insects and greens
Not every calorie comes from the box. Leopard geckos are insectivores — insects are the whole diet. Bearded dragons shift from mostly insects as juveniles to mostly greens as adults. The shares below were set in consultation with a wildlife biologist and checked against published research on the diet of free-roaming bearded dragons (Oonincx et al.) [4].
The balance of calories comes from greens, following our care guides. Greens and supplements stay required either way — the plan covers insect energy; it doesn’t replace dusting or UVB.
Powered by our own lab data
Generic calculators use species averages from decades-old tables. Your plan knows exactly how many calories are in these specific feeders, because an independent lab — Midwest Laboratories — measures them for us every quarter.
Does the method hold up? Applied to Finke’s (2002) published cricket composition, our calculation gives 1.43 cal/g — Finke’s directly measured value is 1.40. Within 2% [3].
A note on hornworms. They ship tiny and grow out at your house, so the plan uses their expected fed-out weight — about 1.5 g (small) to 3 g (medium). Your care card walks you through the grow-out; the plan counts on it.
From calories to a schedule
The last mile: turning a daily calorie budget and one box of insects into "feed this, today."
Same animal, same box, same plan — every time. There’s no randomness in the schedule.
Your animal has the final say
You might expect a "growth multiplier" for juveniles. We deliberately don’t use one: Nagy’s research on neonate reptiles found that growing animals don’t burn meaningfully more energy for their size than adults do [2]. The "growing animals need lots of extra food" belief likely reflects a history of captive overfeeding.
Instead, the plan corrects through body condition — a feedback loop, not a fudge factor:
- Looking underweight? Add 1–2 insects per feeding.
- Looking overweight? Remove 1–2 insects per feeding, or skip 1–2 feedings a week.
- Growing? Update the weight in your dashboard and the plan recalculates.
The honest fine print
What this plan can’t do.
Neither bearded dragons nor leopard geckos have been directly studied for field metabolic rate. We use the closest published group — an equation whose dataset includes their near relatives — and reptile energy use is consistent enough by family and habitat to support it.
The 65% captive factor assumes an active animal in a properly heated enclosure. Cooler or more sedentary animals need less.
Our calorie densities are batch averages from quarterly testing. Individual insects vary.
The plan is a starting point, not a prescription. Your pet’s body condition — and your exotics vet — always outrank it. It makes no medical claims.
It covers insect energy only. Greens (for dragons), calcium dusting, and UVB remain required.
If those caveats make the plan sound less magical — good. That’s what evidence-based looks like.
Sources
Read what we read
A starting point built from real data.
Not a prescription. Your pet’s body condition — and your exotics vet — always outrank the math.
How we calculate it
Your feeding plan isn’t a guess.
It’s built from decades of field research on wild reptiles, adjusted for life at home, and grounded in quarterly lab testing of the actual feeders in your box. This page shows every step of the math — and where each number comes from.
The chain, end to end
We start with wild-animal science
How much energy does a lizard actually burn in a day? Field researchers answered this by tracking free-living animals with the doubly-labeled-water method — the gold standard for measuring energy use in the wild — across 55 reptile species. Nagy, Girard & Brown (1999) summarized the results, and we use their desert-lizard equation [1]:
Why this equation fits your pet. The dataset behind it includes Ctenophorus nuchalis — the central netted dragon, a wild Australian desert agamid and one of your bearded dragon’s closest studied relatives. It also includes three desert gecko species, which is why the same equation grounds our leopard gecko plans: leos are arid-habitat geckos too.
Nagy himself notes these equations tend to overestimate what captive animals need. That’s what the next step is for.
Adjusted for life at home
Your pet doesn’t hunt, patrol a territory, or dodge predators. Nagy’s guidance: active captive reptiles maintaining proper body temperature need roughly 60–70% of what their wild cousins burn. We build in a factor of 0.65, assuming an active animal in a properly heated enclosure.
This discount points the plan in the safe direction — against overfeeding, the most common feeding mistake in captive reptiles. One honest caveat: an under-heated, sedentary animal needs even less, which is one more reason the plan is a starting point, not a prescription.
Converted to calories
Dividing by 4.184 converts kilojoules to kilocalories — the "calories" on any food label. That’s the whole step.
Worked example — 60 g leopard gecko
Our planning engine reproduces this figure exactly — it’s unit-tested against the published math.
Split between insects and greens
Not every calorie comes from the box. Leopard geckos are insectivores — insects are the whole diet. Bearded dragons shift from mostly insects as juveniles to mostly greens as adults. The shares below were set in consultation with a wildlife biologist and checked against published research on the diet of free-roaming bearded dragons (Oonincx et al.) [4].
The balance of calories comes from greens, following our care guides. Greens and supplements stay required either way — the plan covers insect energy; it doesn’t replace dusting or UVB.
Powered by our own lab data
Generic calculators use species averages from decades-old tables. Your plan knows exactly how many calories are in these specific feeders, because an independent lab — Midwest Laboratories — measures them for us every quarter.
Calorie density computed by the modified Atwater method (4/9/4) from quarterly third-party panels, as-received basis. Latest: June 2026.
Does the method hold up? Applied to Finke’s (2002) published cricket composition, our calculation gives 1.43 cal/g — Finke’s directly measured value is 1.40. Within 2% [3].
A note on hornworms. They ship tiny and grow out at your house, so the plan uses their expected fed-out weight — about 1.5 g (small) to 3 g (medium). Your care card walks you through the grow-out; the plan counts on it.
From calories to a schedule
The last mile: turning a daily calorie budget and one box of insects into "feed this, today."
Same animal, same box, same plan — every time. There’s no randomness in the schedule.
Your animal has the final say
You might expect a "growth multiplier" for juveniles. We deliberately don’t use one: Nagy’s research on neonate reptiles found that growing animals don’t burn meaningfully more energy for their size than adults do [2]. The "growing animals need lots of extra food" belief likely reflects a history of captive overfeeding.
Instead, the plan corrects through body condition — a feedback loop, not a fudge factor:
- Looking underweight? Add 1–2 insects per feeding.
- Looking overweight? Remove 1–2 insects per feeding, or skip 1–2 feedings a week.
- Growing? Update the weight in your dashboard and the plan recalculates.
The honest fine print
What this plan can’t do.
Neither bearded dragons nor leopard geckos have been directly studied for field metabolic rate. We use the closest published group — an equation whose dataset includes their near relatives — and reptile energy use is consistent enough by family and habitat to support it.
The 65% captive factor assumes an active animal in a properly heated enclosure. Cooler or more sedentary animals need less.
Our calorie densities are batch averages from quarterly testing. Individual insects vary.
The plan is a starting point, not a prescription. Your pet’s body condition — and your exotics vet — always outrank it. It makes no medical claims.
It covers insect energy only. Greens (for dragons), calcium dusting, and UVB remain required.
If those caveats make the plan sound less magical — good. That’s what evidence-based looks like.
Sources
Read what we read
A starting point built from real data.
Not a prescription. Your pet’s body condition — and your exotics vet — always outrank the math.