Tiny baby

[Jenna]

Hi, we've had our baby now for just over a week. He seems to be doing ok, he's moving around more now and he's poopin twice a day at the moment.
1st thing, when we got him he was tiny, we was told he was 5 weeks but he's still real small. I think he measures 4 3/4"
On the first day we tried feeding him crickets in a seperate bowl and he ate about 4 or 5 then after that he refused to eat anywhere but in his viv (i have read on here that it's quite common) You put him in his bowl and all he does is scratch up the side trying to get out. I can't help it, i have to get him out because i don't want him to get stressed. I tried popping the crickets in a freezer to slow them down and put them in his viv, he ate like that for a couple of days (still only about 6 crickets) but i HATE catching crickets at night and i don't think he is enjoying me pulling his viv apart just to get these crickets that he doesn't want. But even then he didn't want to chase them down, only ate some that ran in front of him.
But now he'll only eat if i hand feed him, not just that but he'll only eat off me and not Jenna (my girlfriend)

Now i have done alot of searching on this forum before posting and i understand it's probably down to relocation stress but i don't want him to get used to hand feeding. We've got him some phoenix worms which i have been hand feeding for the past 3 days and he does like them he ate 17 yesterday and about 5 crickets (all hand fed). Do i just put these in his bowl with his salad and leave him to eat when he is hungry, or will he not eat until he dies unless i hand feed him? He does seem more and more happy every day that passes but the food is still an issue.

Just to answer the usual questions, we have an arcadia 12% UV tube that he can get within 6 inches of and a 100watt incandescent basking bulb, themperatures are about 42C on the basking spot and 26C at the cool end measured with digital probe thermometers

Thanks

 

[lacy_black]

I'd just put the phoenix worms in with his salad, maybe put him by the bowl and kind of show him the worms are there by putting a few on top so they're easy to see wiggling.

 

[VEGASLIZARD]

Oh, sounds like he's already taking over the house. Many of us have lazy beardies that insist on being hand fed. That is one of the reasons we call ourselves beardie slaves. We just cater to their every whim and worry that if we don't something disasterous will occur. LOL I hated catching crix when Scorch was little. If you want your baby to eat out of the bowl pull their legs off so they can't get out and see if your little guy will eat that way. If not it is not the end of the world to feed his majesty using a pair of tweezers. btw phoenix worms will crawl out of the bowl.