I'm worried about my little guy...advice needed!

Hi Everyone! I'm new to this site and I'm so thankful I found it! My 1 year old male beardie Sarge WILL NOT eat veggies or fruit. I have tried everything from trying to sneak it in with his crickets or worms to buying special "Beardie Salad Dressing." Tonight I tried to give him some salad soaked in apple juice and the special salad dressing and as soon a he tasted it, he would twitch violently. Also the coloration and pattern around his eyes changed. He loves to eat bugs and has a very healthy appetite for them, but just won't touch veggies or fruit. As a baby, I fed him the beardie food pellets, but now he won't even eat those. Also, he's not pooping very often anymore. He used to poop daily like clockwork and now he'll go maybe once a week. I must confess I'm just learning how complex taking care of a Beardie is. We bought Sarge from PetsMart and I thought all there was to it was setting his cage up with proper lighting and feeding him crickets every day along with the pellets. I've just recently learned about bathing him and making sure the cage temps are accurate. I feel very overwhelmed and sad bc I love him dearly and I feel as though I haven't taken care of him properly due to honest ignorance. Can anyone help me figure out what's wrong with my baby? Thank you so much!

Hi Kimberly....even though he hasn't developed an appetite from veggies yet, it doen't mean you've neglected him. You do want him to start eating them, but when dragons are young + growing, protein is the most important, and it sounds like he eats pretty good on his bugs. Is he a healthy weight + size ? He may be a bit dehydrated since you didn't know about baths, unless you gave water in another way. Hopefully once he;s hydrated better he'll have more frequent poos. Keep offering greens at least twice a week, turnip greens mustard, collard, dandelion, cilantro, clover [ this can be from your yard as long as you don't spray chemicals or fertilizers of any type ] He may find something in that mix that he likes. Mine like clover almost more than anything else. Be sure to gut load [ feed ] the crickets well, offer them the same greens that you would the beardie so he will actually get some greens from the gut of the crickets that he eats. Can you post a pic of him, as well as his set up ? What type + brand of lights do you have ? If there are any other adjustments needed, someone can help you out, but if he has a good appetite he should be pretty healthy overall, so don't worry too much.

Welcome!
Sometimes it's just about finding the one they like best. My beardie won't touch anything but collard greens so just try a variety, I'm sure you'll find something he enjoys. I would try to bathe him more since he hasn't gotten a lot of baths and see if it helps him with the pooping. How big is he, I'd like to see a picture. Most people on here will ask you to post exact details of your set up to make sure that everything else is correct, this can be the cause of not pooping also so it will help to find exactly what the problem might be. :]