Beardie won't eat

Hi all,

I have a ten and a half month old female beardie who I've had since she was 2 months old. I got her in October last year and she had a massive apatite and grew exceptionally fast. However once winter came around she stopped eating completely. I took her to the vet who suggested some juveniles can get a bit confused and go through a weird "brumate" like an adult would. To keep her growing and healthy the vet told me to syringe feed baby food, which she happily ate, and later gave me some special feeding formula when she still didn't start eating.

Roughly 2-3 months ago she suddenly started eating again (thank goodness), but still doesn't quite have her appetite back to what I'd expect for a dragon her age. She'll take maybe 3 dubia roaches every couple of days and sometimes eats her greens, sometimes doesn't (there's no real pattern).

She's been back to the vet who took her blood and said that besides being underweight and obviously a bit low on calcium, there's nothing else wrong with her. The viv is clean and the lights and temperature are what they should be. She's otherwise basking happily, has a brilliant nature and is a bright orange colour with no stress marks.

Currently on the occasion she does eat, I dust with calcium. Back when she was eating every day I did 5 days calcium and 2 days multi vits. Current length is 15 inches which is smaller than she should be at this age, according to google.

I should add that I've tried treat foods like waxworms (she used to love those) and butterworms too but she isn't tempted.

Has anyone experienced this with a juvenile dragon? If so, how did you get past it? The vet also suggested it could be her hormones as she's female. Was this a factor with yours? I'm very worried about her and am out of ideas to try besides going back to syringe feeding.

Yes my dragon stopped eating for months he went to the vet several times one for check up and blood work and fecal which was negative - he wasnt quite up there w/ the weight but not a concern - back for X rays and his calcium is good --- started feeding him back in April May omnivore/ herbivore mixed for a month or so cant remember --- was watching his weight was not losing and not gaining -- all test came back good --- he has started to eat again around June or so not as much as I would like but hes eating dubias every other day and I feed him salad every day of which he only eat a few bites - he is eating horn worms butter worms silk worms and lately wax worms-- I would suggest keep an eye on the weight - if all is good it is just the dragon and will eat when they are hungry--- as long as you know everything else is good --- mine never lost activity -- he was bright and alert the whole time --- he just went thru a whole body shed and he hadnt shedded since last fall ---
Karrie

Mine went through a slowdown in the winter, her appetite's back up but it's nowhere near it was before the slowdown. However, she's not underweight and she's active, so I'm not too worried.

I recently tried bee pollen on her salad and she's pretty into it. You could try that, it boosts their appetite and seems to be well liked by beardies. I think Flukers and Zilla make appetite stimulants, but I have no experience with them and don't know much about them. I've just seen them at the store when I buy calcium/vitamin supplements for her.

You might try different insects too, she might be tired of the usual.