Food Choice Help.

We got a new Beardie about a month ago. He's around 12-14 weeks old and 9" at the moment. He seems to be doing good, but I would like to broaden is eating habits a bit.

Right now we make him a salad in the morning when the lights come on. It's Turnip Greens, Yellow Squash, Sweet Peppers, and a little bit of Strawberries. He doesn't seem to be eating the greens much though. His favorite is the Sweet Peppers, but he doesn't come down off his perch running for his salad bowl to get them either. If I take and put a piece on my finger he will eat them easily. I've tried Collard greens as well and not had any luck getting him to eat those either. Occasionally he will pick a piece of squash out. How do I get more greens into his diet?

As well I'm about to place a order for more crickets for him. We feed him crickets twice a day currently. Normally it's 7-10 crickets each time and I put them in a small rubber maid tub and just place him in with them. He's grown a bit lazy and just waits for them to crawl by now days, but it beats trying to catch the ones he doesn't eat around his change for 10 minutes to get them out. When I place the order I was thinking about adding some Phoenix or Mealworms to it as a treat or just something to put in the salad bowl to attract his attention. Is he to small for this yet?

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Thanks

At that age it's not uncommon for them to ignore salads. It's good that you're exposing him to it though so keep that up. The items you're using in the salads are also very good. They switch to a primarily salad diet out around 12-18 months and it's somewhat gradual. Since he's exposed to it as a food source from a young age it will make the transition much easier. Keep offering salads and he'll eventually switch over on his own and you can start to decrease the bug offerings.

For bugs I'd offer as many as he wants to eat for 10-15 minutes per meal twice a day. As he gets closer to a year old you can reduce to one feeding per day but still with the all he wants in 10-15 minutes rule. It's a good idea to offer some variety with bugs as well. Phoenix Worms are a good choice as are silk worms. When he gets bigger he may enjoy hornworms for some hydration (they are very large though so not till he's bigger) and maybe some butterworms as an occasional treat (they are somewhat fatty). If dubia roaches are legal where you are, those are a good feeder choice as well and can be used as a staple along with or in place of crickets. You can get crickets in bulk at premiumcrickets along with their grain chow and water crystals. I've had good experiences with Lindasgonebuggie for worms. I started my dubia roach colony with an order from abdragons.

Thanks. I'll keep at what I'm doing. I did order some Phoenix worms as a treat. I'll toss them in and hide them under salad. He's going to work for them.

I've thought about Roaches, but my wife drew the line as Roaches of any sort in the house or bugs stored in her Refrigerator as well.