Eating Greens?

Hello! ^^
I'm new to this forum but have been an avid reader for a while for suggestions/advice on Beardies!
I've got something I'd really love some help with and I'm hoping someone might have some good advice?

This is my Bearded Dragon, Haku:


He's about 3 months old, 11 inches.
He loves his crickets (recently gone down to feeding him twice a day) but I'm having a bit of trouble introducing him to eating greens. I've always offered them to him (stuff like shredded carrot, kale, bok choy, turnip greens etc) in his tank every day (in the morning) but he's never interested. I've tired wiggling the salad with my finger to get him interested but he'll only give it a glance before ignoring it. I've also tried putting some crickets in with the veggies to see if he might grab some salad in the process but no luck! He's very good at picking around it. Haven't gone down the meal worm route because I know they're not good for young beardies.

The only way I can get him to eat any amount of greens or veggies is to hand feed him and even that's a bit of a process! I'm lucky if I can get him to eat 4 or 5 pieces of veggies before he refuses to eat anymore. He loves fruit, which I don't give him often but even then he wont eat that unless I offer it to him as I've tried putting some in his salad to entice him to eat it.

Since he's only having two meals of crickets a day now I'd really like to get him eating some more greens and veggies. I don't want to get into the habit of hand feeding him either, does anyone have any suggestions on how to prompt him to eat his darn veggies?

Thank you!

At 3 months old , the hatchling's diet is 95% live insects , 100% live insects is OK too. If the hatchling nibbles on some green leafy stuff - at 3 months old it's a bonus.

Just keep the live insects coming and offer shredded fresh high protein high calcium greens and some grated raw vegs and chopped raw veg each day. What isn't eaten by the hatchling can be fed to the insects to gut load them.

Better off a 3 month old hatchling AT LEAST TWO , THREE if you manage it meals of live insects EVERY DAY , this can be cut back to TWO meals of live insects per day from about 6 months old .
For a 3 month old

>> Blowfly gents / pupae and the flies ( ditto )
>> Black soldier fly lavae / pupae and the flies (quite slow moving and ditto) … try to get the white very wrigglely lavae ...these will be more "interesting" to a hatchling and they must be separated from the bedding they come in (I simply fish them out by hand).
>> small silkworms (I'd offer silkworms 1" - 2" long)
>> suitable sized crickets *, roaches* or locusts *
* not longer than the distance between the hatchlings' eyes, and gutloaded with high calcium greens , carrot and dry lizard pellets (crickets love them) , and dusted every feed.

compare feeder insects : viewtopic.php?f=34&t=235611
veg : http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Under 6 months old , 3 meals of live insects (as many as the hatching wants in a sitting) per day, offer salad but is not important if the hatchling shows no interest in the green stuff and grated vegs.
Need more than 95% live insects while very young and rapidly growing and developing as a hatchling.

See this for indications of sizes feeders
silkworm size that's OK for a 2 month old hatchling



Housefly and blowfly gents


Crickets (I'd be looking for 20 day old crickets or 1/4 size)


It's OK to hand feed a hatchling who is refusing to feed - this shows how some people do this : viewtopic.php?f=18&t=235583, I recommend you get into a routine of giving each a few live insects by hand each day as a bonding ritual , it's a fabulous way to bond with lizard and earn their trust. I've done this will all my pet and rescued wild lizards, and also do It with my resident local wild lizards too
…. yes even wild lizards can learn to trust (and like you) and take food treats from my hands and between my finger tips , and even let me pet them.