My Beardie won't eat veggies

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lbarela08

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Hello! I have had my female Beardie for about a month and a half and she will not eat vegetables or greens. I got her from my brother in law and he was only giving her crickets and iceberg lettuce. I feed her roaches and I give her a mixture of collars greens, mustard greens, and chard and I throw in carrots and celery sometimes to get her interested. I've tried sticking horny worms in the salad and she will eat a couple pieces and not eat the rest. She came to be underweight and not in the best condition. I've got her plumped up and she's very social and loves being held but I'm worried about her nutrition. I am a veterinary assistant but my exotics knowledge is very limited. Does anyone have suggestions for how I can get her to eat veggies or fruit or anything to help her get adequate nutrition? She is about a year and a half old. Any advice is greatly appreciated
 
Well some bearded dragons don't enjoy greens so as long if she still gets all the nutrition she needs she will be fine I recommend a mix of pellets and also offer live crickets and mealworms three times a day you can also if you really want to you can cut the greens up really small and mix them in with the pellets this met get her to eat them as she does not realise what they are. I hope this helped you and good luck ?
 

lbarela08

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Thanks for the tip. Crickets are a no go as they stink are too noisy and don't interest her much. We feed her dubia roaches and horned tail worms from time to time. I will try the pellets and cutting up the greens! ??
 

CooperDragon

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The roaches are a good staple (better than crickets in my opinion for the reasons you mentioned). Since she came to you in poor condition the main focus should have been on hydration and getting her weight up and it sounds like you did just that. If the fat deposits on the top of her head and base of her tail have developed and her weight has stabilized it may come down to tough love to get her on veges. At 18 months she should be on a diet that is about 80% or so vegetarian. Try offering a variety of items and see if you stumble upon something that catches her interest. Try hand feeding her. I've had good luck cutting yellow and green squash into worm shapes and offering them that way. My guy loves chopped green beans and collard greens too. This is a good list to reference for salad items to try http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html If she still won't budge, withhold bugs for a while and just offer the salad until she digs in. Only do this if her weight is up and her fat deposits are in place though. I'd consider the goal to be getting her into salads daily and offering a bug meal every 2-4 days or so but you may need to withhold bugs longer than that initially so she gets used to salads. It can take more patience than usual with rescues if they aren't used to a healthy diet to begin with. It's a fine line between providing nutrition and breaking their stubborn habits.
 
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Clapton is acclimating okay I think. He's quick as lightning so I'm not sure how much I should bring him out of his house yet. He's not at all interested in his salad though. I wonder if I should change what I'm giving him. Least he's eating his crickets.

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