Wont Eat Veggies Still

Trying to see if anyone will help, no one really responds to my posts....Bearded Dragon is a yr and 2 months, still wont eat veggies, tried everything, wont even touch them, i place them and he just looks, someone told me to do the tough love and now i am, being as stubborn as every its been nearly 3 weeks and still wont touch. People say they wont starve because its impossible to starve an animal if it gets food... IDK what to do anymore or just keep at it?

My dragon didn't show any interest in salads until he was almost a year and a half old. It was like a switch flipped and suddenly he loves them! Would NEVER touch them before and now he eats them every day! I'm sure you have, but try different greens and different fruit. My guy used to have to be enticed to eat salads by me putting apple on top since he loves apple. Whenever I feed insects, I would also wrap the bug in a piece of salad so he got something at least! And maybe get more accustomed to the taste of greens. Or when he was chewing on a bug, I would quickly slip a leaf in his mouth. Not forceful or anything, just gently set it in between chews. Definitely got some dirty looks from that though :lol: ! I let my guy bask for about 1-2 hours and then offer salad before offering any bugs and I have to set him in front of it or he won't eat. You can try getting some mealworms and putting them on the salad so they wriggle and move the salad and catch his interest. You can also try hand feeding him bits of leaves as well. Let us know how that goes!

At his age, he should be offered salads every day and insects every other day. I would keep feeding the insects every day instead of outright not feeding as being fed consistently will keep his metabolism active and make him hungrier. Sometimes when you starve them out, it can make his body think there is no food available and it goes into hibernation mode, making him not hungry. I would keep up a feeding schedule and feed him insects every other day and still offer the salads daily. Eventually he'll come around

My 5 year old has never really taken to veggies. If it doesn't wiggle he's not interested; so, I have to hand feed him his veg. If he won't open his mouth I drip water on his snout until he does and then sneak the greens in.

I sometimes put a worm on top of salad and he gets some greens when he misses. And when he's almost finished chewing up the worm I slip some salad in his mouth.

Yes, he's spoiled to being hand fed...but, I don't mind.

Keep offering veg and try different kinds; but, I disagree with the 'tough love' theory. Your dragon needs to eat even if you have to help.

Is the dragon otherwise healthy?

Thank you both for the advice and replies. Yes my Smaug is more stubborn then some people i know in life. He eats, tries to mustard greens and yellow squash. Crickets usually every other day. A lot of the times i hear scratching at the tank because he always wants out and he never calms down for me to actually feed him. I drop the crickets in and if he does miss, he gets veggies but almost spits them out. I am trying....Just hard to deal with stubbornness. But otherwise yes he is a healthy lizard in my eyes, very active!! Thanks you two!

My beardie never took interest in her salad until I put some freeze-dried mealworms on it and made them 'dance'. She ran right over and gobbled them up and ate some leaves with them as well. Maybe you could try putting treats on your beardies salad to tempt them.

Also, it took me a while to figure out what she really liked (She loves apples and watercress! ). So just keep experimenting and soon you'll find what your dragon likes to eat

Good luck! -Sarah

Not a huge issue so long as you gut load the feeder insects with calcium rich greens and vitamin rich vegs. This way they get the bugs they love and demand and don't know they are full of those yucky greens and vegs.

You could as well as using wriggle croutons as attractors, hand feed the greens to beardie , I do this regularly with my gang of pampered and spoilt rotten skinks and dragons.