just adopted 4 year old dragon - feeding help

I just adopted a 4 year old bearded dragon for my daughter and the person we adopted him from said she was feeding him 5 super worms, twice a day and then offering him a salad every other day. She mentioned that it would dry up in his enclosure so clearly he wasn't eating it all. After reading up on their dietary needs we have switched to one feeding of 5 super worms a day and we are offering him a fresh salad daily, but so far he's not very interested in it. He loves fresh strawberries but I don't want that to be his staple. We have offered him the leafy greens, snap peas, green beans, celery, peeled cucumber, bell peppers, sweet potato and carrots. I was hoping that cutting back on his super worms would encourage him to eat the greens but he seems stressed. We take him out and let him cruise around on the floor, he usually poops and then wants to go back to his enclosure. He's only interested in the super worms. He does like to cuddle on us, seems to like the warmth, but he doesn't like just being out on the floor. I also ordered some black fly larvae to try after reading that they have superior nutritional value. Are we making too many changes at once? suggestions?

It may be hard to get him to eat any proper food if he's been addicted to superworms so long (which are very fatty treats). Just withhold them back and only offer proper food.
It took me about 5 months to wean my eldest beardies off of them when they were younger. Mainly because I didnt want them to starve but then decided to only offer proper foods for a week once I realized that wouldn't be in issue. They eventually gave in and began eating crickets, their salad and other good foods.


Heres a pretty good feeding guide.
However, it should be noted that most owners do how many a beardie will eat in a 10-15 minute time frame. 10-20 bugs a feeding is probably the very least you could feed.
All life stages eat 10-20 bugs a feeding.
1-4 months 3x a day.
4-12 months 2x a day.
12-20 months once a day.
20+ months twice a week at the least, every other day at the most.

Staple feeders - Crickets, locusts, grasshoppers, silkworms, black soldier fly larvae, dubia roaches, turkish roaches, possibly earthworms.

Treat feeders - Waxworms, hornworms, superworms, mealworms, butterworms.
Wax worms - once a week, 4-5 max.
Hornworms - every other day to every two days, 4-6 max.
Mealworms - every other day to every two days, 5-10 max. Only for beardies above 6 months.
Superworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max. Only for beardies above 12 months.
Butterworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max.

Daily greens- Turnip/collard/mustard greens, endive, and kale if added to a mixture of the other staple greens mentioned.
Fruit once or twice a week - Banana, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, red raspberries.
For more food items -
http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/bearded-dragon-diet.php
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html


You want two supplements at the very least, a calcium and a multivitamin.

Generally, beardies below two years need calcium 5x a week and multivitamins 2x a week.

However, beardies above two years or at two years of age need calcium only 2-4x a week with multivitamins 1-2x a week.
This depends on how your adult beardie is with diet, health, just laid eggs, is laying eggs, etc.

thank you for the response. It's comforting to know I'm not starving him, I am a bit concerned about hydration. We have put him in the bath a few times but he's never drank while in there. I've tried misting him, the wall where he normally sits in hopes he would lick it off the wall, and his water bowl. He's not interested in any of it. If he's not eating his veggies or drinking anything, how long can he go before I should be concerned? We did get him a pretty large water dish to climb into and he's done that a few times.

Get a plastic eye dropper to give him water. A drop or two to get use to it. Mine will drink 1-2 droppers full. You got a great list to shop from.

ok great! I will try the dropper, thank you so much!

tried the dropped a few times this evening, it just annoyed him. Will try again tomorrow.