How do I get my baby beardie to eat greens?

[KoNut]

[TOPIC AUTO-LOCKED DUE TO INACTIVITY]

I've gotten my little 1 month old dragon 2 days ago and he's a really good eater in terms of crickets, but I provide mustard greens with some pellets on top and he won't even look at it. I'm not sure how to get him to eat it. I know people have said they used super worms to get them to eat it, but I know he is too small for them. I'm wondering if I could use wax worms instead to try and get him to eat the greens. Will that work without the risk of impaction?

[kingofnobbys]

Not old enough for greens to be more than a supplement to him at his age , he needs at least two meals of LIVE HIGH QUALITY insects (as many as he want per sitting) per day and will need a insectivorous diet while he is still an hatchling / juvenile.

Is fine to offer some salad (shredded greens, grated veg, chopped/finely diced veg/fruit) each day , but don't obsessive if he ignores the veg/salad offered.

Regarding pellets , if they are hard …. they are more appetizing if you soften them by first soaking the pellets in water and mixing these softened pellets with the greens / salad.

Diet for very young and juvenile bearded dragons see this : viewtopic.php?f=45&t=244111&p=1859195#p1859195

[KoNut]

Not old enough for greens to be more than a supplement to him at his age , he needs at least two meals of LIVE HIGH QUALITY insects (as many as he want per sitting) per day and will need a insectivorous diet while he is still an hatchling / juvenile.

Is fine to offer some salad (shredded greens, grated veg, chopped/finely diced veg/fruit) each day , but don't obsessive if he ignores the veg/salad offered.

Regarding pellets , if they are hard …. they are more appetizing if you soften them by first soaking the pellets in water and mixing these softened pellets with the greens / salad.

Diet for very young and juvenile bearded dragons see this : viewtopic.php?f=45&t=244111&p=1859195#p1859195

Thanks for the info. Right now I'm feeding him crickets and can only feed him them in his enclosure since he is scared of hands right now. Another problem is the crickets keep going under the newspaper and all in the hides and cracks. Is tape safe to use in the enclosure so they have less places to go? And i can't remove all of them before I go to sleep. Are the crickets too small to harm my beardie?

[kingofnobbys]

Never drop more than 2 or 3 crickets into the tank at a time, this makes it much easier for your hatchling to keep track of the insects and catch them all, and makes it easier for you to as well.

It's OK to recover the uneaten crickets by
> picking up the hatchling and depositing him in a tub
> then taking the stuff out of the tank and recovering the rogue crickets who are hiding
then returning the stuff to the tank with some clean paper (this will deal with poos)
then place hatchling back in tank.

Make a daily routine of this and he'll soon learn the routine and you can start bonding with/taming him by doing this each day (a few minutes of handling per day unless he's chill on you - some are quite chill when they discover a human is a warm safe place almost from the getgo.

I'd deposit some fresh leafy greens in the tank , the rogue crickets will be drawn to this rather than your hatchling's soft areas and the hatchling will soon notice the crickets raiding the salad and make fast work of them (might even accidentially eat so salad in the process). Leave the salad in overnight , you will see crickets coming out to nibble on the stuff , that's a good time to recapture them.

[KoNut]

Never drop more than 2 or 3 crickets into the tank at a time, this makes it much easier for your hatchling to keep track of the insects and catch them all, and makes it easier for you to as well.

It's OK to recover the uneaten crickets by
> picking up the hatchling and depositing him in a tub
> then taking the stuff out of the tank and recovering the rogue crickets who are hiding
then returning the stuff to the tank with some clean paper (this will deal with poos)
then place hatchling back in tank.

Make a daily routine of this and he'll soon learn the routine and you can start bonding with/taming him by doing this each day (a few minutes of handling per day unless he's chill on you - some are quite chill when they discover a human is a warm safe place almost from the getgo.

I'd deposit some fresh leafy greens in the tank , the rogue crickets will be drawn to this rather than your hatchling's soft areas and the hatchling will soon notice the crickets raiding the salad and make fast work of them (might even accidentially eat so salad in the process). Leave the salad in overnight , you will see crickets coming out to nibble on the stuff , that's a good time to recapture them.

I'm having a hard time picking him up cause whenever i try to go from under his chin he just runs away into a corner. This makes it very hard to clean the tank and get the crickets out.