Picky Beardie or something severe?

Hello people!

My bearded dragon "Sandy" has started a weird "diet". When I offer her any kind of food (except superworms) she just rejects it. She walks backwards, pulling her head away from the food (crickets, dubia roaches). I have not seen if she poops regularly, since I am not home in most cases. She eats her greens somewhat.
I have had her for 2 months now, and she is around 8 months old. She weighs 9.52 oz.

She often has her eyes closed, but is still "active". If I put her outside her enclosure she sure enough runs around, exploring (as she always have ) The temps are "normal", with 97 f at basking and around 70-80 f at the lowest.

She has never had this attitude towards food, it started a week ago.

Any advice would be nice, as I am new to keeping reptiles. Is she simply just picky or is she showing signs of something severe?

So she guzzles down the superworms , but refuses to eat other insects < correct > ?

They do become addicted to some particular insects or other foods if given too often. You aren't the first keeper to have a picky dragon , and you wont be the last.

OK cut the superworms entirely and introduce her to silkworms (at least these are a very nutritious and health feeder insect to give her each day , and most lizards go nuts for them.

Other option is cut the superworms and semi-force feed her the other healthier staple feeder insects by hand. You might score a few finger tip nips at the start of the handfeeding / gentle forced feeding , but you and Sandy will soon get the hang of it.
Here's how to handfeed a stubborn dragon - viewtopic.php?f=18&t=235583

kingofnobbys":3554zz7m said:

So she guzzles down the superworms , but refuses to eat other insects < correct > ?

They do become addicted to some particular insects or other foods if given too often. You aren't the first keeper to have a picky dragon , and you wont be the last.

OK cut the superworms entirely and introduce her to silkworms (at least these are a very nutritious and health feeder insect to give her each day , and most lizards go nuts for them.

Other option is cut the superworms and semi-force feed her the other healthier staple feeder insects by hand. You might score a few finger tip nips at the start of the handfeeding / gentle forced feeding , but you and Sandy will soon get the hang of it.
Here's how to handfeed a stubborn dragon - viewtopic.php?f=18&t=235583

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, when she sees the superworms, she eats a few (4-6) and has a little break for ~5 minutes. I will try to cut down on the superworms and hand feed her some other insects. Sadly, I don't have any opportunity to get my hands on silkworms as of right now, because they are hard to come by in my country. Shipping from the US is crazy high(50-100+ $, Amazon, Ebay, Petstore chains) and the import taxes in my country is also, you guessed it, crazy high. (50+ $ if I import something, with a value of more than 10 $)

What country is that ?

Denmark, though I'm not sure of these taxes, but it happened to my sister, who bought some things from China, worth ~12 $ and she had to pay around ~60 $ to get her items.

I have not come across a store in my local area or on the internet selling silkworms, yet.

Try Google, Etsy, Ebay , local classified in the papers and on noticeboards.

I'd bet there are plenty of live insect breeders and even hobbyists who have surplus insects. You just need to search the above in your language.

Very hard to find this information from Australia in English , but I found this which might help -
http://www.bugsfeed.com/stores_restaurants_in_denmark
http://www.bugsfeed.com/innofera
http://www.bugsfeed.com/13865

I'm not sure of the rules in the EU, but you might be able get live insects shipped from another EU nation to Denmark by parcel post.
https://www.wwb.co.uk/silk-yarn-fibres-silkworm-eggs

kingofnobbys":xqyjg52l said:

Try Google, Etsy, Ebay , local classified in the papers and on noticeboards.

I'd bet there are plenty of live insect breeders and even hobbyists who have surplus insects. You just need to search the above in your language.

Very hard to find this information from Australia in English , but I found this which might help -
http://www.bugsfeed.com/stores_restaurants_in_denmark
http://www.bugsfeed.com/innofera
http://www.bugsfeed.com/13865

I'm not sure of the rules in the EU, but you might be able get live insects shipped from another EU nation to Denmark by parcel post.
https://www.wwb.co.uk/silk-yarn-fibres-silkworm-eggs

Click to expand...

Thanks for the links and info, I'll look into it.

I have started to force feed Sandy the same method for the video you linked, and of course, she doesn't like being force fed, because who does? Anyway, Now she gets a dubia roach, two cricktes and a handful (4-5) superworms each day.

My parents think I am cruel when force feeding her, because it can look a little wild and harmful, but I am as gentle as I can be. I press down on the jaws until she opens her mouth by herself, then put the food in her mouth and she starts chewing and swallowing. Nothing there.
So, is there any other method to help a bearded dragon eat, other than force feeding? And doesn't it break our bond and she may start running away from me or biting me? Just curious.

She has started to act angry at me by giving me the deaths glance, I don't know if she is just angry or playing :lol:

You can try snipping the head of each insect , squeezing out some of the inside / goo ad then opening her mouth a crack so she gets a taste of the buggy goodness when you press the gooy end of the insect against her lips just under her nose (front and to one side) …. I do this when handfeeding all my gang.

Sometimes a change of insect helps …. ie if she isn't keen on roaches , try crickets or BSFL (with their heads snipped off and some of their insides pressed out - I find that none of my gang like the taste of the BSFL whole , but are all happy to eat the decapitated BSFL).

Careful with superworms , very hard for the little hatchlings and juveniles to digest their exoskeletons & they (like mealworms) are high in fat and poor in protein and calcium.

An option might be to try her on REPASHI GRUBPIE ….

I crush their heads with my tweezers and go head first with the gooy end into her mouth. Is decapitating the crickets better?

I can't find anywhere to get my hands on some BSFL, since they just recently became legal in Europe for farming and most websites don't ship to other countries than the US.

What is this repashi grubpie? I see it is some kind of fish food or whatever?