My beardie won't eat anything green

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Steaklord

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Hi, my beardie is a few months old and is probably about 6-7 inches (maybe eight) but for whatever reason she won't eat ANYTHING that is the color GREEN. She's fine eating small carrots, apples, and live food. I know she is young which is why I'm not too worried because I know they're not going to eat as many greens anyway, but every time I offer her something green she literally runs away. She doesn't do that with anything else. I even put apples on top of kale to try to get her to eat it and she just won't.

It's to the point now that I put her live food on top of crushed up food pellets hoping that they'll give the nutrients that she's not getting from the greens.

I'm also in high school so I can't exactly go out and buy stuff without getting money from my parents.

So I would like to know a good staple vegetable that is cheap and my parents will be okay with getting. I mentioned butternut squash and they said no because they thought it was ridiculous.

NOTE: she gets stress marks when I offer her something green (so I'm worried that the pet store traumatized her with it or something) and I don't feed carrots or apples as a staple. I always have kale available to her and I sprinkle calcium powder on her live food.
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Sounds like you found one of her quirks. Hopefully she gets over that after a while. For now, squash is a great option. Yellow squash and zucchini are in season now and quite cheap ($1 for large ones at my farmers market this week). I cut them up into small worm shapes and put them on salad. They are my dragon's favorite. It's worth trying other kinds of squash too.

Don't worry too much about overall diet. Offer a good variety of bugs and make sure they are dusted in calcium and she should be OK.
 

EllenD

Gray-bearded Member
Hopefully she'll grow out of this as she gets older, but for now as far as greens go, Kale is not good for bearded dragons at all. It contains a lot of Calcium, but it also contains a lot of oxalates, and the oxalates bind to the free Calcium preventing her from absorbing any of the Calcium. Spinach does the same thing. So instead of keeping Kale always on hand, please get Collard Greens, Mustard Greens, Turnip Greens, Dandelion Greens, Arugula (Rocket), Escarole, Endive, Chard, or Box Choy and keep them on hand instead of any Kale or Spinach. The cost will be the same.

As far as an actual veggie that isn't green, different fresh squashes are absolutely your best options as a "staple" veggie that contains the proper vitamins and minerals, and most types of fresh squash are very cheap at any grocery store. Butternut squash is best, it's very nutritious and most beardies love it but into long, skinny, worm-like strings. Spaghetti squash is also very good and is already in the correct shape once you cut it open. Acorn squash is also good. Yellow squash, green squash or zucchini is also okay, but buying a whole Butternut squash or Spaghetti squash is your best bet nutrition-wise, and most beardies love them, even as babies, much more than greens. I but a large, fresh, while Butternut squash at Walmart for like $3 I think, so that shouldn't be an issue. I'll bring it home and spend about 30-45 minutes cutting it up into long, skinny strips, and then I'll put them in Ziploc freezer bags and put enough for the week in the refrigerator and the rest in the freezer, then each Sunday I get out enough for the week. I do the same with my greens as well. That way they keep forever and they are extremely affordable.
 

mesuezee

Member
EllenD":1d67ma36 said:
Hopefully she'll grow out of this as she gets older, but for now as far as greens go, Kale is not good for bearded dragons at all. It contains a lot of Calcium, but it also contains a lot of oxalates, and the oxalates bind to the free Calcium preventing her from absorbing any of the Calcium. Spinach does the same thing. So instead of keeping Kale always on hand, please get Collard Greens, Mustard Greens, Turnip Greens, Dandelion Greens, Arugula (Rocket), Escarole, Endive, Chard, or Box Choy and keep them on hand instead of any Kale or Spinach. The cost will be the same.

As far as an actual veggie that isn't green, different fresh squashes are absolutely your best options as a "staple" veggie that contains the proper vitamins and minerals, and most types of fresh squash are very cheap at any grocery store. Butternut squash is best, it's very nutritious and most beardies love it but into long, skinny, worm-like strings. Spaghetti squash is also very good and is already in the correct shape once you cut it open. Acorn squash is also good. Yellow squash, green squash or zucchini is also okay, but buying a whole Butternut squash or Spaghetti squash is your best bet nutrition-wise, and most beardies love them, even as babies, much more than greens. I but a large, fresh, while Butternut squash at Walmart for like $3 I think, so that shouldn't be an issue. I'll bring it home and spend about 30-45 minutes cutting it up into long, skinny strips, and then I'll put them in Ziploc freezer bags and put enough for the week in the refrigerator and the rest in the freezer, then each Sunday I get out enough for the week. I do the same with my greens as well. That way they keep forever and they are extremely affordable.

Do you cook the butternut squash first? I just tried it and Kingsly was eating it off my fingertips. I thought it had to be cooked first?
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
If the dragon is ONLY a few months old, it needs a full on high quality live insect diet and to be fed as many insects as it wants THREE TIMES PER DAY.
If the 3 month old eats any greens or veg at such a young age it's a bonus. Keep offering the greens fresh each day whether he eats them or not, and simply feed the uneaten greens to your feeder insects.

Also , it's worth while to review your viv setup and husbandry , if you & your parents methodically work through my cheatsheet it's very likely problems and issues and shortcomings and the bad advise given by the seller (beardie and viv and reptile stuff) will pop out at you. Here's my cheatsheet viewtopic.php?f=6&t=234738&p=1806050#p1806050
and this will help you rearrange your UVB to basking spot distance to give him about 190 microW UVB/sq.cm @ the basking spot : viewtopic.php?f=34&t=235611
and this is helpful in selecting good staple veg and greens : http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html
 
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