URGENT-Going on vacation for 2 nights, what to do with baby?

Tomorrow I am going to New York city for two nights and will return Friday afternoon. I have a baby bearded dragon but I am not sure what to do with him while I go away. He has yet to eat any veggies and has eaten a few crickets and mealworms. I only have mealworms right now. I heard that you can't let crickets out in his cage because they will bite him, but I am wondering if mealworms can be left out for him to eat. He spends most of his time on his hammock basking so I don't think they could even get up there. I'm just not sure how to feed him. I also purchased a gel premix for my bearded dragon which I made today. I was thinking I could leave that in his cage with a lot of veggies before leaving. The thing is, I've had him for 3 days now and he hasn't touched his veggies. I've given him a small variety of them but he has just been eating crickets and as of last night, worms. He has only eaten a few too, so I'm a bit nervous that if I leave him with the veggies he won't eat them. He also didn't eat any of the gel mix today.

So I am just wondering what I should do and how I should leave him. I can't, unfortunately, get anyone to come to our house while we're gone. I do have all of his lights on timers, so I am not worried about those.

My cooler side of my 75 gallon tank is the left, which stays at about 75 degrees. I was wondering if I should put the food there. Again, my concern is that he has never really gone over there or even eaten any vegetables when I tried to hand feed him.

Hi there, although it's not recommended to leave a baby it won't be that bad for just 2 days. Right now he is still going through relocation stress , hence the low appetite. So just leave several small boels of veggies [ finely chopped greens + squash ] and cut up a couple of small mealworms right in with the salad. Mealworms are not good for baby dragons [ hard to digest,cause impaction easily ] so cutting + mixing them with a salad will be fine. Put out 2 paper plates with a heap of greens in 2 areas of the tank so he can easily spot them. Something I used to do if I was gone all day was to also prop up 1 big leaf of a turnip or mustard green and spray it with water. The babies always would munch on it through the day.


If you have a lot of greens in the tank you COULD leave a few very small crickets, they won't bother the dragon if they have plenty of salad to eat.

BTW, can you post pics of your baby and the tank ? Here's how :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them

IMO leaving mealworms , even if chopped up , for him to nibble on while your away is a poor suggestion.

Better off getting a worm escape proof dish and leaving a heaping helping of BSFL or blowfly gents in it for him.

Good suggestion, bsfl would be great. I think the O.P is gone already though. If you have access to them they are a much better choice than mealworms so see if your pet store carries them or order them online. They are sold under the names " Phoneix worms " or Calci worms. If you ever use mealworms in a pinch though, just 2-3 cut up in a bowl of salad is fine but no more than that. Older dragons can handle a few more but they should not be a staple part of the diet.