A little record I was working on for Devlyn eating her greens:
0-1 month old – At breeder or pet shop, probably not good conditions
1-2 month old – First owner, 40 gallon tank, heat/coil UVB combo hood
2-3 month old – First owner, 1st vet visit, this vet diagnosed pneumonia and parasites, instructed first owner to upgrade enclosure and lighting. New 90 gallon tank, heat bulbs, Arcadia 12% UVB tube light with reflector. Instructed first owner to switch from crickets only diet to dubia and greens daily
3-6 months old – First owner, never went back to check if parasite Tx worked, feeding dubia daily, only offer collard greens and parsley without any routine
6 months old – I adopt Devlyn! New vet visit, contacted former vet via phone to transfer records to my vet, has a high count of parasites. She has problems eating in general. Must be hand fed bugs individually, she cannot hunt or chase food. My speculation is that she had/was developing an eversion to eating, since eating was feeding the parasites it must have hurt her belly. She also had a bad habit of crawling into her hide after eating, again, I think she felt bad in her belly and wanted to hide. I would move her to basking after eating, even if she didn’t eat I still made her bask at that time of day to retrain her bad habit. Call me helicopter dragon mom controlling my scale child for her own good. (She does become good at eating bugs consistently and basking before she ate greens consistently, that’s why I included this info.)
I started offering her leafy greens twice a day. White ceramic dish, same spot in enclosure, torn or cut into bit sized pieces. She didn’t eat them, I still offered
AM, cut up leafy greens, add calcium dust, leave on cool side of enclosure.
PM, I’m home from work, change out greens so they are fresh, same as AM.
I already had to force feed her medicine and be very persistent with bugs.
7 & 8 months old – I’m offering the greens twice a day, she doesn’t eat them hardly ever. Eating bugs drastically improves, Devlyn gets a clear fecal sample so the parasite treatment worked. I did try the mix some BSFL or dubia into the greens, she ate around the greens, or sometimes she ate greens/bug mix but it was inconsistent. I worried it would be a bad habit so I decided to stop mixing at 8/9 months old.
9-11 months old – Devlyn becomes a good greens eater starting at 9 months old! Eating her greens at least 5/6 days of the week. I did a typical offer a wide variety of vegetables to see which she would like. I even tried things I thought would not work. Capsulated organic bee pollen, and eventually fresh flowers once spring came. I sprinkled bee pollen with the calcium dust, she could smell it. She would lift her head in the air, come over, taste/smell with tongue at the bee pollen. Once I could give her flowers she loved it. She is motivated to eat greens when they smell like something fresh. I know this sounds like “this one weird trick” but it works for her. I add some herb to almost every dish like chives, mint, or cilantro are her top 3. I also add flowers when I have them. I have figured out through trial and error which greens she is more likely to eat, she hates squash and carrots for instance but likes arugula and alfalfa. I fed the dubia vegetables she doesn’t like to eat, like carrots.
I still worry. She will skip a day eating at times. I panic then remind myself she is nearing 12 months, it is probably okay to slow down on eating and growth. She is steadily gaining weight, slowly. Nowadays I only put out a PM serving of greens if she doesn’t eat her AM greens. Took 3 months very solid effort before she changed her tune. I still put in that effort, keep up the routine. I hope I’m not jinxing anything by posting this now. Nearly 2 months of greens almost every day.