Beardie Only Eating Greens

[wanderingmoonmen]

Hi all! Quick question for you guys - my beardie is between 8-9 months old and I was just wondering if it's OK if he's only wanting to eat greens (collard and mustard) right now.

For context I've had to travel for work for 10 days and my parents are taking care of him. He knows them and for the first couple days he was eating crickets really well and now he's refusing them and is eating all of his greens (and a slice of banana for a treat today). He's been finicky about eating crickets for a little while and I'm thinking maybe he's bored, but whenever I give him a couple worms (mealworms previously, gave him superworms most recently) to change it up he'll go on what we call a "cricket strike" because he wants only worms. I was trying to not have him go into a cricket strike before I left him in someone else's care.

He was moved into an 85 gal tank at the beginning of May, has an arcadia UVB lamp, basking bulb. Temps are high 90's low 100's in basking side and low 80's on the "cool" side. He also has a dig box and he'll sometimes bury himself in there at night and not want to come out at all the next day. No problems pooping and is otherwise acting normal. He's 18 inches long nose to tail tip and I'm not sure how much he weighs.

 

[blue11]

Hi all! Quick question for you guys - my beardie is between 8-9 months old and I was just wondering if it's OK if he's only wanting to eat greens (collard and mustard) right now.

For context I've had to travel for work for 10 days and my parents are taking care of him. He knows them and for the first couple days he was eating crickets really well and now he's refusing them and is eating all of his greens (and a slice of banana for a treat today). He's been finicky about eating crickets for a little while and I'm thinking maybe he's bored, but whenever I give him a couple worms (mealworms previously, gave him superworms most recently) to change it up he'll go on what we call a "cricket strike" because he wants only worms. I was trying to not have him go into a cricket strike before I left him in someone else's care.

He was moved into an 85 gal tank at the beginning of May, has an arcadia UVB lamp, basking bulb. Temps are high 90's low 100's in basking side and low 80's on the "cool" side. He also has a dig box and he'll sometimes bury himself in there at night and not want to come out at all the next day. No problems pooping and is otherwise acting normal. He's 18 inches long nose to tail tip and I'm not sure how much he weighs.

Hi!

I will say you are much luckier than I was when my girl was that age - she wouldn’t touch a green! It was like she’d rather hunger strike than even look at a piece of a green leaf. She’s till not the *best* at it and she’s 11and half years old! Your guy wanting to partake in the greenery is lit literally awesome.

As far as protein, maybe you could try switching out the crickets for Dubia roaches … they are (in my experience) an all around easier and better and even cleaner feeder than crix, they make a fantastic staple - and many dragons seem to love them.

I hear ya on the worm thing - my girl is a hardcore worm girl all the way these days. You could totally do a mix of Dubia and different worms. Seems that supers are a lot of dragons favs, but you can try hornworms and butterworms too. Like maybe Dubia with a mixed in diet of some Supers, horns and butters here and there? I know that supers get a bad rep and all - but - and this is just me - my girl has used them as a part of her protein staple the last 4 years of her life. Collards, Mustards, Supers, Horns and Butters. She loved Dubia for so so long, but a little while back in all her older age glory she wasn’t wanting them as much as she did a long time ago. It was GREAT while it lasted.

I truly believe all of the above have their very specific and unique benefits. Also If you wanna try Silkworms, go for it - I never had much luck in keeping them - it felt complex and webby - just not the easiest for me. The BSFL / Phoenix Worms are lovely, they are just often so tiny and you’re guy probably growing like a weed and getting bigger

So yeps, maybe try mixing it up like you were kinda starting to do anyway … your lights and temps seem nice, and again - the fact that he is wanting greens is beyond AMAZING! This is a truly great thing I can’t stress that enough - as he gets older greens would ideally make up a larger portion of his diet anyhow, so the fact that he’s already digging them is wonderful.


Also, with you being gone for 10 days and with your parents taking care of him, I feel like whatever protein he will eat, will be totally fine for that time Plus with an online order of new feeders, you’d be waiting several days anyhow. Sounds like you have a healthy big boy on your hands - that’s great - you’re guy is 2 inches longer than my 11 year old . She’s like 17 inches.

Let me know your thoughts!

 

[wanderingmoonmen]

Hi!

I will say you are much luckier than I was when my girl was that age - she wouldn’t touch a green! It was like she’d rather hunger strike than even look at a piece of a green leaf. She’s till not the *best* at it and she’s 11and half years old! Your guy wanting to partake in the greenery is lit literally awesome.

As far as protein, maybe you could try switching out the crickets for Dubia roaches … they are (in my experience) an all around easier and better and even cleaner feeder than crix, they make a fantastic staple - and many dragons seem to love them.

I hear ya on the worm thing - my girl is a hardcore worm girl all the way these days. You could totally do a mix of Dubia and different worms. Seems that supers are a lot of dragons favs, but you can try hornworms and butterworms too. Like maybe Dubia with a mixed in diet of some Supers, horns and butters here and there? I know that supers get a bad rep and all - but - and this is just me - my girl has used them as a part of her protein staple the last 4 years of her life. Collards, Mustards, Supers, Horns and Butters. She loved Dubia for so so long, but a little while back in all her older age glory she wasn’t wanting them as much as she did a long time ago. It was GREAT while it lasted.

I truly believe all of the above have their very specific and unique benefits. Also If you wanna try Silkworms, go for it - I never had much luck in keeping them - it felt complex and webby - just not the easiest for me. The BSFL / Phoenix Worms are lovely, they are just often so tiny and you’re guy probably growing like a weed and getting bigger

So yeps, maybe try mixing it up like you were kinda starting to do anyway … your lights and temps seem nice, and again - the fact that he is wanting greens is beyond AMAZING! This is a truly great thing I can’t stress that enough - as he gets older greens would ideally make up a larger portion of his diet anyhow, so the fact that he’s already digging them is wonderful.


Also, with you being gone for 10 days and with your parents taking care of him, I feel like whatever protein he will eat, will be totally fine for that time Plus with an online order of new feeders, you’d be waiting several days anyhow. Sounds like you have a healthy big boy on your hands - that’s great - you’re guy is 2 inches longer than my 11 year old . She’s like 17 inches.

Let me know your thoughts!

That's great confirmation - I was hoping it was all a good sign. I'll have to try some dubia roaches sometime (until I find an apartment I'm not allowed to have roaches in the house lol). I'll definitely try mixing up the protein more when I get home and hopefully it'll all be good from there. I was thinking maybe he had started self transitioning into more greens early so maybe if he's doing it naturally a bit early it'll all be good. It would be nice if he could just tell me that haha.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[RangoRocky]

They do get tired of eating the same things. Once Rango ate his 1st roach he wouldn’t eat crickets no more. Which I’m glad I’d because the roaches offer more nutritional value but also they don’t die as quickly and they don’t smell. As far as worms the only ones he eats are mealworms. He didn’t like hornworms at all. If you can get some I would definitely try roaches. If he doesn’t take to them try adding the strawberry banana calcium powder which the label says is for picky eaters. Mines wouldn’t eat nothing with regular calcium powder on it and that helped.