18 months old and won't eat veggies

[nickanthony]

Little ash has always been a pretty picky eater. While young he'd grab maybe 1 tiny piece of lettuce every couple days and usually eat plenty of crickets. As he got older, he stopped eating the crickets as well. They'd just crawl all over him while he looked up and gave me the stink eye. I tried every little crawling piece of protein i could with no luck.

Until the day i threw a big juicy hornworm in front of him. He snatched that thing up so fast and juice shot out all over the place. He absolutely loved it. Only problem was that after that, he'd never touch another cricket again. He basically only eats hornworms now with the occasional 1 bite of lettuce and maybe a raspberry here and there. From what ive read, hornworms are a little on the fatty side but overall pretty healthy for them. He's not getting fat at all so I'm not worried about that. What worries me is that i know at some point he's supposed to make that transition to a mostly green diet and I'm fairly certain we're past that point at 18 months.

What happens if your beardie is 4 years old and still eats mostly live food? Is this a problem? If So, how in the world do i get him to eat his greens? I'm currently trying the starving method but it's killing me cause i know he's dying for a worm right now. It's been 2 days now since he's eaten live food. I feed him fresh kale and collard greens every morning. Those seem to be his favorite..... or at least the only greens I've actually witnessed him eat. He just never eats it or at least not enough for me to be am able to tell. It's also hard because he has a bad habit of running through it every morning so it ends up all over the place and i have no way of telling if any is missing.

Please help.

 

[CooperDragon]

It sounds like he loves his hornworms and is being stubborn knowing they'll show up. They're a decent option for feeders but it's best to provide a variety. At 18 months he should be pretty close to full size and eat mostly salads. My adult dragon (just over 2 years old now) only gets live bugs (aside from an occasional treat worm) every 4 days or so but eats salad in between. If he is a healthy weight, just keep giving him salads and rotate what's in them. Eventually he'll feel hungry enough to dig in. Just keep monitoring his weight to ensure he doesn't lose a significant amount during this time. Offering lots of bugs to an adult can lead to liver and kidney issues in the long run so it's best to get him used to a healthy diet early on.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Sounds like my Peppa.....



She used to love her greens too when she was little. In the last few months she decided she don't like them no more, was even spitting them out when I was trying to be sneeky (slipping bits of choi into her mouth while she was munching on a cricket) and crawling higher up to make it hard for me to give her greens to her by hand....

I've taken to handfeeding her greens to her BEFORE SHE EVEN SEES what she really wants (ie crickets and superworms). Gone from struggling to coax her to eat 1/2 a big leaf of buk choi to her eating a full big leaf less the the tough stalk and white bit , I'm also cutting her crickets down a bit ( from 14 - 16 mediums to about 10 per day) so we are making progress.

Slowly ramping up her greens and she's eating them under sufferance.

 

[Mysty]

While it can feel cruel to stop offering livefood in hope that greens are eaten, 2 days isn't that long and they'll hold out for that short time in case the livefood is coming.

Perhaps try longer intervals of offering greens only and keep offering different bright colour occasionals e.g. blueberry and bell pepper to catch interest.

Best of luck.