8 month male will only eat butter worms & hornworms

[colbertf]

I'm guessing this is your 1st dragon lol.
Welcome to the world of beardies.
To be honest i would be more surprised if he did eat the greens.
Beardies are notoriously picky and stubborn eaters. My male is 3&1/2 he has done that off and on his whole life.
My females less so but they do it also.
Fact of the matter is mine just started eating good again a couple weeks ago. Keep him hydrated and keep an eye on him. But done worry TO much its kindda normal.

@xp29 Thanks for the comment, yes my 1st also. If not eating greens how do you keep your dragon hydrated?

 

[RangoRocky]

Thanks @RangoRocky - My guy is not eating bugs,, I' keep trying different of feeders but he will only eat butterworms , which I understand is not a staple. I'm using liquid calcium as a daily supplement (5 times a week) and liquid vitaminz (2 times a week), I get them from Tracie at Bug-de-lite, I do feel the supplements are helping my dragon. Here's what my current supplement schedule looks like

I understand I found that everything is kind of trial and error. Have you tried flavored calcium powder? Mines wouldn’t eat bugs at all either with the regular kind. I found that Flukers had a strawberry banana flavored calcium powder and that helped a lot. I did see that on Tracie website she has calci-blast that comes in flavors and it helps with bone issues and food absorption. Sometimes beardies can also be stubborn with what they eat. Here are some other things you can try and again is trial and error that I tried

-Try greens you never tried before and if you have them outside add a couple of dandelions
-Sprinkle organic apple juice (maybe a top or 2 full) on the greens-something about the sweetness he did eat a lil bit doing that
-Try adding fruit to the greens-blueberries, blackberries and strawberries is what I tried
-I made a beardie slurry (smoothie) using greens, a few pieces of fruit and the organic apple juice- I made it the consistency of baby food-try putting it on the greens as a salad dressing 1st. When that didn’t work i fed him with a soft baby spoon and syringe. Before he started eating them that was how I was getting him to eat his greens. (Vet told me if that worked keep doing until he started eating them again)
-They also have an actual bearded dragon salad dressings-I didn’t personally try this because I didn’t wanna pay $8-$15 for a bottle for him to still not eat it.

I also tried the show him whose boss method and yes it sucked to watch him not eat but I held out in giving him any kind of bugs still added the greens everyday. He would nibble when he got hungry enough and didn’t think anybody was looking. I would see pieces outside the bowl or in places nowhere close to the bowl. They can go a few days without eating. You may find one of my suggestions work or none at all. I just want to share what I tried cuz believe me it wasn’t easy getting him to start back eating greens.

 

[Phoenix1981]

Hi @Phoenix1981 - I'm sorry to hear your dragon may have spine or bone issues. I sprinkle the bee pollen on veg every day, doesn't seem that it has helped encourage but I do here from a lot of other dragon owners where the bee pollen does really help, I continue to add it anyways. My guy did eat greens today, super happy to see that, I just have to try and get him eating more staple insects other than butterworms which is all he will eat, I've put other type sin front of him and he will just ignore. I hope that your dragon starts to eat some greens, try the bee pollen. You could also try mixing up a slurry and putting some over the greens, that was recommended to me also.

Thank you for your comment! I really appreciate all the help! I have never heard of "slurry" before!? sounds like a slushie of bugs this morning I freshly chopped greens and veggies for colors to attract him and put mealworms in it.... he again ran

 

[Cuttlefishh]

I used to have this problem (except it was super worms !) I ended up weaning her off. I dropped the supers to just once a week and continued with BSFL on a different day (bugs just 2 days a week). Then I dropped supers altogether and introduced different veggies. Now she eats anything I give her (veggies, fruits crickets, roaches, bsfl)

I never gave her another super again tho, (don't want to trigger another addiction) It just takes time and patience, they will eat when they are hungry enough

 

[colbertf]

I understand I found that everything is kind of trial and error. Have you tried flavored calcium powder? Mines wouldn’t eat bugs at all either with the regular kind. I found that Flukers had a strawberry banana flavored calcium powder and that helped a lot. I did see that on Tracie website she has calci-blast that comes in flavors and it helps with bone issues and food absorption. Sometimes beardies can also be stubborn with what they eat. Here are some other things you can try and again is trial and error that I tried

-Try greens you never tried before and if you have them outside add a couple of dandelions
-Sprinkle organic apple juice (maybe a top or 2 full) on the greens-something about the sweetness he did eat a lil bit doing that
-Try adding fruit to the greens-blueberries, blackberries and strawberries is what I tried
-I made a beardie slurry (smoothie) using greens, a few pieces of fruit and the organic apple juice- I made it the consistency of baby food-try putting it on the greens as a salad dressing 1st. When that didn’t work i fed him with a soft baby spoon and syringe. Before he started eating them that was how I was getting him to eat his greens. (Vet told me if that worked keep doing until he started eating them again)
-They also have an actual bearded dragon salad dressings-I didn’t personally try this because I didn’t wanna pay $8-$15 for a bottle for him to still not eat it.

I also tried the show him whose boss method and yes it sucked to watch him not eat but I held out in giving him any kind of bugs still added the greens everyday. He would nibble when he got hungry enough and didn’t think anybody was looking. I would see pieces outside the bowl or in places nowhere close to the bowl. They can go a few days without eating. You may find one of my suggestions work or none at all. I just want to share what I tried cuz believe me it wasn’t easy getting him to start back eating greens.

@RangoRocky
Thank you. I have liquid calcium from Tracie that I stated giving him daily maybe a month now, give daily with other liquid supplements, maybe I can try the power and see if he will eat the bugs that way. Issue with my guy is that he does not jump for the sweet fruits, tried blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, bananas and more, my friends dragon on the other hand all we wants is blueberries & fruit.

I have been meaning to go and try and get organic dandelions, I need to go to a farmers market here, I assume they will be huge at the market too.

I have not tried the slurry like you mention for a dressing, I will try that.

I really appreciate you taking the time to share these tips and suggestions. Thank you.

 

[colbertf]

Thank you for your comment! I really appreciate all the help! I have never heard of "slurry" before!? sounds like a slushie of bugs this morning I freshly chopped greens and veggies for colors to attract him and put mealworms in it.... he again ran

@Phoenix1981 Adding a photo of the slurry, its more of a pickup when dehydrated but could be added to greens too. No bugs blended, I did try that one time with crickets and dubia roaches and it did not come out good, might have bene how I did it but I didn't try again, kind of nasty and not really blended. Your pieces look very chopped up, and maybe that's fine, my guy I found kept missing when I had the pieces too small so I started keeping it close to the size between his eyes, my guy is slowly starting to eat veg now, very slow, he will pick up the baby arugula but I noticed has eaten a few dandelion leaf's which is progress. Adding some photos of my salad and size too. I spray a little water sprinkle to moist and sprinkle the bee pollen powder on top then . I also found my dragon often goes to the veg bowl, tries and if misses goes straight back to the basking, I noticed the other day that there were a few pieces outside the bowl on the ground, those were the pieces he ate, touched nothing else. I have since removed the bowl and have put the salad on paper towel on the ground, he has started eating from that, I'm testing that now and no bowl just on the ground. He's eaten a few times now.

 

[colbertf]

I used to have this problem (except it was super worms !) I ended up weaning her off. I dropped the supers to just once a week and continued with BSFL on a different day (bugs just 2 days a week). Then I dropped supers altogether and introduced different veggies. Now she eats anything I give her (veggies, fruits crickets, roaches, bsfl)

I never gave her another super again tho, (don't want to trigger another addiction) It just takes time and patience, they will eat when they are hungry enough

Thank you @Cuttlefishh , interesting, I may have to try that mixing up the days

 

[Phoenix1981]

My concern is, Abraxis is only 7 months old and from what I read, juveniles suppose to get primarily protein still. I am scared that I would do some damage if I take away his main source he is suppose to eat, mainly protein.... does that make sense? I also know, once they are adults, 80% has to be from greens and bugs only twice a week. Just really don't know what else I can do.

 

[Cuttlefishh]

My concern is, Abraxis is only 7 months old and from what I read, juveniles suppose to get primarily protein still. I am scared that I would do some damage if I take away his main source he is suppose to eat, mainly protein.... does that make sense? I also know, once they are adults, 80% has to be from greens and bugs only twice a week. Just really don't know what else I can do.

I was scared of this too ,my Charlie was a bit over a year when I nipped it in the bud, she still had a little growing to do... but they can go a short bit (1 week or so) without it causing damage. When he's hungry enough he will eat other protien- just monitor to be sure hes not losing weight in the meanwhile. Maybe only give him a few treat worms once a week and then fill the salads with black soldier fly larva daily (the movement will attract him and the bsfl are super healthy!)

 

[Phoenix1981]

I was scared of this too ,my Charlie was a bit over a year when I nipped it in the bud, she still had a little growing to do... but they can go a short bit (1 week or so) without it causing damage. When he's hungry enough he will eat other protien- just monitor to be sure hes not losing weight in the meanwhile. Maybe only give him a few treat worms once a week and then fill the salads with black soldier fly larva daily (the movement will attract him and the bsfl are super healthy!)

Hmm, I could try a week with BSFLs. Just ordered some today actually thank you all for the help!

 

[RangoRocky]

As a beardie parent I understand. Rango was about the same age. The one or 2 days that I held killed me more than it killed him. A beardie is resilient and can go a couple or more days without eating. They kinda have it good with us because they’re fed everyday but if they were in the wild the wouldn’t be guaranteed to eat everyday. I’m not trying to scare you because again like I told you before every beardie is different. This is how I had no choice…..he was getting bugs everyday even though he had gone 3+ mo without greens. 1st I started to see he was straining when he poop and a couple time he was impacted. 2. He started having blood in his poop so I took him to the vet to make sure he was fine. It was at the advisement of the vet to cut him back to 2x’s a week. it killed me to watch him go without eating on the other days l only fed on Mon and Fri. (which was the 2days I fed him and it was 5-7 roaches) But did it work YES! I started to find that he was sneaking to it more and then with the aid of the bee pollen he started eating more. He typically goes to the bowl 2-3 times a day on his own.