Addicted to syringe feeding...

[npgeorgeuw]

Can't get our beardie to eat insects. She was syringe fed for ~5 weeks as she got sick then was treated with panacur then baycox. She's clear of all parasites and we weaned her down to one feeding per day over last week then this weekend we cut off the syringe. Well she was in full stress marks all weekend and lost two grams. (At 30 now). She did drink this weekend but we finally gave in to get her calcium. As soon as she saw the syringe she got all peppy and the stress marks were gone. Tried sneaking bugs in while she was gobbling the syringe mix and that was a failed venture with me ending up wearing the bug. Tried blending bugs, also a failed venture. Tried bug guts on the nose, yeah no dice. I'm not amused but I don't want her to lose weight.

 

[CooperDragon]

She is pretty small at 30g. I would continue syringe feeding for now until she is completely over the illness. The main goal is to keep providing nutrients and hydration. I would give it some more time but intermittently introduce other options as you've been doing. It's tougher with a young dragon because they can't go as long without food so it's not a great idea (in my opinion) to withhold food as you could with an adult. Be patient, keep trying, and keep the weight increasing the best you can.

 

[npgeorgeuw]

Pretty certain she is completely over the illness. She's been parasite-free for three weeks (during which she was given religious probiotic/syringe feeding) and stress-mark free (unless she's hungry) going on four weeks now. She eats ravenously but only when syringe-fed and seems to self-hydrate at will.--I'm not kidding when I say she gets incredibly excited when she sees the syringe and any hint of stress marks she might have had go away within minutes.

-At this point I don't know what to do, yes, she's small and the last thing I want to do is have her not gain weight but she is self-hydrating and it's pretty clear she's just holding out. We did get her to eat a few hornworms the other night but most of the time she wants nothing to do with them. I tried to puree roaches and superworms and that turned out lousy. Thinking of smashing up a large hornworm and trying to see if I can get her to associate the taste with the color.

 

[Taterbug]

Would she eat the syringe food out of a dish or off a plate instead to work her up to self feeding then adding variety? Or if you offer it on a leaf or bug?

 

[npgeorgeuw]

Would she eat the syringe food out of a dish or off a plate instead to work her up to self feeding then adding variety? Or if you offer it on a leaf or bug?

Tried the bug/leaf thing a few times over the last week. She will usually shake her head if the bug is touching her face or if the bug is in the formula (hence why I end up wearing her dinner). I haven't tried feeding her on a dish yet so will try that this evening and over the next few days. I'm not certain the food itself means anything to her, but the syringe seems to be the trigger.--It's actually quite comical.

 

[Taterbug]

How have you been offering the bugs, is it just by hand or on tongs? Maybe she would prefer to chase/hunt them down? Or take them from a dish? Just throwing out some ideas. Hopefully she comes around.

 

[npgeorgeuw]

Used to let her chase down crickets, she did enjoy that but never had a problem getting hand fed them either. Unfortunately, due to the parasite issues we had and the fact I'm not going to take a chance that somehow they eat something in some recess of the cage that re-infects her with any of the parasites I'm not going to allow free-roaming crickets in the cage anymore--basically crickets are off the menu anyways until the ones I'm rearing have grown large enough. We have been giving her the choice of superworms, hornworms and roaches all of which move around quite a bit in the glass dish and while she does seem interested in the movement and eyes things up she won't engage. She did eat a few small superworms on Thursday in the dish, ate two on the bed in the room but then went back again into fasting and lost weight so I caved in and she gobbled down 3-4 mLs of formula. I get the impression she's tasting the insects but just won't commit since they don't taste as good as the formula.

We've tried letting her hunt in another container and she will initially look interested then ignore the insects and just try to get out of the container, no matter how big.