Am I doing the right thing withholding live food?!

[Toto1]

Hello,

I've had Toto around a month now and he's between 2-4 years old (previous owner wasn't sure...). I've come to the conclusion that his previous owners only fed him live food, as so far he hasn't touched a single leaf or vegetable.

For the first two weeks with me, I gave him veggies in the morning and live food (hoppers or dubias) in the evening; in week three, I changed to feeding live food only every other day and gave veg twice a day as he hadn't been touching the veg at all, but he still refused it; since last week (one week ago today), I've completely withheld live food to try to force him to eat something that doesn't move as I know he should be eating 70% veg.

So far though, he is still completely refusing it, and the last two days he is glass surfing a lot, which I assume means he is hungry, which I am not loving the idea of!!

I've tried basically all varieties of leaves and veg from the safe lists that it's possible for me to get hold of, and have tried all methods that I've read - hand feeding, wiggling it, puree-ing and syringing, have tried organic veg-only baby food, have tried mixing it with tiny amounts of safe fruits and also squeezing some of their juice on top and....nothing! Just out of curiosity I also tried pellets and gels a couple of times to see if he went for those, mostly to try figure out of that's what previous owners fed him, but he wouldn't go near so I've abandoned those as realise they aren't ideal anyway.

I read on this site in a few threads the advice to just persist with withholding if they are stubborn and accept the fact that it could take anything up to three weeks, but the desire to feed him is so strong - it's like having a baby again!! - that I'm just looking for reassurance that I should wait it out?

Is there anything I haven't mentioned above that has worked for others?

What do I do if he gets to 3 weeks and still nothing?!

Has anyone else been through the same thing with a rehomed adult and had success in the end?

Thanks so much, this forum is so great, really appreciate how helpful and knowledgeable you all are.

 

[KarrieRee]

Hello,

I've had Toto around a month now and he's between 2-4 years old (previous owner wasn't sure...). I've come to the conclusion that his previous owners only fed him live food, as so far he hasn't touched a single leaf or vegetable.

For the first two weeks with me, I gave him veggies in the morning and live food (hoppers or dubias) in the evening; in week three, I changed to feeding live food only every other day and gave veg twice a day as he hadn't been touching the veg at all, but he still refused it; since last week (one week ago today), I've completely withheld live food to try to force him to eat something that doesn't move as I know he should be eating 70% veg.

So far though, he is still completely refusing it, and the last two days he is glass surfing a lot, which I assume means he is hungry, which I am not loving the idea of!!

I've tried basically all varieties of leaves and veg from the safe lists that it's possible for me to get hold of, and have tried all methods that I've read - hand feeding, wiggling it, puree-ing and syringing, have tried organic veg-only baby food, have tried mixing it with tiny amounts of safe fruits and also squeezing some of their juice on top and....nothing! Just out of curiosity I also tried pellets and gels a couple of times to see if he went for those, mostly to try figure out of that's what previous owners fed him, but he wouldn't go near so I've abandoned those as realise they aren't ideal anyway.

I read on this site in a few threads the advice to just persist with withholding if they are stubborn and accept the fact that it could take anything up to three weeks, but the desire to feed him is so strong - it's like having a baby again!! - that I'm just looking for reassurance that I should wait it out?

Is there anything I haven't mentioned above that has worked for others?

What do I do if he gets to 3 weeks and still nothing?!

Has anyone else been through the same thing with a rehomed adult and had success in the end?

Thanks so much, this forum is so great, really appreciate how helpful and knowledgeable you all are.

Here is a website for nutrition Nutrition Content ignore the kale thing its a good staple feeder
Try this it is really recommended that dragons start being fed salads when they are babies if they dont then when they get older they tend not to eat them it just depends on the dragon- there are a lot of dragons that do not eat their veggies like they should --- we will try this and see if it works it may or may not but you have tried everything else so lets try this get some BSFL www.symtonbsf.com order large and use them to lure him to the salad bowl you will need a bowl similar to this so they cant get out https://www.amazon.com/MACGOAL-Rept...uGQB&pd_rd_wg=tLkwE&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_d
these are a great staple feeder use as many as you want on tops of his salads drop them onto the salads in front of him -- hand feed a few of them so he gets the taste of them -- they are calcium enriched -- you can also get some horn worms and some super worms the supers are treat worms use 1-3 to get him to the salad bowl - show them to him and put them in the salad and the horn worms are a hydrating worm they grow fast and you can feed 1-2 on top of his salads as well get them from here but you must hurry www.dubiaroaches.com is stopping the service for a couple of weeks as its their Xmas break -- even if he eats a little of that salad that will be a start --- has he ever eaten any type of green at all if not make sure you have a variety of greens and squash so if he taste something he likes that would be good he will go back to eat more of it