Another Picky Eater - Annoyed

[elcaftj]

My guy is now 10 months...his whole life he has never liked greens/veggies much, he will only pick at it once in a while, eats more if I hand feed him but not much at all. At first when he was little I gave him crickets and he would eat them, I then switched him to dubias since they are easier to store and feed and he would love those until maybe 1-2 months ago...now he wont eat roaches, so I bought him superworms which he liked at first and would eat and now he wont touch them. I bought him goliath/hornworms and this is the second time he has eaten them and he LOVES them!
his daily eating habit right now is....nothing unless I give him 2-3 hornworms. WHAT SHOULD I DO? I am getting annoyed at his picky eating!

By the way, all the vivarium stuff is as required, temps, UVB etc.

HELP

 

[LaDragonEcho]

I have heard about picky eaters before whether it be they wont eat without being hand fed or they wont eat their veggies or they just get bored of the same staple food everyday... Sometimes you just have to have a feeding variety for the stubborn ones. like dubia on mondays, superworms tuesday, hornworms wednesday...repeat or add in more foods if you have it on hand. add salads in everyday or every other day depending on how well he eats his greens. throw some fruits in here and there and he hopefully wont get too bored of the food he is being given. hope this helps

 

[AHBD]

I agree with LAdragon....variety and also patience. Some will go through phases where they don't want anything for a while, then start up all over again with the food items that they had seemed to have lost interest in. And all beardies are different, so that factors in as well.

 

[LLLReptile]

Yup, definitely variety and patience help. A little tough love can often be helpful too; if they're picky enough to refuse food, it's usually a good sign that they can skip some meals and be okay. If they were starving, they'd eat, right?

You can skip a few meals, even an entire week, before offering your beardie the chosen "preferred food" just to make sure they don't go completely hungry. Eventually, it'll be hungry enough to accept a variety of foods, such as dubias and supers again. Switching up your staple diet more often than once every month or so definitely helps keep them interested in what they're eating.

-Jen

 

[Drache613]

Moved by Moderator from General to Feeding