Baby beardie suddenly refusing dubia roaches

[melissa102787]

I have a couple babies that I raised myself, since they hatched they have been given only dubia, and crickets once 6 weeks ago. Last week or so they suddenly stopped wanting the dubia. They eat their greens still just fine but have been super finicky about the roaches. I picked out some micro mini supers out of my colony and they gobbled them up in two seconds. One actually grabbed a dubia walking by thinking it was another super :-/ They DO eat a few dubia every day, just not anywhere near the amount I want them to be eating. I have been giving them 1/4" dubia and they are eating maybe 4 or 5 a day lately.

The dragons are only 15 or 16 weeks old.

Has anyone ever had this problem?? How do I get them to like the dubia again?? I raise dubia and have plenty for all the dragons and I really don't want to buy other bugs to feed them. I only have a handful of itty bitty supers, not enough for a staple.

Thanks!

 

[Kalyn876]

Hey,

Beardies get bored of their staple food source quite often, I'm going through this with crickets with my juvie right now lol

I have been using the tough love method. Even though I have many other worms all I was offering was crickets and salad. He seems to be catching on lol he has slowly been eating more and more everyday so now when hes eaten his fill of crickets I give him a butter or horn worm. He eats the crickets then looks at me expecting a wormie lol

I wish I could be more help.

Kalyn

 

[ButterflyGirl89]

I've gone through phases like that with my girl, but with crickets instead. If your beardie is shedding then that often plays a big role. Many beardies don't eat as much during shedding. But yeah, my girl can usually go through 30 or 40 large crickets a day but sometimes she'll have days where she only wants 10 or so, even though she's only 4 and a half months old. There was a day or 2 she only ate 5. I got a bit worried too, but she still ate her greens so I didn't let it get me down too much. After a few days she suddenly perked up and had a voracious appetite again. This has happened a few times now so hopefully it'll be the same kind of thing for your little ones.

 

[Treker]

My beardie up to 7 months old would dine on dubias, whether large or small. Didn't give him too many though because I was working on building a colony. Still though he would go thru 4 large males no prob so I thought all was well. Then the winter came along, however keep in mind he was only around 7 months by September so I don't think it's a brumation thing. Anyway his appetite for feeders has really gone off the deep end. He absolutely would not eat dubias anymore, whether small or large. Been like that ever since.

He eats his veggies real well. No roaches though. Nor will he eat more than a few crickets every few days. Although he loves Supers. I hate giving him Supers, but it's the only thing he'll consistently go after. He likes butterworms too and to some extent silk worms.