Baby Beardie vs. Veggies

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The struggle is real!
I CANNOT get my beardie to eat her greens! She's approx. 9 weeks old and nothing i do is working! Ive tried to hand feed it to her, put worms in with them, put her supplement on it, and give her a wide variety. HELP!
 

GoneForLunch

Hatchling Member
Try when she's eating to get a small piece in there. Just as she's chewing casually out a piece of greens in her mouth and she will begin to eat it. I've never tried this, just read somewhere that it could help. Another thing I read was to put out veggies and just let them sit for a little while. If they know that they ignore the veggies and get crickets or whatever anyway, they'll keep ignoring the veggies. Try being stubborn and acting as if that's all they'll get?

I haven't done either of those things but people suggest them often, other than what you posted, so maybe one of those will help some.
 

HKzForDayz

Sub-Adult Member
I wouldnt stress it at 9 weeks old, their diet should be mostly live insects anyways, as they need to be eating live feeders 2-3x a day, eating as many as they can intake in a 10-15 minute period. With my juvenile dragons I typically put greens in their enclosures first thing in the morning and just leave them out all day just in case they choose to munch on them, that way they can get acquired to them at their own pace until they get around a year when you start switching them to a mostly greens diet.
 
I have a ~5 month old silkie that doesn't seem to care for greens. I tong-feed him his bugs and as I do it, I slip in a veggie after a couple bugs. Bug, bug, bug, veggie, bug, veggie, bug, bug, bug...etc. He glares at me when I do it, but he eats them. He is starting to get them from his bowl too.
 

mamajamamomma

Member
Original Poster
She has a plate full of greens with worms and a variety of veggies and fruit in it every day, doesn't touch it. Tried giving her roaches and greens together using tongs, only ate the roach. Tried feeding her just a green with tongs, she literally spit it out. She is a stubborn little girl lol she is my first and i have had her for less than a month so im still learning.
 
I'm a fresh noon when it comes to beardie care but my lil one I'm not actually sure how old it is bit it's still a baby. Just under 8.5grams right now and ive gotten him/her to eat a bit of baby food from my first get tip when they're hanging out on my finge or hand. I tried mixing some baby food on top of some finely chopped up carrots, spring mix, and cucumber and magically when I got back to him/her at night a lot of it was gone! So maybe try some baby food at first? Hope that's not a bad idea.
 
As far as I know baby food is fine as long as you're not feeding them something they shouldn't be eating. For example my beardie Loves pears, arrows, and Apple n blackberry. I've had a hard time getting him/her to just eat veggies so when I take him out to hang out I jist put a little on the tip of my finger and he tilts his head up a little and nibbles it from my finger haha. It's pretty damn cute. Just sayin.
 

HKzForDayz

Sub-Adult Member
Your bearded dragon is only a couple months, at this age their diet SHOULD be mostly insects. a lot of bearded dragons dont start to eat their greens till they get older. just make sure appropriate greens are always available in case he gets hungry, and he will eventually start eating them. Your dragon is too young to be stressing so much about veggies.
 

HKzForDayz

Sub-Adult Member
mamajamamomma":h3q0cf25 said:
She is starting to eat them here and there during the day now. Thank you all so much for your help.


No problem :) I have always just made sure they were always available, and I have rarely had troubles switching them to a primarily greens diet when theyre about a year.
 

mamajamamomma

Member
Original Poster
What do you normally put into the salad? I've been experimenting to see what she likes and would like some ideas. I see ally of people put pellets in their salad? Do they need them?
 

GoneForLunch

Hatchling Member
Since my first reply I've experimented and tested some things with my dragon and a friends. He tried squishing blackberries into his salad. Get the juices on the leaves and such. Then giving the dragon a small bit of berry itself. Once shown the berry was in the salad, he happily ran and ate his salad willingly. Since it went so well with his dragon, we tested it with mine. Same reaction. My dragon loves grapes, blueberries, blackberries, and some strawberry but not as much as the others. (His dragon is only 5 or so months old, where as mine is 1 and a half years old. But both are stubborn with salad and this worked really well).

I use collard or mustard greens, with some cabbage and shredded carrots (mostly for water), and then a different fruit every other day. So he won't eat blueberries except every 6 days or so. Because it is an "occasional" thing according to most nutrition charts. I cut up all the fruits and mix it in, except my blue berries usually are whole because they're small blueberries, the larger ones get cut and some times I use them to get all the juices into the leaves.

It seems to work best if you hand feed or place one piece of fruit in front of them and let them try it. Then try another. If they enjoy both, then show them the piece of fruit going into salad. Maybe even move them close to the salad and show them the fruit is there by pushing a piece from the salad towards them. This is what gets my guy to eat his salad, and my friends baby beardie is the same. He will eat a whole salad in one sitting with some blackberries in it.

I hope these new suggestions help you out some. As far as pellets go, they aren't necessary I don't believe. If you want them to get those vitamins or anything from the salad, try dusting lightly with calcium or multi vitamins. But I usually just use greens and fruits.
 
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