We have a baby beardie who is about 4 weeks old now. He is up to eating about 10-12 dubia roaches and/or crickets each feeding (2-3 times a day). However, he does not eat his veggies. I have tried mustard greens, then I red maybe putting strawberries with the greens will lure him in. That did not work.
My son makes him a salad every morning before he leaves for school, but he doesn't eat it (at least from what I have seen). Today I tried make a super aromatic salad with collard greens, mango, blueberry and strawberry. He looked like he was going to try it, he even licked the side of the bowl but nothing.
I have left the bowl in there, tried feeding him on my lap, taken little pieces and put them on my shoulder where he sits sometimes....nada!
I know he is hungry, because I threw some dubia roaches in there and a couple crickets and he ate them right up. I have even tried putting the dubias below the greens so they make the greens wiggle.
Is this normal? Has anyone else struggled with getting their beardie to eat veggies AND fruit? He's worse than my teenager.
4 weeks old , focus on three meals of high quality insects per day.
Best feeder insects for your little hatchling are :
BSFL (worms and flies are great feeders) don't need to dust or gutload them , you'll find the large white super wriggly maggots are the most appealing to lizards, make sure they are clean and DRY else you'll find they are escape artists.
Silkworms (for him small size about 0.5" to 0.75" long). Don't need to dust them and if you feed them fresh mulberry leaves it'll boost their Ca/P.
Blowfly gents and flies . Don't need to gutload or dust these.
Suitable sized , gutloaded (with high calcium content greens) and dusted everyday (Ca 5days , Ca+Vitamins 2days)
Crickets (he'll need 1/4 size for a month , then up to 1/3 size for a while.
Roaches
Locusts
Gut load with the veg you wont the dragon to get.
Let the hatchling eat it's fill each meal.
Don't just dump a stack of crickets or roaches or locusts into the tank with the hatching, offer 2 or 3 at a time and add more when they have been eaten.
Offer salad (I do shredded buk choi greens (not the whites) & grated carrot for my hatchlings) daily but for now and for next several months, if the little dragon eats any salad regard that as a bonus.
Whew! Thank you for the information. I have been trying a little bit of everything to see if one of them will entice him. He is eating plenty of bugs though. I have only fed him Dubia roaches, crickets and Phoenix worms so far. I plan to give him a varied diet, so that he doesn't have to eat the same ole thing all of the time.