Hey Vince,
You could also try some yellow dandelion flowers...my BD "Monster" goes nuts over those. Just don't do this if you are unsure if there could be any pesticides used in the area - it's not worth the risk.
(edit) I almost forgot - when Monster was young she would barely eat because she would see her reflection in the bin I fed her out of and she would totally forget about eating. I had to get a bin that wasn't reflective to get her out of that habit...hard headed little wench! :lol:
Monster wouldn't eat hardly anything besides crickets (I mean vegetation/salads) until she was about 9-10 months old, even if we withheld crickets for a few days. (She's too much like me LOL). Some days she would eat 20-30 crickets, others very few.
Is your BD
drinking enough water? Even having water in their cage may not be enough as they often don't drink water that is sitting still. You can mist water on his snout and let him lick it off, or give him a
bath in warm water and let him drink from his
bath. That is about the only way mine will drink. If you do this use an infrared thermometer and get the water to about 100-102 (that's what my adult BD likes anyway. Being smaller yous may want a little different temp). You can get an infrared thermometer off of Amazong for anywhere from $7 to $15 that work just fine. Just be careful with the laser - even a weak laser can blind you if you look directly at it.
I'd also recommend switching from crickets to Dubia roaches too if you are not too freaked out about roaches. The benefits far outweigh the negatives. There are over 4,800 species of roaches, and only 30 of those species are considered to be pests to humans, and Dubia are not one of those pests species. The females wings are too short to be anything but decorative, and the males have wings, but they cannot fly, although they can glide. I've never seen one able to gain altitude. Dubia are not very good climbers so almost any plastic bin will hold them. Just put a 2-3 inch strip of slick packing tape around the top and they won't be able to get past that, and unless the walls of the bin are dirty, even the baby nymphs won't be able to climb the walls. I also put a strip of tape up about 5-6 inches from the bottom so if I ever see one above that, I know I need to wipe down the tape. That gives them plenty of room to accumulate frass (roach poop). You can literally go a year or more between cleanings, especially with a smaller colony. The bigger they grow, the less skillful they are at climbing. Dubia are from Central America, so they are a tropical roach...meaning if one does get out, it's too cold in a house for them to really breed or grow, and if the house is too dry they won't be able to molt. They don't smell ANYWHERE near as much as crickets. 500 crickets will smell worse in a week than 10,000+ Dubia roaches will in a year without cleaning the Dubia bin a single time. Roaches are silent so you don't have constant chirping, and crickets can jump out of their bin. Roaches won't bite your BD, but crickets will. If you leave a cricket in your BD bin overnight while the BD sleeps, a cricket could actually do damage to your dragon...thus I always recommend feeding in a separate enclosure to be on the safe side (and collecting the left over crickets are easier). Roaches do have that "ick" factor and it took my wife about 11 months before she gave in and allowed me to switch to Dubia, and I've not regretted a moment of it. Plus Dubia are much easier to breed and much more hardy than crickets. if you decide to keep using crickets, remove the dead crickets from the bin each day. A dead cricket will emit a gas as it decays that will kill other crickets. Cricket farms don't really advertise this because it would cut into their sales, but that's a tip I read on these forums from someone that used to work at a cricket farm. Oh, and I almost forgot the best part about Dubia roaches vs. crickets - the meat to exoskeleton ratio is much higher for Dubia roaches than crickets (I think about 6:1, but don't quote me on that), so there is a much lower chance of impactation (SP?) from too much exoskeleton. My BD would eat 20-40 crickets when she was nearly an adult, but I've never seen her eat more than 5-6 fully grown male roaches (I don't feed off the females). When I was feeding crickets, fully grown crickets would give my BD problems and she would get impacted, but I would feed her fully grown Dubia males and she has never had a problem, so that rule about feeding only insects smaller than the space between the eyes doesn't apply to Dubia.
viewtopic.php?f=76&t=225240
I'm not set up where I can ship/mail any Dubia, but I live in the Richmond, VA area and if you are close enough, I'd be happy to give you a few males, females and smaller nymphs to start a little colony of your own. All the information you would ever need to successfully breed your won colony is in the link below.
I'm sure some of the more experienced BD owners may have more to provide...Monster is the only BD I've ever owned and she has decided not to eat from time to time, but never more than 5-7 days, and I believe that was due to being impacted from cricket exoskeletons.
Best of luck VinceG123!
