beardie ignoring crickets

[Draycebaby2014]

So i like to switch from crickets to pheonix worms in the winter for drayce because he just doesnt like them in the winter time. last year around this time i switched him back onto crickets without any issues.

and now he refuses to eat any of them i ripped on up and put it in his salad hopping he would get a taste of if and want more he did eat it with his greens but i'll drop one or two in his cage and he looks at them for a few seconds looks like he's interested in them for a bout 3 seconds and then turns away.


i'm not sure what else i should try to get him to eat or could he be just still in winter mode?


temps are normal uvb is fine he gets green leaf lettuce endive sometimes dandelion greens or kale or collard greens ( i try to alternate )

and then sometimes i'll toss some baby food squash in there in the mix...

i'm just frustrated that he wont go for the crickets.

 

[CooperDragon]

He may just still be grumpy from brumation. Is he showing signs of a shed? It's likely just mood/stubbornness for some reason. If his weight is good then you could try withholding everything but crickets but I'd just be patient with him instead. Since he's older now, he should be on a mainly veg diet anyway so the crickets/bugs only need to be offered once every day or two. If he's digging into his salads that's the main thing. I've had good luck cutting up green beans and yellow/green squash and putting that in the salad as well.

 

[Draycebaby2014]

Green beans are a good idea

I'll keepp trying some days he goes for his salads and others it seems like he doesn't but everytime he poops it's a healthy size and it's green lol so he's probably eating when I'm not around I did give him some horn worms yesterday that he gobbled up lol

But I'll keep trying with the crickets maybe he'll go for them eventually it just sucks cuz they are all dying

 

[CooperDragon]

That's the rub with the crickets. They have fairly short life spans. The cricket die offs that I saw once Cooper was an adult pushed me to move over to a dubia colony.

 

[Draycebaby2014]

I'm just glad that for 100 with shipping their only like 24$ (shipping is 20) where as at my local petstore I could get like 80 for 20$

I'd do roaches but none of the Canadian bug suppliers have them and none of the us can shop them over the boarder something about them being illegal up here ?

Plus I mentioned that once and my bf had a cow lol he has a hard enough time with the crickets lol

 

[CooperDragon]

Yeah getting them in bulk online is a must. Tropical roaches are illegal to have in Canada without a special license. You could try breeding crickets but I don't know the details about doing that. As long as he digs into his salads he should be in good shape.

 

[Draycebaby2014]

Awesome I'll make sure he's eating his greens and keep trying with the crickets once I get more cuz I think they are all dead lol

 

[CooperDragon]

I found that if I got some of them smaller they'd take a week or two to grow big enough to feed off, but they tended to last a bit longer. I also found that using a heat mat or ceramic heat emitter to boost the temps a bit (my basement is relatively cool, especially in winter) they seemed to be much happier and I saw less dieoff.

 

[Draycebaby2014]

I didn't think of that ... that might be a good idea I did get smaller ones this time I think one of the main issues is I need another keeper lol I habe two little ones I find the big ones get groas to fast lol so I'm thinking if I got a 3rd small one and just split up the 100 between them than that will help too but I'll keep the heat pan and emmiter in mind

 

[CooperDragon]

Splitting them helps prevent mass dieoff due to illness. I used a 20g tank with a mesh top for mine. I used to keep wood chips (the kind used for hamsters) at the bottom. That seemed to keep the smell down a bit and I could just scoop up the chips and replace with fresh to clean the tank.

 

[Draycebaby2014]

If only I had space for that ! Lol I can't get a new batch for another few weeks so I'll ask my boss if she can order me in a new one..
I've just been using paper towel lol I'll grab some shavings too