Beardie not liking Phoenix Worms?

[Topper]

Well my girlfriend and I went from being new owners to somewhat experienced and confident. Looking back at all the questions we posted and worries we had seems a bit silly now. Our beardie is a lot bigger (around 14 inches now) and we wanted to try phoenix worms after reading nothing but positive experiences, and getting a bit sick of crickets.

He isn't loving them as much as we hoped though. A few days he did eat 10+ large phoenix worms (normally he will eat about 12-15 somewhat large crickets) but a lot of days he's just ignored them or only had 1-5. They don't seem to grab his attention as much as crickets did and now at the 2 week mark we're starting to wonder if we'll have to go back to crickets.

It doesn't help that he only just finished a big full body shed, and he's been eating a lot more and different kinds of green lately (he picked out yellow squash from his greens today for the first time). So I feel like I may not be getting the best reading on this due to diet change and the shed partially interrupting things.

Anyone got any thoughts or opinions on this?

 

[Reptiworms]

You can try dusting them and see if they interests him at all. Or you can try soaking them in water for a little bit to remove any odor they may have and it plumps them up a little. Only downfall to soaking them if they can crawl out of the food bowl when they are fed.

 

[cupcakenbandits]

My beardies eat Phoenix worms when they "feel like it." They mostly eat crickets and salads. They really only chowed down on the worms for the first week or so and then it was back to the crickets. Now I give them mostly crickets and salad, but I sneak in a few of the worms for variety. Maybe try giving him both?

 

[Topper]

You can try dusting them and see if they interests him at all. Or you can try soaking them in water for a little bit to remove any odor they may have and it plumps them up a little. Only downfall to soaking them if they can crawl out of the food bowl when they are fed.

When you say soak them you mean like, a small amount of water and not completely submerged right?

I'll try concentrating them all in a dish, so far we've just been dropping them in a sterile plastic cooler with him like we did for crickets.

 

[Reptiworms]

you can submerge them. they will not die for close to a day. you can soak them for 15-30 mins.

 

[DoubleJ]

you could also try dubia roaches. My beardie turned her nose up at everything and I didnt want to use crickets because of the smell. Someone told me about roaches and she loves them! I think she likes the bugs that scuttle quickly

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

If they get wet they can climb. Some dragons love them some dont. Thats the beauty of dragons. They are all different.

 

[DoubleJ]

Lol I know, some are fussy some are not. Some like veg some dont etc etc. The more I learn the more I feel they are way too much like humans in nature - scary thought

 

[Topper]

Well we tried the soaking suggestion and that seems to have helped. Now he stares out of his tank at the worms while we prepare them. Yesterday he ate 28, which is probably his biggest meal ever. Quite a few of them are still dying though...one of the cups has almost entirely dead ones while the others are doing better.

He's also trying a lot of new veggies that he had zero interest in when he was younger, so I'm a happy camper at the moment.

 

[Canvasrox]

I have 4 beardies now (yikes!) and have been trying to get my two smaller ones, Trixie and Dixie, to love Phoneix worms.

Trixie won't have ANYTHING to do with them, yet Dixie will pounce on them. *sigh*

And soaking them in water DOES help - they're more squirmy and get their attention better.

Todd, Fran & everyone at ReptiWorms are the BEST! They answer all my questions, even when they have nothing to do with food - I highly recommend them!