Beardie only eats larvae

[romanfj]

Hello to everyone!
My wife and I are relatively new beardie owners. Had one 7-month-old from Petco via our 15-year-old daughter. Everyone fell in love and after a month, we went to a local breeder. My wife, and I and other daughter each got 1 that was 2 months old. Have done fine with all of them for another 2 months. Then went to a local reptile show. Wound up with 2 more at 4 months of age.

My problem has been that my 4-month-old male German Giant citrus hypo with lavender bars (can't tell for sure because he's growing so fast and shedding so often, but that seems to be his underlying coloration :idea: ) refuses to eat anything hard-bodied. I have tried crickets from pinhead to 1/2", and different sizes of dubia nymphs, even from different suppliers. He barely eats collards and butternut squash. He will however eat waxworms. I know waxworms are high fat and have let him go 3 days without any waxies and even then he still won't touch a cricket. :evil: I know I can't allow him a waxworm diet

Now, I have noticed that he won't touch a still waxworm and rarely notices a slow one. He's also really lazy about getting off his log and going to his food. He really has to be hungry to leave his log. I thought perhaps crickets were too much like fast food for his taste. So, I have tried chilling the crickets to slow them down :idea: - No good. I tried really chilling the crickets so I could handfeed Mo (short for Slow Mo - It was a cool day at the reptile show when we got him). Nope.

I know this has nothing to do with him being watched, as we've done cricket body counts next day - they are all there DOB (dead on their backs).

He's well fleshed out and solid boned. Currently in a 2'x2'x2' home-built, plexiglass front/solid walls with a Reptisun 10.0. Temp gradient is 110 directly under basking lamp to 84 F, the same as all of his other siblings who thrive. He has 2 rocks in the enclosure, 1 directly under the lamp and the log - The love of his life. His cage is not as brighly lit as the others, which will be rectified in 2 days.

So, I did some research :study: I know these black soldier fly larvae sound like the perfect ticket fo him, but I can't breed them myself and he's a big boy according to all with whom I've spoken. We've already started cricket and dubia colonies. I can't imagine mail-ordering enough of these fly larvae to fill him up. He can eat 50 waxworms at a time!

Any ideas/help/suggestions/ smart@#$comments will be appreciated.

Frank Romano

 

[Gail]

First thing I would do is have him checked by a vet to make sure he doesn't have parasite, that could make him lazy with no appatite. If that isn't the problem then I figure you have a lazy, spoiled dragon. Why should he eat good bugs and greens when you are catering twinkies (waxworms) to him? You might just have to get tough with him, no more waxies, ever. Offer him his greens and roaches, he will get hungry enought to eventually eat them.

 

[zebraflavencs]

I must agree with Waldo... Some tough love is in order, after the fecal to rule out parasites..
All of my dragons and geckos love their roaches, and only get the snacks 1-2 times monthly.
Janie.

 

[RandH]

We have the exact same problem with our 4 month old goes crazy for anything that wriggles but we bought the black soldier fly lavea and she doesn't like them! i dont even no how she can tell the difference they look eactly the same as the little lavae that get in with her crickets which she goes mental for! she is ok she eats crickets when she gets hungry enough she is just a big spoilt madam!!!

anyway i no that isn't overly helpful, sorry, I hope you get him eating, good luck!

 

[Zemanski]

my vet told me to try waxies when Trevor was off his food - biggest mistake I ever made with him!!!!

never, ever feed a beardie wax worms

took me ages to get him off them - he finally ate phoenix worms and then began to eat locusts, now he will eat locusts mainly with a few super worms and roaches.

I told the vet what for when I next saw her and her response was that the idea was to mix them with his veg to get him to eat the veg but when I pointed out that he was eating veg already and just learned to fish out the waxies and leave the veg completely she apologised profusely