Beardie refuses anything solid

[ApolloAthena]

I have a rescue beardie (named Spike) that came to me a little under two months ago. He was severely dehydrated, malnourished, underweight and has a mild-moderate case of MBD. He was kept on cali-sand, no UVB, and improper heat. I took him to the vet, he was parasite free, confirmed the MBD of course and got some Carnivore Care.

I have been feeding him the Carnivore Care daily and he went from 361g to 407g. Over 300g doesn't seem too small, but he was terribly thin and still not perfect however so much healthier. In that time I managed to get him to eat three crickets, a superworm and numerous hornworms by himself. He has also eaten some salad here and there. In this last month he will not try (granted what he had tried was little) anything. No dubias, supers, mealies, crickets, pinkies and I have a good number of hornworms growing up but it is hard to keep them around. (I have tried hand feeding them to leaving them in with him - nada) He willingly takes the Carnivore Care - even licks and stomps for it. I have tried not feeding him to get his appetite up and he still refuses all except the force feeding. I am not sure what animal would prefer to be force fed?

He is in a 40g with a 24" reptisun 10.0 and a basking spot at 100. I don't know if anyone has any ideas or thoughts that might get him to eat something other than the assist food.

 

[Gail]

I've heard of other dragon who get so used to eating soft food from a syringe that they aren't willing to eat on their own. If he is healthy now then you might just have to keep starving him until he is willing to eat on his own. How long did you starve him before?

Another option is to get one of those baby food blenders and start blending his greens/dubia into a nice, icky smoothie to syringe feed. It might help him get used to the taste.