Beardie trying new food and being weird

[LuvUrDarkAngel]

Hey all. I'm trying to expand my dragon, Ciele, diet so I got him a "sampler" It has dubais, wax worms, pheniox worms, supers and hornworms. He really likes the hornworms and he ate one and it must have went down wrong because he fanned up and was gaping. I think he was choking and then finished swallowing. There's nothing obstructing his air way now but he's acting weird. He's super fidgety and alert. He's acting kind of paranoid and at every sound he jumps. He is super good at being handled but I tried to pick him up to let him out of his tank and he didn't want me to touch him. He loves cuddles and being held and now he doesn't want touched. He ran around the room once and then I put him back in his hammock in his tank and he's now hiding in his little hidey hole.


Is this normal behavior? Should I not feed him hornworms anymore?

 

[CooperDragon]

It's possible the hornworm was a bit too big and caused some issues. If he's alert then he's probably OK and the issue is temporary. I'd go easy on the feeding and go with some smaller stuff for a little while but my guess is that he'll be back to his usual self soon.

 

[LuvUrDarkAngel]

Thanks. I'm going to feed him the smaller food for a couple days to make sure he's ok. He's pretty much back to normal today so I think you're right. There are a couple of hornworms in the pack that are HUGE like 2-2.5in long and I don't want to risk him choking on them, would it be fine to cut them in half and feed him the pieces? Or do you think he could handle eating them whole?

He's about three and a half years old, 18-19in long from nose to tail if that matters.

 

[CooperDragon]

At that age he should be able to handle them whole (they are mostly water) but you can cut them up to make things easier on him if you think it will help.