beardie won't feed on his own

[ajax23]

I have a male beardie who is about 2 years old. Up until the last couple of months he's had no problems feeding and will eat veg and superworms fine.
Now he refuses to lick up anything. We've had to "force" feed using tweezers and once the food is in his mouth he whooshes it down, so he's obviously hungry...he just will not lick it up on his own.
The viv is fine, temps fine, light and heat fine, everything is exactly as it should be. I've had him for 18 months or so and did heaps of research before hand on this site so I'm confident his environment is fine. Pooping fine, bathed every day.
In fact everything is as it should be! He basks fine, moves around fine, actually looks really healthy......just the begger will NOT eat on his own! GRRRRRRR. And this has just started recently. Nothing in the viv was changed to start it off.
Any ideas anyone? The vet's had a look and can't see a physical problem. He goes around his viv taste licking as they do.....so the tongue itself is fine....it's a mystery to me!

 

[MagillaGorilla]

is it only a superworm issue? have you tried any other types of feeders?

 

[ajax23]

yes.....won't eat anything on his own...live food...veggies...nothing I have to physically put everything in his mouth befor he'll eat. It's driving me nuts as i can't leave him to eat on his own :

 

[MagillaGorilla]

im really not sure why that would be happening. Maybe he is just extremely temperamental but ill pm one of the mods to take a look at this thread.

 

[ajax23]

thanks..........any help is really appriciated!

 

[Goonie]

Does Ajax seem to be wanting to sleep more than usual? I'm not sure what the temps in England are right now, or what the season is, but could he be brumating? It's also possible that he just got tired of the foods that were offered to him. Using Pookie as an example, he used to eat crickets like he would never eat again - same with supers. Then one day, he wouldn't touch them anymore. I ended up having to let the crickets die off by themselves and the supers went to my turtle. The same happened to butters - he just got tired of them. Thank goodness for a turtle who'd eat worms.

If Ajax is pooping on a normal basis and it doesn't seem to be overly stinky or runny, or his colors haven't gone dark, then he might just not want to eat. It's perfectly normal for an adult beardie to go a few days without eating anything.

Did the vet run a fecal or blood work on Ajax? If you could afford it, it might not be a bad idea. Sometimes beardies' illnesses aren't always detectable by looking at them.

 

[ajax23]

he has been brumating but has come out now and is quite lively really! I change his veggies round so he doesn't get bored, and have tried with other live feeders but no joy...Even beardie candy (waxworms) he won't lick, although get them in his mouth and they're chomped down straight away.
Poos are all fine and normal and vet fecal check comes back clear.
It's a real mystery....if he really didn't like his grub he would spit it out...I had that last year once! He seems eager to eat whatever i can get in his mouth...but he just will not do it on his own
I'm almost tempted to leave him a short while until he is really hungry to see if that encourages him to eat on his own....but I'm not sure if that's a good idea...it seems a bit cruel....

 

[ajax23]

bumping this up for some help guys?

 

[MagillaGorilla]

i want to say to try that, cant really think of much else, if he is completely fine i cant seem him resisting food when he is hungry

 

[ajax23]

yeah it just seems cruel to starve him...you know what i mean?

 

[MagillaGorilla]

yea i know what you mean, i would suggest leaving food with him at all times while you do that, if you DO decide to do it that is

 

[ajax23]

well i leave veg in there all the time so he's not going to die of hunger i guess!!

 

[ajax23]

any help please anyone?

 

[Goonie]

Continue leaving food in his tank everyday. If he's really hungry, he'll eat on his own - unless he's sick or injured.
Maybe he's not completely done with brumation yet?