can u starve a beardie into eating veggies?

[krystalsboy]

My beardie wont eat veggies (5 mos old). A local breeder suggested not feeding crickets for a few days. He said she would eventually eat her salads and then I could resume the crickets. He said I could try squash babyfood to stimulate the veggie appitite. Opinions?

 

[Embee]

I'm no expert, but this sounds like awfully extreme advice for a 5 month old beardie. It does not sit well with me, personally.

In most cases, if you offer everyday, they will come to accept veggies. For some, it happens early on and for others (like our dragon), it happens later. Our beardie got off to a very a slow start due to a poor UVB bulb that we had purchased initially, so when we upgraded her enclosure she was very concentrated on growing and live feeders. And grow she has, but still has some ways to go in catching up. In the meantime, I kept offering the veggies every day, and for months she just wasn't interested. She is now 8 months and for the first time is eating veggies everyday. Recently, I have had good success with consistently giving her the "moving salad" that is, phoenix worms with greens on top. She didn't like it at first and seemed put out, but she wasn't willing to let the worms just swarm about in the collards! :wink: Initially, she would get at the worms by picking around the greens and occasionally, by accident, eating a few of them. Now, several weeks into this, she is eating the greens along with the worms, and it appears that she enjoys both. (For a time, I think she just realized that if she got rid of some of the greens, she could see the worms better though. :wink: )

Juvies need lots of protein, as they are growing rapidly. I would be reticent to pull live food for that length of time to force the greens issue as for most beardies, if offered, they will get there in their own time. IMO, 5 months is too young for that kind of tough love. And in the meantime, just feed all those greens and veggie goodies to the crickets... beardie will get them one way or another. :mrgreen:

That said, if you're interested in trying the moving salad, I highly recommend using a worm feeder such as phoenix, as they have a decent fat/protein ratio (can be used as staple), or perhaps silks. Worms are much easier to cover with greens as they tend to stay in the bowl. I've tried with crickets, and they all just escaped and jumped out. :roll:

Just my .02 for whatever that's worth. :dontknow:

The best,
Em

 

[spyder86]

don't go days without feeding your beardy that would be dangerous but what I did was to put the veggies in first thing in the morning and get them a little wet (mist them). Then put your beardy by them and leave it alone till noon or evening without feeding anything else until whatever time you usually feed you second feeding. This works well because beardies are so hungry first thing in the morning and if not fed their usual meal they tend to branch out and try new things more readily. this is just my experiences and it has worked well for me but by no mean go all day without feeding your beardy.

 

[neil1983]

When I first got my BD he wouldn't eat any veg/salad, but I offered it to him everyday along with his crickets or mealworms and now he eats nearlly all his salad/veg most days

 

[ScooterBlenny]

I would definitely try withholding "yummy" food for a few hours, but I'm not sure about days. With Pudge, I would feed her greens in the morning, and then wait until the late afternoon or evening to feed her live food. So she wasn't starving to death, but she ate her greens when she got hungry enough and figured out that they weren't so bad.

 

[HUMBOLDTGUY]

Our beardie got off to a very a slow start due to a poor UVB bulb that we had purchased initially,

what i find odd is that our ate tons of veggies when we had the light everyone told me to get rid of.....then we got a repti sun a lil over a month ago and she hasnt so much as taken one bite of plant matter since.....not sure what to do

 

[spyder86]

Our beardie got off to a very a slow start due to a poor UVB bulb that we had purchased initially,

what i find odd is that our ate tons of veggies when we had the light everyone told me to get rid of.....then we got a repti sun a lil over a month ago and she hasnt so much as taken one bite of plant matter since.....not sure what to do

This is most likely because you beardy was not getting enough nutritioin absorbtion due to lack of uvb and now he is so there is less of an urge to consume nutrients. not proven just my opinion, i ran into the same problem switching from cp florecent to repti-sun 10 tube bulb, but i was able to get them to start eating veggies again through the above mentioned.

 

[HUMBOLDTGUY]

Our beardie got off to a very a slow start due to a poor UVB bulb that we had purchased initially,

what i find odd is that our ate tons of veggies when we had the light everyone told me to get rid of.....then we got a repti sun a lil over a month ago and she hasnt so much as taken one bite of plant matter since.....not sure what to do

This is most likely because you beardy was not getting enough nutritioin absorbtion due to lack of uvb and now he is so there is less of an urge to consume nutrients. not proven just my opinion, i ran into the same problem switching from cp florecent to repti-sun 10 tube bulb, but i was able to get them to start eating veggies again through the above mentioned.

that seems logical.....but before she would eat lotsa veggies crix and beardie bites and when she would drop a deuce it was a well formed play doughish consistancy.....now she will eat only crix and silkies and her poo is kinda runny, really black and stinky, and has alot of undigested cricket matter in it.....before switching she was out basking all day and running around the viv and higher on energy.....now she spends as much time as possible hiding in her cave, only basks when i put her back in after a bath to make her poo, and only does for a few minutes a day

 

[zebraflavencs]

I have 2-5 month olds and one almost year old dragons.
They get their salads @ 8-9am, roaches around noon, and every 2-3 hours after until all 3 feedings of the day are done, lights out @10pm.
Mine didn't start eating their salads until recently, so don't worry about that ! Let them have the protein as that is what they really need now. You said that the poo is dark, with undigested parts. That too is normal, though you may want to check basking temps. The one I have that has the undigested parts needed his temps raised just a tad, as I had recently placed him in his forever viv, and was still monkeying around with the lights. Just give them time, and change up the mixture, also I agree with adding the silks or PMs for the moving salad.
Janie.

 

[Embee]

Our beardie got off to a very a slow start due to a poor UVB bulb that we had purchased initially,

what i find odd is that our ate tons of veggies when we had the light everyone told me to get rid of.....then we got a repti sun a lil over a month ago and she hasnt so much as taken one bite of plant matter since.....not sure what to do

Was your beardie small for her size? Did the poor UVB light have her eating less live feeders than she should have been? This was the case with us. Our beardie would "accept" greens at the start, when we had our compact light. However, she wasn't eating NEAR enough protein and her growth was stunted. When we put her under a quality UVB, she began to finally eat the amount of protein she needed to stimulate the growth process, of which she had much making up to do. She turned her nose up at greens for over two months, but I just kept trying, assumed she was just very "focused" on eating what she needed to grow, and catch up. Now, that she is up and running (3 or so months after putting her under her new light), she is growing well, eating live feeders as she should and again, accepting veggies on a regular basis.

The other factor for us I believe is that we bought our girl from the pet store where she was housed with nine other clutch mates in a small tank. I am reasonably certainly that these babies were not getting near enough protein, but were offered veggies regularly which was all she was used to eating. She also had a tail nip which COULD be a sign that there were some dominance issues going on in the small crowded tank, and I have a theory that veggies are perhaps all she could get her hand on most of the time as the bigger, more dominant clutch mates were bogarting what little crickets were offered... just a theory though.

As to your beardie's digestive issues as Janie suggested, how are your temps looking in the basking area? And, perhaps it might be a good idea to have a fecal done, to rule out parasites? Aside from that, I find it immensely helpful to make sure that our girl gets a couple hours basking time before AND after eating... usually more. :dontknow:

The best
Em

 

[HUMBOLDTGUY]

temp in her basking spot is 110 even though she very ralrely goes there now

as for her eating...she used to eat about 40 crix a day and a pretty hearty pile of greens and squash and was growing pretty quick

now she will not touch veggies and is eating maybe 20 crix and some silkworms on a good day....sometimes she will not eat at all for a day

could this possibly be her going into brumation??

 

[spyder86]

Our beardie got off to a very a slow start due to a poor UVB bulb that we had purchased initially,

what i find odd is that our ate tons of veggies when we had the light everyone told me to get rid of.....then we got a repti sun a lil over a month ago and she hasn't so much as taken one bite of plant matter since.....not sure what to do

This is most likely because you beardy was not getting enough nutrition absorption due to lack of uvb and now he is so there is less of an urge to consume nutrients. not proven just my opinion, i ran into the same problem switching from cp florescent to repti-sun 10 tube bulb, but i was able to get them to start eating veggies again through the above mentioned.

You and I have had a lot of the same problems, I think this is caused by the beardy being to close to the uvb, because i lowered Yoshi's basking log and he perked back up and poop went back to the right digested consistency. Again I am not even close to an expert just what i have experienced. I have 2 beardies and when I had the repti-sun cp bulb Kengo was lethargic and didn't eat and Yoshi was a champ and when I switched to repti sun they changed roles for a while but after some adjustment both are champs and growing like weeds.

 

[Venom508]

i hope no one gets the wrong idea i have once or twice not by choice though the pet shop ran out of crickets and i had to buy him some greens thats how i got him to eat his greens and he loves them but i wouldnt recommend it

but yeah i wouldnt starve him into doing it.

but yeah as the previous posters said just keep offering them and he will try em

or maybe you could take all the legs off the cricket and wrap it in a small peice of lettuce or somthing and see if he will take it??