Cricket Strike

[Raging]

Hello

My seven month old dragon decided yesterday that crickets are boring. He normally eats ferociously but now he won't touch a cricket. He is alert, and behaving normally. He'll eat worms and roaches, just not crickets.

I would just feed him roaches for a while, but my roach babies are still TINY and my colony is too small to feed from.

I know others have had this occur- ideas?

 

[CooperDragon]

You may want to vary it a bit. As long as his behavior is normal, it's probably just a mood. He'll likely go back to crickets after a while. Try some worms in the meantime (and roaches as much as you can spare). Does he like salad? It's easy to vary greens and veggies in salads to keep interest, but he may be young for that yet.

 

[Taterbug]

What worms are you feeding?

I've been there - you just need to try to find something he likes for now, and try crickets occasionally to see if he likes them again. He may also not feel like he needs as much food - some start to slow down around that age.

 

[Raging]

He has actually always been a great salad eater- even as a little baby. He's a weirdo.

For worms, I feed him super worms. I live in a rural area where "exotic" pets don't exactly have a lot of resources. Supers and crickets are pretty much the only "staple" feeders that can be obtained easily. Someday, I want to feed him exclusively on roaches. They just breed so slowly!

I didn't give him any insects yesterday, just salad. By the evening, he was willing to take some crickets from my hand. I guess he decided that they'll work if he's hungry enough. I'm tempted to order more roaches, but I hate spending so much on them when I have some breeding. Plus, I really don't want Mushu to think that he can "demand" a menu change and force me to drop fifty dollars on bugs. (Though, let's face it, if he remained stubborn on his anti cricket stance, I would so cave.)

 

[AHBD]

Ah, yes, the " picky eater " stage. Well, it's a great bonus that he loves salad....keep offering it like you did and you see that he is caving in for crix when he's hungry enough. See how that works out for you, letting him get hungry until he eats the crix.

 

[Raging]

He ate twelve crickets today, which is much better than the three he ate last time I offered -.- I offered him a work just to make sure it's not anything serious, and he gobbled the work eagerly. He also munched on salad and berries, no problem.

So he's just being a brat :/ I'm glad he ate a little more. It's just scary and annoying to have him to from thirty or forty crickets to not wanting them.

 

[Raging]

I just thought of something. I usually gut load with baby carrots or leftover salad stems. I had none on hand with the last few batches of crickets, so I used potatoes. Surely that couldn't be the cause of this?

 

[AHBD]

No, that wouldn't make any difference. I'm sure he'll be fine.

 

[Raging]

Yeah, my mom laughed at me when I ran that by her.

I'm sure you're right I'm just paranoid to the one thousandth degree when it comes to Mushu. He went to bed an hour early once and I almost arranged a vet trip.