Did I spoil her?

[Rippstop]

Hi all!
Well, I think I might have spoiled our darling 6-week-old beardie. She had been sick and seemed too tired to hunt her crickets so we ended up taking everything out of her cage so the crickets would be easily accessible - she would just stand there and eat the ones that came near her. We did this 3x a day for a few days. She also wouldn't eat any veggies so I started to spoon-feed her squash baby food. To me it seems she's obviously feeling better now but now she won't hunt her crickets and she won't eat squash in the bowl, only from a spoon that someone is holding. It doesn't seem like a health issue - could I really have spoiled her with just a couple days of "babying?"

Thanks for your thoughts.

Christine

 

[bugaboo]

I think so, mine is like that too. He is soo lazy. I have to put everything in front of him and he only eats with me standing over him. If my boyfriend comes in the room he won't eat at all. :roll:

 

[Rippstop]

So have you resigned yourself to that or are you trying to find a way to fix it? We've got two young kids and two dogs in addition to the beardie - I just don't have time :!:

Perhaps someone here can help us both :?

Christine

 

[Rippstop]

now she is refusing to eat anything dusted with calcium... help! Lots of people viewing this thread but only one response?

 

[tbelanger]

Well, kind of like with our 5 month old, you sometimes just have to do it the way you can and if they don't eat, they don't eat. If they are healthy they will get the point pretty quick because they'll get hungry and they'll have to do it your way. I know it sounds harsh, but I totally know what you mean. I don't have time to hand feed my two dragons fifty plus crickets each day.

 

[Rippstop]

Well, kind of like with our 5 month old, you sometimes just have to do it the way you can and if they don't eat, they don't eat. If they are healthy they will get the point pretty quick because they'll get hungry and they'll have to do it your way. I know it sounds harsh, but I totally know what you mean. I don't have time to hand feed my two dragons fifty plus crickets each day.

Yeah, I totally know what you mean by this. Right now I'm more concerned with her lack of calcium intake. I don't want her to get sick again.

Christine

 

[Archimedes]

i have an old male beardie, and he's one of the pickiest eaters i've ever seen...the only greens he'll eat are WILD clover and WILD dandelions...then he'll go through a "berry faze" and only eat blueberries and blackberries...then he'll be adament about eating ONLY crix, or ONLY WILD grasshoppers...I have no idea what his issues are i adopted him when he was about a year old, and pretty skinny, his owner neglected him and only fed him iceberg lettuce...i suppose that he thinks he's living at the ritz now, and will only accept the best. I suggest "tricking" her, by slipping some similar foods into the usuals. maybe pumpkin or sweet potato instead of the squash? my lizard will sometimes be fooled into eating other dark greens, a store bought hopper, and i always gut load my bugs. he'll pick and cooked brown rice, oats, and maybe will take a taste test of apples. my old boy, being older, also eats less, less often. maybe ur beardie is just adapting to a new faze of life?

good luck

 

[bugaboo]

Mine must think it's a Diva! Even the Butterworms, Waxworms and Phoenix worms he lets wiggle for a while then he will eat maybe 5 or so then walk away to bask. He is going to the doctor today just to make sure nothing is wrong, maybe he needs a shrink too. :lol:

 

[muzikfreakah]

Heres what I do to start training her to hunt, put her on your hand with head outward just an inch away from your fingers, then put the crickets on your feeding bowl or enclosure. Use your hand as a sort of lift to put his head near the cricket and move it around to where the other crickets are. After doing this for a few days it should get him going :-D

Hope you got that, will try to shoot a video of it.

Another thing is your beardie could be stressed out? Which brings us to the conditions of your tank, can you post them? Temps? Lighting, substrate etc..

 

[Rippstop]

Just wanted to let everyone know that Stripes is doing well now and hunting on her own again. I think she just needed some time for a full recovery. I have refused to spoon feed her anymore and she has started to lick some out of her bowl. She's not one for veggies at all.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Jasper's Mom]

Glad to hear it! My vet said that he has seen a few dragons (including my Jasper, RIP) who were handfed during a period of illness and then never regained the drive to hunt on their own again. I handfed Jasper every day of the two and a half years that he was with me. Time consuming for sure, but I couldn't say no to his little face... :roll: :lol: Now I'm having to syringe feed Cam while she gets better, and I'm hoping against hope that she'll still want to hunt on her own once she's healthy.

 

[Johnnyboy]

My boy is currently not hunting as well and i'm trying the stubborn approach of feeding him (leave food daily in the tank and let him eat when he's willing and not messing with him) It sadly seems to be a common thing on the forum Is anyone lucky enough to have their beardie not produce any problems at all???

 

[Rippstop]

Is anyone lucky enough to have their beardie not produce any problems at all???

We just got a second baby beardie and she is great. No problems eating veggies or hunting. We've adjusted some of the living arrangements and that seems to be helping our first quite a bit.

I think the reason so many here have had problems with their beardies is the poor advice they are given when they first get them.

 

[bugaboo]

I did get the poor advice at first. Salesperson who was also a previous beardie owner told me that it is not necessary at all to have the temps up over 100F and that mid 70's is fine and that they just need to be climatized. Well I didn't listen to her and took the forums advice, now with everything perfect my boy/girl is growing and so is the appetite! He hunts aggressivly now. I wish he would attack the greens the same way as the bugs!

 

[Rippstop]

Good thing you didn't listen to the salesperson! I think that with animals just like with people there is a huge difference between surviving and thriving. We had "adequate" lighting in our tank but when we replaced it with the optimum lighting, we noticed a big difference in their behavior, activity level, and growth rate. It wasn't that they weren't doing ok before, it's just now they are doing fantastic.

I've had salespeople and dog breeders tell me that certain types of dog food are good when in reality they are just ok. My dogs would live and be fine but for optimal health, shiny coat, less skin irritations, etc. we need to go with a high-quality no-corn diet. It costs more but is worth it.

There are too many salespeople out there who are giving advice on substandard (but enough to keep the animal alive) care... but maybe that's because the average person is fine with it.