Dragon Seriously Won't Eat Anything But Bugs

[Sawahchan]

Its so frustrating! I made sure his cage is warm, he has a uvb bulb, he drinkes water, he eats bugs, he even runs all around my room to explore when I let him out but he has never been interested in eating greens. I have only ever been able to get him to eat the occasional banana or maybe a leaf or two of dandelion greens other than that he refuses to do anything but eat bugs. I tryed not feeding him for a couple days, I tried like 10 different veggies, I mixed in fruit, I tried putting worms in there too. He seems to just get upset when I try to feed him greens and he just goes back inside his cave or turns away from the bowl.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this obviously very stubborn child? I'm afraid hes missing a lot of his vitamins because he refuses to eat greens. He is about 3-3 1/2 years old and hes never really eaten greens consistently even at a young age I tried to feed him a variety of greens and veggies but he refuses to eat any of them!

 

[CooperDragon]

At that age he is probably being stubborn. They can go for quite a while without food as adults and should be on a mostly vegetarian diet as you know. I would try offering just salads, big salads with rotating options, every day and no bugs for a couple of weeks. If he's at a healthy weight he can take it. Keep rotating what you offer and see if you strike upon something he likes to get him into the habit of going to salad for food rather than waiting for bugs. This is a good list for ideas that I reference often http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Comments aren't allowed in the memorials section but I read your post about Simon. I know how it feels to lose them. I'm glad you were able to give him a good home. I'm sure he appreciated it.

 

[Sawahchan]

At that age he is probably being stubborn. They can go for quite a while without food as adults and should be on a mostly vegetarian diet as you know. I would try offering just salads, big salads with rotating options, every day and no bugs for a couple of weeks. If he's at a healthy weight he can take it. Keep rotating what you offer and see if you strike upon something he likes to get him into the habit of going to salad for food rather than waiting for bugs. This is a good list for ideas that I reference often http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Comments aren't allowed in the memorials section but I read your post about Simon. I know how it feels to lose them. I'm glad you were able to give him a good home. I'm sure he appreciated it.

First of all thank you so much for your kind words, it is very hard sometimes when losing such a young animal to not blame yourself for how things turned out so thank you.
I am trying very hard to not give him any bugs, I'm trying dandelion greens at the moment but he's just staring at them. I don't know how long beardies can go without food so it scares me to stop feeding him but if it gets him to eat greens I guess I will endure it. He is a little cranky though because hes used to getting fed every other day.