Force-feeding baby food..

[JoshK]

I've had my beardie for almost a month from petco. Went to the vet etc.. said everything was fine except it's skinny (I took it because it had not been eating much).

She suggested trying mealworms which we did. The first day he ate a couple of them but ever since he hasn't touched it.

The vet called to check yesterday and suggested that we syringe feed it some baby food.

My question is.. how much baby food do you feed the dragon per feeding?

Got it a month ago it was 9grams, it got up to 12grams by week two, then yesterday before we fed it babyfood for first time he was back down to 9grams.

 

[kimmie]

NO MEALWORMS! Has he pooped? You could try putting a small dab of baby food on his nose and see if he'll lick it off.

Have you tried Phoenix Worms - they are small enough he might like those, and small crickets!

If he's not pooped, bath him and rub his tummy (search here for impaction as mealworms can cause that).

 

[JoshK]

My question is.. how much baby food do you feed the dragon per feeding?

 

[Jenna8359]

I feed my adults about a 2 teaspoons. You should also try giving him Pedialyte to hydrate him. For my adults, I will stick a plastic syringe on the side of their mouths and slowly squeeze it into the front of their mouths. You have to be extremely careful with young or juvenile dragons because if you force them to eat they can inhale the baby food. If you do have to do the baby food, try barely inserting the tip of a plastic syringe on the side of his mouth and squeezing little by little. It all depends on the size of the beardie. For a beardie smaller than 6 inches I would try 1/2 teaspoon. On a syringe that would be 2.5ml. You can find a plastic syringe at pet stores in the bird section. I also recommend butternut squash baby food. My beardies love the taste. I do however, know a lot of baby dragons that will stop eating if you begins force-feeding them. If he is already eating things on his own I would just offer him a better quality food. I would not use superworms, they are extremely high in fat and can even eat their way out of your beardie. If you give them these they should be used for treats and should have their heads removed. I fed my beardie that for about a year and he got really fat. Their is a threat of fatty liver disease so I stopped. Now he is on a diet and because of his slow metabolism it hard for him to lose weight. Superworms are not very healthy! I now feed hornworms.

This is a great website for hornworms. They are extremely nutritional and beardies LOVE them. They will def have your beardie eating all of the time. For some reason even when mine are drop dead tired they will get up and run for these! You only need to feed one a day. They may seem a little expensive but are very well worth it. I am trying to figure out how to breed these.

http://www.greatlakeshornworm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48&Itemid=55

Also, here is a food source list of what you can and cannot feed your dragons. I use this one from a great breeder who is very knowledgeable about beardies. It list everything that is poisonous to beardies.

http://carolinadesignerdragons.com/common/docs/food_list.pdf.

Good Luck ! Jenna!

 

[karen1]

I had to feed a 4 week old baby food for about two weeks before she decided to start eating on her own. I mixed chicken and sweet potato baby food with a bit of water then let her lick it off my finger. At first I had to dab a little on her nose and once she started licking it I just kept putting my finger with the baby food in front of her mouth. I did it until she decided she had enough. Sometimes she would get a little feisty and want a bigger bite but my finger survived it. Now she is one of my best eaters. Good luck.

 

[rayjones]

I just put up an article with video about feeding by syringe.
http://lindaslizards.com/index.php?...feeding-by-syringe&catid=11:feeding&Itemid=29
But I definitely agree with the others. Don't syringe feed if you don't have to. They really don't like it, and they DO remember. One of ours gets all upset if you carry her into the kitchen (where we syringe fed) Even if it's for a bath in the sink which she likes.

Instead, dragons hate having their nose dirty. So just dab a little squash baby food on the nose and they will lick it off. This allows them to tell you when they are full and stop.

Your dragon has lost a lot of weight! You do need to get the little one eating soon. Try some of the suggestions above and if your little one doesn't start eating soon you will need to force feed. Ours love phoenix worms (which have good levels of calcium in them) and squash cut into very small pieces.

This is a good reason why we have a very accurate scale. We weigh a few times a week. You can get a tail on the table, or just ate, or other problem and get a bad weight every once in a while. If a dragon starts loosing weight that is usually my first hint there is something wrong.