Hatchlings not eating? normal?

[Newborg]

so its been about 5 days and my little guy won't touch a single cricket or meal worm. is this normal? everywhere ive read says they should start eating after 3 days or when their body tells them to. but i think 5 days is a lil much. plz help tyvm

 

[john_ny217]

Are you making sure the crickets are not too large? If they are too big then they will do nothing but frighten the babies and they will run from them. Also you dont want to dump a ton of them in the cage at once. You want to throw a few in and all you really need is for one baby to start eating because once one starts eating they all seem to follow. Same thing with greens.

 

[Newborg]

I only put like 2 in at a time cause I saw they weren't eating them. And they are 1/4 inch. I only give them the real small ones the bigger ones I give to my other dragon. I guess ill just keep trying. The second hatchling got put into the tank today so maybe in a day or so they'll start. Hopefully

 

[john_ny217]

How are they doing? everything good now?

 

[Newborg]

Well they seem to love mealworms. But are just afraid of the crickets. I don't get it. I've force fed each of them a few crickets but they still don't get it

 

[paperplanes]

dont feed them mealworms.

 

[john_ny217]

Feeding regular mealworms is not recommended as a feeder to babies or any dragon as a staple. However "mini" mealworms which are different than normal mealworms are fine as a feeder (not a staple) for baby dragons. Crickets are the best feeder/staple for babies because you can gut load them and they are cheap. I have never heard of dragons being that frightened from crickets for this long, kinda strange. I guess all you can really do is keep offering them. I can not stress enough how important it is to not feed crickets larger than the space between their eyes. If they are even close to that then they are probably too large.

keep trying

 

[Newborg]

They just started eating the crickets finally. But the mealworms I feed them are babies,much smaller then the space between their eyes so I'm sure they will be fine

 

[Vacren]

Having the same issue, kinda. I'm using reptiworms.

I'm feeding in a separate tank than the one on the racks, allowing them to eat individually. Mine hatched eight days ago now, the only food they've eaten has been tong fed, some have eaten one or two, others have eaten 40+. Suggestions?

 

[valcash]

Glad they are eating crickets

 

[DragonsNDoodles]

Vacren,

I have had this issue with a couple babies I've bought. They just don't like the change from their tank into the feeding tub. It freaks them out to switch enclosures like that, and one baby would also get overwhelmed if there were too many bugs in the feeding tub. I just kept putting him in it every day and he eventually got the hang of it.