Having to wrestle my beardie to eat veggies

[Sauzo]

Let me start off by saying Harley is 1.3 years old and has always not been a huge fan of veggies. She will eat about 4-5 pieces of collard/mustard/dandelion greens a day but she loves her dubias/hornworms/silkworms. Well the past week she has decided greens aren't good anymore and will only eat 1-2 pieces but still loves her about 15-20 bugs a day. Everything about her seems normal. She is happy to pancake all day long under her UVB and heat lamp and watch tv or people and really only moves when its bug time. My worry though is at what age do I need to drop the hammer and just force her to eat veggies? I thought it was 1 year old. I don't want her to get gout from too much bugs. As it is now, she is pretty fat but like I said, she seems happy and the only times I've ever seen her black beard was when I take her outside(she hates outside) but that is another story. She loves bath time and splashes around in her little tub and waves her arms and legs under water like she's swimming. I just don't want to have to drop the hammer too soon and make her go hungry unless I have to since she is such a little sweetie.

Oh and forgot to add, her dubias are fed moistened alfalfa pellets and veggies like butternut squash, dandelion/collard/mustard greens, endive, oranges, apples, watermelon, pretty much all the stuff a beardie can eat. I never feed them dog/cat food high in protein so I'm hoping the bugs aren't getting a high build of uric acid which is then passed on to Harley.

 

[CooperDragon]

I wouldn't force the switch too much. Just make a nice salad with a few options available every day. You can keep rotating the offerings based on what's fresh to try and keep her attention. You may come across a veggie/green that she goes nuts for after a while. I wouldn't worry too much about gout. That's usually genetic or a symptom of another issue rather than something that is caused directly.

 

[Sauzo]

Ok, good to know. Was a bit worried. On the plus side, she seems to have changed her outlook on butternut squash. She didn't like it as a baby so I just fed it to the dubias but this morning, I tried again and she went after it like a fat kid on a twinkie :lol: So now I have found 4 things she tolerates/likes, Collard/dandelion/mustard greens and now butternut squash....for now.

 

[CooperDragon]

Haha funny. Those are all great veggies to offer. I found that cutting yellow squash into small wormlike pieces are pretty popular too. Might be worth a try. Just put the pieces on top of the salad and see what happens.