Help. Only eats mealworms

[Tommy36597]

Hi everyone. I was wondering if I can get some assistance with my new dragon. She's not my first but this is the first time I'm dealing with this. For some reason she will only eat mealworms. I know they're not good for her to eat all the time but she doesn't want anything else. I've tried live and freeze dried crickets. I've tried can-o-crickets. I've tried small, medium, and large crickets. I've tried feeding them in her enclosure. I tried feeding her in a separate tank with nothing in it except her and the crickets so there is nothing in there for the crickets to hide under and she won't go after them. In fact, she ran away from the larger ones. She does eat some greens if I hand feed them to her but not a lot. However, if I drop a bunch of mealworms in there she eats them all. She's not a baby but not an adult. She's a juvenile so I'm still worried about impaction but so far there are no issues. She poops like a champ. Her tank set up is perfect. Like I said, it's not my first dragon so I know how to set everything up and make sure the temps and lighting are correct. She gets the correct portions of vitamins and calcium. My last dragon was a male who was an eating machine. He didn't care if they were alive or dead, moving or not. If it was in his enclosure, he was eating it. He ate crickets, worms, and greens. He'd even get a pinky every once in a while as a treat. He lived a very long healthy life. My current dragon has gone through shedding and is growing but the whole mealworms thing bothers me. I'm thinking of trying Dubai roaches but I'd hate to get a large amount and she doesn't want them. I can't seem to find any place where I can't get a about 5 to test it. I don't know what else to do. I'm going to keep giving her the mealworms so she doesn't starve but unsure on the amount I should give. Should I do like crickets and just give her as many until she's full? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. Have you thought about Phoenix/repti worms , butter worms, horn worms , silk worms all are good feeders. The Phoenix worms are high in calcium so you don't need to dust them just the vitamins 2x a week. Also I know you haven't with this one, but pinkie mice are not good for dragons. They have little bones in them that beardies can't digest and can cause impaction also they are very fatty.

 

[diver165]

Try some dubias. You can get an order of them shipped for about 20 bucks. They are far more nutritious, smell better, and much more hardier than crickets. Crickets just plain suck...(my personal opinion). It took me a little while to convince my wife to allow roaches in the house. Once I explained everything and she saw them she has no problems.

My beardie, Elvis annihilates them. But then again he's always been a good eater.

Give it them a try. Dubias can also be fed to other reptiles. My geckos also eat them. Though they seemed to not know what to do with them until they ate the first couple. Then I guess they realized they were delicious.