How long to try tough love?

[Sherri]

Hi,
Razz is just over 4 months old.
He recently finished about 2 months worth of meds for parasites etc.

While on meds, he would not eat anything other than what was offered with a syringe, so for a month he ate that way.

Now, he is definately recovering fine
Before the meds etc. he would not LOOK at his greens...now, he goes for them right away...not a lot, but 4 or 5 good bites of collard every morning and yellow summer squash it seems he loves as well. That is the good news.

Before the meds were over, I ordered; superworms (small), hornworms, butterworms and silks so that he would have a great variety when he was ready to eat again.........and to tempt him :mrgreen:

I have a good dubia colony going and before he started meds he loved them. I planned on them being his staple and the worms for treats.

He hates silkworms.
Really liked the butters but they have been gone a week now.
He did not like the supers at all for the first week to 10 days. Then all of a sudden one day he loved them and ate them for a week until I ran out (yesterday).

So, now I have tiny horns and dubia left, uhg. He will eat one dubia then it is as if he remembers he does not want them and he stops.

No way to get any more worms here before Wed so will he be OK if he chooses not to eat any dubia until then??? That is a long time! I can only get waxworms here, I would not use the crickets here at all...awful.

He was 74 grams on June 14th and has gained a lot since being off the meds. He now averages 155-158 most days, and is 14".

I gave all that (too much? lol :mrgreen: ) in case it helps with the answer to my question
How long can I just offer his salad and dubia without harming him? I know he will loose weight not eating, but how much will be safe?

And will he be able to make up for the protein? While he was on meds and only eating babyfood and greens (blended) he of course got little protein. He did not shed for almost 2 months and only grew 1/2" in 2 months as well He should be well over 16" by now) and I don't want to harm his growth again :roll:

What can I safely do? What would you do?
I likely have 1,000 dubia the right size for him now and plenty more growing :shock: so he needs to start eating them! LOL

Sherri

 

[Claudiusx]

Well, goes against what I usually say for young ones but... try offering him the dubias before the salad... lol.

Maybe he is getting too filled on salad, and doesn't really want dubia. Dubia are very filling. I think he will be fine as long as you keep offering him the dubia and as long as he keeps eating salad. He shouldn't really lose any weight from here tell next Wednesday, but he might loose some if his dubia consumption doesn't increase.

-Brandon

 

[Sherri]

LOLOL...they KNOW! They *just* KNOW!

Just a few minutes ago I went to take his bug bowl out of the viv. There were 2 dubia in there...had been there all day, so as usual, I decided to offer them to him.

Yep, he gobbled them both. So I grabbed another...and another. TEN regular dubia later he is still eating. So I give him 5 freshly molted ones as a treat. Of course he ate those, I knew he would. After that I decided to see if the molted ones caused him to ignore the regular ones.

Nope, gobbled 2 more LOL Then I stopped cuz he is already going to need to be up an hour past bedtime to digest :mrgreen:

Now we will see if he will eat them on his own tomorrow! Yea, I know, spoiled little beardie, hand fed on his basking platform :lol:

But I have been trying that for weeks and no go until tonight.........right after I posted about tough love LOL Guess I will wait a day or so before keeping them hidden! LOL

~Sherri

 

[Claudiusx]

Yay! thats great news Sherri! :mrgreen:

Even the mention of some tough love from his mommy scared him into eating for you... lol.

-Brandon

 

[diamc]

:laughhard: Sherri, I have to say again that he is just a LITTLE bit spoiled. He knows what he wants when he wants it. He is really playing you. Great that he ate so much and you didn't have to use more "tough love."

 

[Sherri]

Yes, somehow the little stinker sneaks into the computer room and reads what I write, just so he can mess with me :mrgreen:

About every other day and many days in a row, I would offer to hand feed him dubia...anywhere! Everywhere LOL.
I guess I should have written about my frustration on this matter earlier haha.

And...Diane He has eaten greens 4 or 5 days in a row now! All on his own lol.

He barely warms up...then he comes off his basking platform...over to where the salad dish goes...and stares at whoever will see him :mrgreen: Oh the looks they conjure up without being able to wrinkle their little faces! The minute his collards and summer squash are in front of him, he dives in. Only maybe 5 or 6 pieces, but that is great with me for now

Happens that Kazi began eating some greens the same day :roll: See....they got together on the computer, late one night and planned it all :mrgreen:

He went from 92-94grams 3 weeks ago to 158 grams today which is good, yes? My only concern is he did it on food that is not high on protein :roll: ie; horns mostly and some butters and some supers for about 4 days.

That will be OK right?

Thank you!
Sherri