How long without food?

[glenCOCO]

I just got my first bearded dragon a week or so ago and I'm trying to get her to eat her veggies. The first couple days I fed her Dubias and Superworms mixed with some greens. She would only go for the bugs that were no where near the greens and just left a rest alone. I've been reading around the forum and some suggested that I just offer greens only until she eats them. It's been 2 days with no eating and she didn't exactly come into my hands looking like she was a well fed beardie so i'm starting to get a little worried. Should I wait a few more days? She's still really active and very aware of her surroundings but she just isn't eating. If this doesn't workout, will multivitamin dusting work in place of fruits and veggies?

Here's some history from the previous owner: She would only feed crickets and sometimes mealworms. She's about 2 years old and was kept in a 10 gallon tank with only a UV heat lamp and a red light for nighttime. If the sun was out and it was hot enough she would keep the beardie outside in a mesh cage, so i'm guessing UVB wasn't really an issue if she did this often. She said she tried feeding greens but had no luck so she gave up on trying.

 

[glenCOCO]

Made a little progress. I just made some apple-banana babyfood and she had 2 bites of it off my finger. I put it on a piece of romaine and she took it but didn't want more after that. I'll try mixing it into her greens tomorrow.

 

[Jiffy]

Hello and welcome to the site.
Beardeis often go thru relocation stress when moving to a new home, that could have something to do with it. And sometimes, adult beardies just dont like to eat.
What kind of UV do you have for her, and what are your temps?

 

[glenCOCO]

Thanks!

I use the Zoo Med basking spot light for UVA/heat and for now, until I get the Mega Ray in a week or so, I put her outside in a mesh enclosure for a couple hours for her UVB needs. I usually bring her outside around noon if the weather allows it. Since I live in Southern California, weather isn't much of an issue. It's 105 at her basking spot and 85 at the cool side.

 

[glenCOCO]

Since the issue is probably relocation stress should I wait until she gets settled in to start starving her of her protein to see if she'll eat her greens or just keep doing what i'm doing?

 

[RolandKyramere]

I would get a syringe and some squash babyfood. As for getting them to eat greens... it can be a bit of a battle, depending on the beardie. My latest addition will not eat anything that has green on it, and I don't think she was ever fed greens, much like yours. Avoid the romaine, there isn't enough nutritional value to it. Go instead for collard greens, those are my favorite for chopping for salads! You can also add in some fruits to get them to eat their salads, mango is my personal preference, but you can also use small amounts of strawberries or raspberries.

 

[demonsmomma]

try some carrot my old beardie loved it i think it was the bright color..max dont mind his veggies..hes just not a big eater though,, but try some carrot and let me know what happens

 

[glenCOCO]

So I gave up on the whole no live food thing and mixed some superworms with carrots and blended apples. She ate all the worms and two decent sized pieces of carrot. The two pieces were picked up by accident while feeding on the worms but she still ate it. Whenever she got some of the blended apples she would spit it out. I'm not sure if it was because she didn't like the taste or because it was too soft. I'm assuming she had no problem eating the carrots because they're hard and "crunchy" like all her live food. I'm going to try some sliced apples tomorrow to make sure.

So I've been reading around again and I've read from a lot of different places that if your beardie isn't eating greens you can just gutload your feeders with fruits and veggies and your beardies would get the same nutrients from the live feeders that they would from eating actual fruits and veggies. Please tell me this is true. I have a growing colony of dubias and if I could just have them eat the greens it would make everything much easier and I wouldn't have to worry about my little girl so much.

Thanks for all the help so far everyone! :mrgreen:

 

[demonsmomma]

ehh..im assuming no..but i dunno..try tying some lettuce on some fishng line and move it across her cage..she will think since it is moving that she needs to get it and will attack it and eat some and will hopefully relaize that it is delicious..

 

[glenCOCO]

Good update!

So yesterday I held back on feeding any live food in hopes that she'll eat some carrots, but had no luck. Today I tried the apples again but sliced instead of blended and she loved it! This is the first time she has ever shown a big interest in eating non-live food. I hand-fed her about a quarter of an apple. I know it's not much but it's definitely a start. One thing I found out is that my dragon doesn't like eating square-shaped food, but any odd shaped or long piece she'll take no problem.

Now I'm not too sure how to go from here. Should I keep holding off the live food and keep offering the fruits and veggies or start a regular feeding schedule of greens in the morning and live food in the afternoon?

:EDIT: So I left the plate of apples in the enclosure and she tried to eat it on her own but she couldn't pick up any pieces. I guess apples don't stick to their tongues too well. She kept trying and trying to no avail then got frustrated and finally gave up. Horrible , but I'm sure she'll get it.