Hello Everyone,
I am writing this post to share some different methods you can use to encourage your bearded dragon to eat their greens. I also hope that others will contribute and share their ideas, opinions and thoughts too!
I once read in a book that studies on wild bearded dragons show that young beardies eat about 50% vegitation. And adult beardies will eat 65-90% vegitation!! If this is anything to go by then we should be feeding bearded dragons more vegitation than we do. (If anyone was wondering which book, itsThe Bearded Dragon Manual, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bearded-Dragon-Manual-Herpetocultural-Library/dp/1882770595/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356905861&sr=1-1).
A lot of people are lucky and have dragons who take to greens quite well when reaching adulthood. However there are a lot of dragons who become hooked on live food and this can have bad consequences on their health. I myself have experienced this with my previous dragon. He would only ever want to eat live food and very rarely eat greens. This dragon became very sick and passed away at a young age with cancer. I don't believe a poor diet caused his cancer, but I strongly believe it contributed to his ill health. I have come to believe that its vital to get you bearded dragon on a strong healthy diet rich in greens and so I want to make sure I do things differently with my new dragon and help people with the same problems.
There are a few different ways to get a fussy eater to eat more greens...
1) Mixing greens and live food together. I tend to prepare some greens in a dish then pour dusted crickets over the top. Usually my dragon will take a few pieces of veg/greens by mistake when he goes for the crickets. You can also try feeding worms in a dish and putting the greens over the top of them.
2) If you starve your dragon for a day (or a few days to a week if its adult), then present greens, they'll be more likely to take them when hungry! It sounds cruel but this is actually what my vet recommended. Lizards can go a very long time without food. I tried starving my baby beardie for a day and I found I could hand feed several pieces of carrot and leaves.
3) This is my favourite and most fun tactic! To trick them into eating greens
. I did this with my last beardie, I would present a dish of morio worms, then just as he'd strike I would quickly throw a leaf infront of his face! His tongue would stick to the leaf and he would eat that instead. It takes a bit of practise to get the timing right.
4) Force feeding. I don't really like the idea of doing this but it can work successfully. Its usually best to use a nice sweet, watery fruit such as strawberries. If you rub the piece of fruit on the mouth they will start to open their mouth to lick their lips. With their mouth open you can get the piece of fruit in and they should take it. I just want to state that if your dragon really isn't interested, do not persist as you could stress it! I also want to state that fruit is not the best thing to give to a beardie (too much can raise internal parasite levels) so you shouldn't give fruit too often!
It is also important to gut load your live food with plenty of nutritious greens. I find that if you feed them 30-60min before presenting as prey, the food will be fresh in their gut before they complete their digestion.
Hope this is helpful and feel free to contibute...
I am writing this post to share some different methods you can use to encourage your bearded dragon to eat their greens. I also hope that others will contribute and share their ideas, opinions and thoughts too!
I once read in a book that studies on wild bearded dragons show that young beardies eat about 50% vegitation. And adult beardies will eat 65-90% vegitation!! If this is anything to go by then we should be feeding bearded dragons more vegitation than we do. (If anyone was wondering which book, itsThe Bearded Dragon Manual, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bearded-Dragon-Manual-Herpetocultural-Library/dp/1882770595/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356905861&sr=1-1).
A lot of people are lucky and have dragons who take to greens quite well when reaching adulthood. However there are a lot of dragons who become hooked on live food and this can have bad consequences on their health. I myself have experienced this with my previous dragon. He would only ever want to eat live food and very rarely eat greens. This dragon became very sick and passed away at a young age with cancer. I don't believe a poor diet caused his cancer, but I strongly believe it contributed to his ill health. I have come to believe that its vital to get you bearded dragon on a strong healthy diet rich in greens and so I want to make sure I do things differently with my new dragon and help people with the same problems.
There are a few different ways to get a fussy eater to eat more greens...
1) Mixing greens and live food together. I tend to prepare some greens in a dish then pour dusted crickets over the top. Usually my dragon will take a few pieces of veg/greens by mistake when he goes for the crickets. You can also try feeding worms in a dish and putting the greens over the top of them.
2) If you starve your dragon for a day (or a few days to a week if its adult), then present greens, they'll be more likely to take them when hungry! It sounds cruel but this is actually what my vet recommended. Lizards can go a very long time without food. I tried starving my baby beardie for a day and I found I could hand feed several pieces of carrot and leaves.
3) This is my favourite and most fun tactic! To trick them into eating greens
. I did this with my last beardie, I would present a dish of morio worms, then just as he'd strike I would quickly throw a leaf infront of his face! His tongue would stick to the leaf and he would eat that instead. It takes a bit of practise to get the timing right.4) Force feeding. I don't really like the idea of doing this but it can work successfully. Its usually best to use a nice sweet, watery fruit such as strawberries. If you rub the piece of fruit on the mouth they will start to open their mouth to lick their lips. With their mouth open you can get the piece of fruit in and they should take it. I just want to state that if your dragon really isn't interested, do not persist as you could stress it! I also want to state that fruit is not the best thing to give to a beardie (too much can raise internal parasite levels) so you shouldn't give fruit too often!
It is also important to gut load your live food with plenty of nutritious greens. I find that if you feed them 30-60min before presenting as prey, the food will be fresh in their gut before they complete their digestion.
Hope this is helpful and feel free to contibute...
