Insatiable appetite

[Xjrosie]

Ok, so normally I struggle to get Thor to eat any type of greens, and because of that, I limit his bug intake to make sure I maintain the proper ratio.

Now, he's eating at least two whole leaves of greens every day. Because he's still in recovery and his fat stores are still low, I'm letting him eat what he wants. This means upping his crickets also.

He's going through an entire bunch of greens (turnip greens this week) and about 70 large crickets.

He's almost 4 years old. His appetite shouldn't be this hefty, should it? I'm wondering if maybe he's been battling something for quite a while longer than just since January.

I came home today at 5 and went to let him run around, and he beeline to the cricket tub. He sat there and headbobbed at it. This is after eating almost a whole 3 leaves of greens.

His weight is fluctuating a lot. I forgot to weigh him.before I gave in and gave him more crickets, but he was 620g after his meal.

Now that he's willing to eat every day, I actually need to know if I should limit his food once he reaches his normal weight again (around 665g.) Do they know when to stop eating, or is it up to us to tell them?

 

[AHBD]

Do you have current pis of him ? The ones I saw previously he looked good. It's good to limit the insects for an adult to a degree unless they are really underweight. It's good that he's eating greens again though.

 

[Xjrosie]

This is as of right now. He's not actually that dark. He's just almost asleep and my camera flashes a couple times before it snaps the pic. He's his normal colors for being agitated by the light.

Ignore the black thing, that's not the temperature. That's just for the humidity. I have two of them in there, and I use probes to take temps.

You can see the base of his tail isn't filled back in yet. It's much better, but still needs improvement.

I do two leaves of greens if they're kale or mustard greens, three leaves of collar or turnip greens, every day. I top with critical care omnivore everyday, calcium w/o d3 every 2-3 days. Calcium with d3 is once a month per the vet. Crickets are every three days, and he's been eating about 30 each time. He's devouring them like I'm starving him.

He's always been pretty lean, no matter how much I tried to get him to eat.

 

[AHBD]

Can't really tell from that but he looks pretty good. If he needs to gain a little more try to do it slowly.

 

[Drache613]

Moved by Moderator from General to Feeding

 

[xp29]

Can't really tell from that but he looks pretty good. If he needs to gain a little more try to do it slowly.

I agree, but would add, if he is going that crazy for crickets he IS hungry.
You could offer larger portions of greens, bugs more often, or bugs that are filling like dubias. There isn't much to crickets and it takes a huge amount to fill up a grown dragon.

 

[Xjrosie]

I agree, but would add, if he is going that crazy for crickets he IS hungry.
You could offer larger portions of greens, bugs more often, or bugs that are filling like dubias. There isn't much to crickets and it takes a huge amount to fill up a grown dragon.

Yeah, he gets three whole leaves of greens every day, and every third day, he eats 30-40 crickets. I'm trying to stay away from dubia because of high protein, and superworms and hornworms because of the far content. That doesn't leave too much. Bsfl are hit or miss. He adores silkworm pods, but I can't find them anymore, except Amazon. I'm nervous about feeding mealworms because of the chitin. He's never had mealworms, ever.

I'm powdering his greens every day with critical care omnivore, calcium every three days on his greens, and then once a week I powder his bugs with calcium.

His weight is staying between 610 and 620. He used to weigh 665.

 

[xp29]

That's a pretty good weight

 

[Xjrosie]

So, I always buy Thor-safe fruits and veggies in the hopes of him eating some of them. His first three years, he's never eaten any of it.

Last night I shredded some fresh acorn squash and white acorn squash. He ate it like I've been starving him! Today, I topped his greens with it (was supposed to be a protein day, but all the crickets died) and he ate it all. Plus three dandelions! He never wanted dandelions before! I don't know what's going on with him! I'm not complaining at all, just in shock that he's opening up his options.

 

[Xjrosie]

This entire bowl will be empty soon.