Introducing veggies

[wilwarin712]

I've been putting veggies in with my beardie and misting them at each cricket meal to keep them moist. I also read that misting the veggies entices the beardie to drink water from the dish and then eat the veggies. I want her to start eating more veggies and fewer crickets now (she's about 9.5 in long), but I'm not sure how to go about that. When she was snubbing her crickets yesterday (I was trying to move her to medium ones, but she didn't like that idea), I could tell she was hungry, but she wouldn't eat her veggies either. When I gave her small crickets again today, she ate 85 in one sitting (pinheads are about half the size of the space between her eyes). Do you guys know of any tricks to get her to eat more of the veggies? I have mixed veggies with some pear pieces in with her right now. She just kinda picks at them occasionally, but a couple of days ago she devoured the whole dish of them (I only had about half a spoonful in the dish). I can usually see the evidence that she was messing with them because little bits of them will be around the edges, but she's not eating as much as I'd like. A woman at the reptile show I went to this past weekend said that offering her fewer feedings will make her eat the veggies, but I don't think that worked since she didn't eat them yesterday when she wasn't eating the crickets. Any ideas?

 

[augsburg1530]

At 9.5 inches, your dragon is still just a baby and will eat far more feeders for protein than she will eat veggies. Just keep giving her veggies and she will eventually make the shift over to eating more of them. Right now she needs lots and lots of protein to grow, so she will be devouring live feeders and ignoring her veggies, this is pretty normal. When she gets older she will naturally gravitate to eating more veggies, though some dragons are never good veggie eaters while others love their veggies. Right now you just need to give her the choice to eat veggies while making sure she gets as much protein as she wants.

Hope that helps,

Eric

 

[fresnowitte]

I agree with Eric as baby and juvie beardies diet should consist of 80% protien 20% vegetation. I usually introduce veggie to my babies by feeding the salads first thing in the morning once your beardie has warmed up before feeding any live feeders. This way they are more apted to take a bite or two. You can also use trickery by putting some phoenix or other small worms into the salad mix. They may get a bite of veggies trying to get the worms. Also my experience is that if you try to hand feed a couple of bites of greens they may take a bit or two for you. Even though your beardie doesn't show interest still offer a small salad daily. In the wild beardies will lick the dew off of vegetation to get their moisture intake. I like to use mustard greens because they have curly edges on the leaves which helps hold moisture. I spray them down with water real good so they can suck the water from the leaves, eventually they take a bite. :wink:

 

[wilwarin712]

Thanks, guys! That does help.

 

[dannii]

Do you have any beardie dry food?
My beardie was very fussy when younger, and refused to eat any greens at all. To get around this I soaked some dry food in water or juice until it was soft, then mashed it and mixed in very finely chopped greens and fruit. I presented this to him on a teaspoon which I kept moving to attract his attention. He considered it for a while the first time, but did eventually go for it and ate quite a lot this way. I then gradually changed from this method to greens on their own (still on a spoon that I moved) and then finally to greens just in feeding dish.
Might be worth a go if your beardie isn't eating greens (though as the others said this should only be about 20% of their diet when young anyway).