Oh Boy...You Have Emmalee's Twin :roll:
Emmy is 3 years old 511 grams and 18 inches. Since day 1, (and I have had her since 8 weeks old), she has been offered all types of veggies and greens and fruit. All types, all sizes, sprinkled with vits, not sprinkled with vits, in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, for 1 week straight (no bugs offered), hand fed, bowl fed....etc...etc...etc....
It is a battle with her, and I am lucky, very lucky if she eats any veg, greens, fruit on her own. When she see me coming she usually closes her eyes, in an attempt to say if I can't see it it's not there. This is her basic defence for everything. If she eats anything it would be a bite or three of dandelion green one day, the following two weeks later one bite of strawberry. As you can see if left to her own devices for food she would be malnourished/starved.
She has also stopped eating butterworms, crickets, wax worms, and will only eat supers which she likes, but is hardly a rounded diet.
I also know at this point she should be eating more veg than protein, but if left to her own devices, there is no way that would happen.
So for the last two years, Emmalee gets her veggies is slurry form, or baby food form, by syringe. I put a drop or two on her nose and wait (sometimes a while before she starts licking). With this method she will usually eat 2-5 mls of veggie a day.
With baby food you can buy any beardie safe veggie, but make sure you are buying the food with no extra additives in it. For instance the Heinz butternut squash, is buttetrnut squash and water only. Most of the time I will mix a fruit with a veggie, to keep things interesting and diverse.
I have also made my own slurries by either using a hand blender or blender mixing all kinds of veggies such as collard green, mustard green, carrots, cucumber, squash, pumpkin, strawberry, blueberry, apple, pear.
I also buy ice cube trays and fill the left over food into the tray for individual portions. This way nothing is wasted and I have a variety of veggie/fruit slurry to choose from. Just before serving the veggie mix by syringe I will add small pinches of vits to the mixture as well.
I hope this helps, but after three years still have no real advice as to how to get a dragon to eat their veggies on their own. that is unless you have a dragon that loves them...I hate those dragons...LOL. Although, I am hoping that my next dragon will readily eat them, cause it would be so much easier.
