Lazy hunter?

[Cnochur]

Khal Drogo Hussein O'Gradaigh is at it again, confusing his loving human caretaker.

He is reluctant to hunt. He only hunts crickets when he's really hungry, and rarely hunts dubias. He will literally ignore a raving cricket/roach party, BUT as soon as I reach for the tweezers, he'll take lots of them via hand-feeding.

(Actually, he's still weird about dubias, which is why I even own those godawful crickets. It's almost like he doesn't understand that dubias are food, despite loving them for week and then giving up on them.)

I don't want to condition him to expect to be fed all the time. But if I don't feed him, I fear he won't eat. What to do?

 

[Luthien]

You could try switching to pre-deceased food. Go to your local pet store and you should be able to buy a vibrating food dish, this makes the dead food move a bit to attract their attention but they don't have to hunt for it. The best pre-deceased food to get is either crickets, repti worms or silk worms.

A lot of people worry about nutrition with this, crickets are the best just because while still alive they are gut loaded with everything your beardie needs, which means the only difference is your beardie doesn't have to hunt.

Also don't worry about him loosing his ability to hunt, my beardie was on pre-deceased food for 3 years and one day I decided to give him a treat and give him a live silk worm, he hunted that worm and ate it just like he had been doing it all his life

 

[HLSLeO]

Beardies get spoiled pretty fast, i throw one in at a time until he stops eating them or 10 minutes have passed... my little guy will eat his Crickets pretty normally, but if one of them is too feisty, he expects me to throw in another less feisty one... he looks up at me as if to say, "hey! i don't like this cricket, give me another one!"

 

[Cnochur]

Well, yesterday I tried an experiment. I took all the stuff out of his viv. Once there was nothing for the bugs to run under (and he was already off his lizard tuchus and down on the substrate), he got his hunt on. Turns out Drogo hasn't lost his bloodlust after all. He's just...lazy.

 

[HLSLeO]

awesome!!! lol... i usually remove things from the tank as well, just so i don't lose or miss any crickets after he is done feeding..

 

[Luthien]

Another thing you can do is get a smaller 10-20 gallon tank with just newspaper or something simple in the bottom of it. Don't put anything in it and just use it for feeding purposes. The crickets (or other food) can't get away too far from your beardie, can't hide under or on anything and your beardie will come to recognize when he or she gets put in this special tank it's food time!

 

[Cnochur]

True...I do have his old 10 gallon from when he was just a little manipulative reptile.