Leaving roaches in the viv

[techdave]

So whenever I bring Tiamat out to eat, he always seems more interested in running around instead of eating.
I know you shouldn't leave crix in there, is it the same with roaches? Can I leave dubias and red racers in the viv?

 

[Claudiusx]

I wouldn't, could stress out your beardie.

-Brandon

 

[techdave]

Ya, I was thinking that could happen, but I think I'm more concerned with him just simply not eating. He rarely eats at all anymore. He will eat one or two little red racers every few days. Nothing consistent.

 

[BeardieGrandma]

From what I've read here, its a bad idea to leave the crickets in the viv - they can bite them while they are sleeping, stress them out, etc.

To keep Tiamat focused on eating, perhaps you could try putting him in a large shallow plastic bin (I'm picturing he's out in open space when you take him out to feed him) where he can't run off exploring, and then drop the crickets and such in there for him to eat. Also, feeding same time every day, if possible, might help to get him to 'expect' the event and what he's supposed to do as well.

I got one of those 3 drawer storage things from Walmart, (the wide one) and use one of them for feeding, (the other two for all the miscellaneous dragon stuff I've accumulated now, so it's quite handy. I lined the floor of the bin with reptile carpet so Joga's got good traction going after the crickets and it all seems to work quite nicely.

 

[jon21388]

I personally wouldnt leave the roaches in the viv. Usually they just try to run under my carpet because of the light in the room. but not sure what they would end up doing at night time when it is dark and warm.

 

[techdave]

Crickets lol I haven't had crix for a long time. I do put him in a platic tub about 3ft by 2ft by about 8 inches. He'll just crawl up and over the lip of it and take off. We sit there and keep pushing him back in until he just gives up and sits there to pout. :roll: But he still will barely eat any.
I did go ahead and try a male and a female dubia in there yesterday while we went into town, about a 3 hour excursion. He ate the female. Today I tried two males, and he didn't touch either one. Maybe he's only into the ladies?

 

[wes]

Yeah, we gave up on the separate feeding bin a long time ago because of the same reaction. We also use the same container for his bath, so maybe that's the problem. The other thing is, I think beardies slow down around this time of year, even if they don't go into brumation. We've been feeding nymphs to try to encourage eating, but I don't know if there is really that much of a difference. He might eat more, but they are smaller.

We often leave roaches in the viv for several hours during the day, but most of the time he either eats them right away or doesn't eat them at all. We usually remember to take them out at night. One time he ate one after the lights had gone out. He was half asleep but the dubia walked right in front of him. We were concerned, but there ended up being no harmful effects. The dubia don't seem to bite, but they are nocturnal and will crawl on the beardie if you leave them in at night.

 

[techdave]

He's up on a hammock , so I'm not too concerned with him getting walked. And I use the bin for his bath too. And I was wrong about him eating the female, I just found it hiding underneath one of his logs. So this makes it day three of not eating anything. He has lost a bit of weight, not enough for me to be concerned with just yet (his beardie boobies are almost gone ).