Losing patience with my picky eater

[milo0]

I've made numerous threads about this, and so far nothing has worked. I have an incredibly stubborn 3 year old beardie.
He literally just will not eat veggies. He will occasionally eat fruit, but getting him to eat veggies... it's like unicorn rarity status lol. I took him to the vet and they checked him out and said he was VERY healthy. Beautiful color, good weight, hydrated, etc. But when I told the vet about his veggie problems, even he was confused. I'm tried every trick in the book, and I'm losing patience. I've mixed roaches in with the greens, misted with water, dropped the greens from above, put them on his basking spot, and I've even withheld all food from him for nearly 2 weeks. Even then, he STILL didn't break. He is that stubborn.
He will eat what he wants without a problem. If I show him silkworms or superworms, his eyes widen and he will jump from wherever he is a launch himself towards them. I think I may have caused him to form bad habits though with the worms, because he no longer loves dubia's anymore. Oh, and he's also particular of the sizes of dubia's he chooses to eat, which isn't helpful.

So yeah, I'm at my breaking point. He just won't eat, and I refuse to go past 2 weeks of withholding food from him. I know he's not sick because he WILL eat if I give in to worms and such. T_T I don't even want to look into force feeding him... but I've considered it. I was going to actually look at jarred baby food to see if I can get him to lap up some of that, but I've tried making him smoothies and things before and he straight up refused. I guess my last cry for help is, is there anything else left to try? I feel like I've tried it all so I'm just out of ideas lol...

And here's the list of veggies/fruits I've tried. I probably won't be able to list them all since I've given him a huge variety of things in the past;

-sweet potato
-every staple green (mustard, collard, dandelion, escarole, kale, etc)
-apple
-blueberry
-raspberry and blackberries
-broccoli
-bell peppers (all colors)
-banana
-every kind of squash available
-sweet potato
-cactus pear
-green beans
-peas
-carrots
-papaya
-mango
-hibiscus flowers
-cilantro
There's probably more that I can't remember. But I've basically tried everything marked green on this list http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html. The only thing I can get him to eat sometimes is sweet potato and loquats (they are small fruits that grow on our trees outside). He LOVES loquats and seems to enjoy sweet potato, but both aren't great as staples. Anything green, he seems to despise... so it's made this entire process difficult. The only way he's getting his greens are through the superworms or dubia's, which I gutload with the greens he SHOULD be eating. -_-
Sigh. Help, anybody. I'm running out of patience. I'm going to run over to the asian market this weekend that has a huge produce section with more exotic veggies and fruit. Hoping to pick up some water cress (haven't tried it yet), sweet potato, and maybe a couple of 'exotic' veggies I haven't tried. But yeah, if there's anyone at all that can help me, this is the last time I will post a thread about this lol. Help me help my stubborn beardie. T_T

 

[BeardedGs]

I'm pretty new to the world of breadies - but you said that the vet said that he is very healthy - so I wouldn't stress too much about it. In the wild they don't have access to things like chard, sweet potatoes or an asian market - so maybe it's ok?
Our beardie is hit and miss with his veggies - sometimes he gobbles them, other times he doesn't. I find sometimes it helps to perk his interest by picking up the food and dropping it - he likes food that moves

 

[Taterbug]

Reptiles have very different metabolisms than mammals - they don't need food/energy the same way and are very efficient at using their energy. Remeber brumating reptiles can go months without a meal. If he is healthy and has a largely sedentary lifestyle he may not feel it's worth eating anything but the things he likes best. If he's not loosing weight and is accepting certain items it sounds like that might be the case. I would not force feed him or risk getting him hooked on baby food (it's not a really good food item for them) unless it's needed.

Can you tell us more about his habitat and setup?

 

[milo0]

The vet said he was healthy and that I was doing a great job, but even is said he'd like to see him eat more veggies since he wasn't getting nearly enough. I feed him pretty good staple insects (aside from superworms) so I feel like he's still getting plenty of nutrients... but also missing out on everything fresh veggies offer. Oh, and he does like to munch on these once in a while. http://www.amazon.com/Rep-Bearded-Dragon-Adult-Food/dp/B00061UVGQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1429728844&sr=8-3&keywords=rep+cal+pellet I had them in as a permanent thing, but removed them and only give a few to him occasionally. I don't like how it has corn in it, so he gets only a small handful a week. At least he's getting something from those though.

Reptiles have very different metabolisms than mammals - they don't need food/energy the same way and are very efficient at using their energy. Remeber brumating reptiles can go months without a meal. If he is healthy and has a largely sedentary lifestyle he may not feel it's worth eating anything but the things he likes best. If he's not loosing weight and is accepting certain items it sounds like that might be the case. I would not force feed him or risk getting him hooked on baby food (it's not a really good food item for them) unless it's needed.

Can you tell us more about his habitat and setup?

He lives a VERY sedentary life. Completely lazy these days lol. I mean, he will literally sit in his same favorite spot for days at a time and mostly sleep. I do think part of him is still in brumation mode, because this year's weather seems to be confusing him. I live in Texas, and so it's been up and down the past few months. And it's awfully cool for us right now, so I think the low temperatures and shifting weather patterns really mess with him. His cage is up against the outside wall so he does feel everything that goes on outside. Especially this winter, he did go into brumation on and off. I thought by now, he'd be past that but... the weather still hasn't really warmed up, so I wonder if that's playing a role in all of this.
His cage is a 40 gallon breeder with tiles, a couple large sticks + rock formation (to make a little cliff to his basking spot) and a log hide. I put his food dish right next to the hide in the cool end with a few pellets and veggies on a napkin. He's got a 150W bulb that heats the warm end in the 90's, cool end in the mid/upper 70's, and the basking spot 105F, give or take. His UVB is a 10.0 Reptisun which is replaced every 6 months. I just recently replaced it a couple weeks ago.

Also, what I've been doing the past couple of days to get him to eat veggies is, I've taken some peeled pieces of sweet potato and some long, small cut strands of mustard greens, and I've been like, wedging it into the tip of his mouth. I'll take a piece that is firm enough and kind of just use a "sawing motion" to gentle get it between his mouth, until he naturally opens and starts chewing it. He continues to spit out most of the mustard greens (he literally will sit there fighting me with his tongue lol) but he seems to be accepting the sweet potato. He just won't eat on his own. But I feel this might be something I should do everyday in hopes of helping him form a taste for veggies.There's no risk of him choking or anything since I'm not shoving it down his throat. I'm just wedging it in the cracks of his mouth and I let him chew and swallow it naturally. I'll sometimes just push bits of greens back into his mouth since I see he's trying to spit them out. -_- I guess that might be my only option at this point. It doesn't stress him too much and hopefully in time, he'll learn to like them. I've gotten him to eat a small portion of veggies this way so as long as he doesn't bite my finger off or get too stressed, it doesn't hurt I guess. Obviously though, I'd like him to eat on his own... one day. :?

 

[Eldrith]

Also, what I've been doing the past couple of days to get him to eat veggies is, I've taken some peeled pieces of sweet potato and some long, small cut strands of mustard greens, and I've been like, wedging it into the tip of his mouth. I'll take a piece that is firm enough and kind of just use a "sawing motion" to gentle get it between his mouth, until he naturally opens and starts chewing it.

I tried the exact same technique for my dragon, Topaz, who for one year refused all veggies, greens and fruits and was stuck on a superworm only diet. Up until recently, she would never feed herself at all and now I've caught her picking out of her salad bowl on several occasions (needless to say I was ecstatic the first time I saw her do it). I showed her the greens/veg or waved it by her nose first and gently pressed an edge of it into her mouth until she snatched it from me and ate it herself. Butternut squash she picks out of her salad now and occasionally arugula or watercress which she had never done before. I've seen her gradually feed herself more and more over the past week or two.