My bearded dragon wont eat ANYTHING but superworms? please

[MoCav951]

ike is aout a year and a half old. he used to eat crickets, fruit, veggies and any kinds of worms for herps. He now wont eat anything but superworms. at first he would eat then he only would eat if you handfed him and then he just stopped alltogether. I tried buying him phoenix worms and he wouldnt eat them. He doesnt poop very much anymore and i noticed he also wont eat the supers if they just shed the shell and theyre white. He wont eat everyday either. I dont know what to do can anyone help me? What should i do? what could be wrong? anything helps. Thank you very much.

 

[kitthebeardie]

could it be brumation? i know they slow down during that time, but mine hasnt experienced that really.

also, my beardie is not eating crickets like he used to. also just passed his 1 year birthday. loves superworms, but is good with his spring mix from the bag. i'm curious also about not eating crix???

 

[fez09]

Alot of beardies like supers much more than crickets, so they decide that they only want supers...Pretty common...

 

[MissT]

I had this problem... Kazi went on a total hunger strike (think he may have been brumating) and when I eventually managed to get him to eat the only thing he would eat were superworms and only if I placed them in a specific place in his viv - some days I would spend 20mins replacing a superworm on his rock until he finally gave in and ate it... of course, because they were the only thing he would eat, I let him - then, I couldnt get superworms anywhere and Kazi went back on hunger strike. Eventually, I persuaded him (it took an hour one day) to eat an adult locust.... so he became obsessed with those and that was all he would eat.... to top it all off, he would go up to 5 weeks without a poop (NOT GOOD OR FUN!!) however, he has, now, 4 months later realised that all locusts, crickets and soft bodied worms are food and are tasty so we are starting to get a little more successful with his food intake. so, perhaps, try cutting out the superworms and be persistant about offering him other types of live food?? I know its hard but, he needs to get a taste for other food if you're ever going to get him off the superworms!

 

[citrusdragon]

Some dragons become "worm-fed" fatties and all I do is limit their intake of super and keep supplementing with greens. As they get older they also become more finicky and eat less.

Jeff

 

[ErinMeetsMachine]

I have been going through this with Spot as well. I switched to Supers around the time that she hit the year mark. She loved them and was fully enthusiastic to eat them.. But she WILL NOT eat any greens or anything else for that matter that is not a super! Even her favorites (strawberries and carrots) she will not touch. I've been hiding the supers in her greens but she digs through and spits out the greens and just eats the supers. Hopefully both of ours will stop doing this soon and get with the program.

 

[Gail]

If your dragon is a adult and healthy then simply stop feeding supers, sooner or later they will get hungry enough to eat their greens. Seriously, a diet of just supers is unhealthy, they might be stubborn and go a long time without eating but as long as they aren't loosing weight, don't give in.

 

[ErinMeetsMachine]

ok, good. I did that once and I felt awful because she was dark and would look at her salad and then walk away.. for days. I'm glad to know that doing that isn't bad. I think she might be trying to go into brumation anyhow, so now wouldn't be a bad time to try it.

Thanks for the reassurance.

 

[Splurge]

My beardie's been getting pickier about his food recently too and has stopped eating his veg! Am now on day two of not giving him live feeders and I have a beardie who is very grumpy with me! Can't give in though, I know it's best for him in the long run!

 

[Gail]

Keep in mind that when he does start to eat greens, don't offer supers too soon. I made Basti eat greens for at least a week before I reintroduced live feeders and even then I did it slow. Started with 2 a day then as long as he keep eating greens, he would get a few more then to change it up, I'd only feed greens for a day or two. I didn't want him to learn that worms are a daily food, it would be too easy for him to hold out for bugs if he knew they were coming everyday.
Sometimes I reward him for being a good eater and give him a nice big meal of bugs before his salad, I don't want him being deprived 8)

 

[runningguy]

I agree with Gail. My beardie wasn't eating very many greens so I cut his live food for a couple days to 1 small superworm and maybe 4-5 crickets. And yesterday when I came home ALL of his greens were gone. He probably is hungry now. I also vary the amount of live feeders so he doesn't know how many, or what time they will come. I always give him his greens first and bugs later thinking that if he is really hungry he will eat the greens. The breeder that I got him from thinks that many people over feed live prey and she gives crickets to her dragons only a few times a week.

I think that if they are eating less greens you should offer less live feeders to keep the ratio of vegetables to meat correct. According to The Bearded Dragon Manual young beardies eat about a 50/50 split of veggies and meat, and when older, veggies make up 65-90% of wild beardies diets (pg. 43). It makes no sense to me to allow a dragon to take one bite of greens then give them 50 crickets (or 10 supers, etc) a day (as long as the animal is healthy).

 

[ErinMeetsMachine]

wow, I just check the post because it seems like Spot hadn't eaten in WEEKS. She ate strawberry the otherday. In reality, it has been about a week, just seems a lot longer because I am waiting for her to eat!!

 

[joeyb504]

with the supers i had to learn the heard way my lucy who is just over a year went on a superworm only only to go to the vet and even with supplementing the supers are high in phosphorus and that lowers calcium levels so they are cut out but like everybody else i had to slowly convince her that supers weren't allowed and know she eats hornworms and crickets