My beardie won't eat after enclosure change

[chris16371]

Sunday I moved Charmander from a 40 breeder to a 5x2x2 I built. He loved it when I first put him in. He was running around and "trying to help me" hang his hammocks. I put him in his 40 for crickets while I finished setting up decor and he ate fine. But yesterday and today I haven't seen him eat any crickets. He has ate salad but no crickets. I put my Leo in his old 40 so I tried yesterday to use the 20 gallon to feed him and he freaked out, pushing his face up against the glass which I think he didn't like the lack of space. Should I build/buy another 40 to feed or is it common for beardies to not eat after an enclosure change? Maybe he's stressed from it and is adjusting? I'm a little worried, he usually is excited for crickets and sometimes even bites at tube and catches them in his mouth while they fall from it but he doesn't even show the slightest interest in them now.

 

[CooperDragon]

It's common for them to take some time to adjust to a change in surroundings. He may also not like the small enclosure for meal time. I'd try feeding him in his regular enclosure. Try offering just a few crickets at a time. I've found that it's easier to track them if you offer them in small batches so they can be eaten or removed at the end of meal time.

 

[chris16371]

UPDATE: So I decided I would try to feed him some superworms so I put 4 in his worm dish and held it in front of his face and he ate all 4 then I put 2 more in and set the dish on the other side of his enclosure and he jumped down from his basking spot and went right over and ate them. So the next thing I did was put a couple crickets in dish and sure enough he ate them out of dish. He would not eat them off the ground after that either. Only from dish. Which is weird bc I've never used a worm dish before with him. Always just placed the worms on the tile. Had the dish laying around with other reptile supplies so I thought I would try it and it worked. I'll give him a few more days to see if he will start eating off the tile again if not I may switch to superworms mixed with phoenix worms as his staple. Does anyone know what would work good as a crickets feeding dish? They can crawl right out of the worm dish. I need something big enough they can't escape but small enough he can eat out of. If I have to go the route of feeding supers and phoenix worms do I still need to use a d3 supplement and a multivitamin or does the phoenix worms do it all?

 

[CooperDragon]

I wouldn't consider supers a staple bug but they're OK as part of a balanced diet. You could go with all 3 and be OK. The Phoenix Worms are high in calcium but the D3 is synthesized by proper UVB exposure. I'd still offer the multivitamin and dust the crickets and supers with calcium. You don't need to dust the Phoenix Worms with calcium.