My beardie won't eat... anything that isn't hand fed.

[Dovakeet]

So, we rescued Eddie about a month ago and decided that we're going to keep him. :roll:
He had been fed Fluker's Reptiboost/Reptiaid and kept in a cold room with inadequate heating (but he did have proper UVB). I shuffled around everyone else's UVB/heat set-ups to give the little dragon the best. The TWO birds didn't *need* that THIRD canopy. :lol:

Anyways, after several vet visits, a round of metronidazole, more vet visits, round 1 of Panacur, we're still not eating on our own. Eddie eats well, he just doesn't eat on his own: about 6 medium Phoenix worms and 1mL of Science Diet A/D in the morning, 12-18 Phoenix worms in the afternoon + mustard greens, collard greens, or dandelion (whatever our tortoise decides is the yummy food of the week), and more greens + A/D or worms in the evening (sometimes he refuses the syringe, other times he holds on to it to get the food out faster). How feeding works: he runs to his "feeding tray", I put him in the tray, he opens up his little mouth enough for me to shove food in, he pigs out, he closes his eyes and his mouth when he's done.

The vet from work, the vet I take my personal critters to (closer to home), my husband, and I have all been through the checklists over and over: carpet and tile instead of sand, appropriate temperatures, appropriate size cage, proper heat lamps, proper UVB, etc. We sent out another fecal (the first one showed that everything was normal, but we're double checking). I've put him IN the feeding tray like I'm going to feed him, and then I put a worm in there with him - he closes his eyes and does "Worm Go-Away!" face. I'll even leave the room to pretend that that is all he's going to get for food. I've left small pieces of veggies around (things he has eaten when I've fed him) and he ignores them... he will lick the dish, lick the tile, lick the glass, licks water... but won't touch the veggies.

I'm just not sure what to think at this point. He IS growning (about an inch since we got him), and he has gained about 4 grams. He is active, he explores his cage, but he just won't eat by himself. I've just never seen a completely *healthy* animal refuse to eat when they're hungry and nobody is around to help. It's almost as if he doesn't know how to eat?

So frustrated...

 

[Brooke74]

If he is used to eating from the syringe, maybe he doesn't recognize anything else as a source of food.

 

[Dovakeet]

Part of me thinks that maybe he doesn't recognize anything but the syringe or (after a ton of work) the tweezers as a source of food. The other part of me thinks that he HAD to have had eaten some live food at some point before coming into the pet store... and there's something wrong.

I've hand fed lots of critter (my birds included), so it isn't the amount of work that is frustrating. The other critters I've had to hand feed eventually tried to eat on their own, so I felt we were making progress... even if it did take our dove a month to master picking up seeds. :lol:

In any case, I'm trying to do what I can... but I feel like I should be trying something else - what that something else is, I don't know.

 

[Brooke74]

If he is capable of eating food on his own now, I think it must just be that he doesn't realize its food. You could try to start feeding him like a normal beardie, leave him a bowl of greens and try to feed crickets (or whatever feeder you use) in a separate tub. If that doesn't work, keep trying with the tweezers, and then from your hand. If he will eat it from your hand and tweezers, I'd bet he will eat them on his own. He is just used to the way he has been fed. (I've never heard of a beardie that runs and opens its mouth for a syringe before :lol: )