My male rescue just won't eat anything veggie/fruit.

[dementedlullaby]

Hey guys.

I got my first Beardie back in May. His birthday (hatchday?) is April 20th according to the breeder. He's pretty much the perfect dragon.

In late November we adopted two new dragons. One of them (Opal, the female) is quite healthy looking and eats her greens. She has some battle wounds (including a clubbed tail) because they were kept together prior to us taking them in. Yes, all three dragons have their own enclosures now =).

I didn't even expect to get a third dragon when picking up Opal. The guy kinda sprang it on us. I had got him to relinquish both dragons to us and only paid a nominal fee for the three story vivarium. Score! We had to replace pretty much every light though >_< lol.

So here's my question, which regards to our other rescue. His name is Mookari (Moo or Mookie for short). When we first got him he was painfully underweight for a two and a half year old dragon. He weighed less than my baby (Mungi). A bit under 350 grams.

The current weight of the three dragons is :

Mungi (9 month old) : 386g and 17" (full tail)

Opal (3 years old approx.) : 559g and 14" (I'm sure if the tail wasn't battle wounded she'd be about 19-20")

Mookari ( 2 and a half years old approx.) :388g and 18.5" (full tail)



So while Moo has put on a good 40+ grams since approx. 2 months ago I'm still quite worried about his veggie intake. He just refuses. I can't even tell if he is eating his greens because he loves to run around his tank, knocking the spring mix and other stuff pretty much all over the viv.

I've tried : Putting worms under the veggie mix. He ain't no dumbie lol. When they come out he licks 'em up ignoring the greens *little bugger!*. Wrapping worms in greens and holding them in front of him (I hand feed him his live food always). He waits until the head pokes out, eats the worm only and stares at me smugly. "LOL gotcha" sort of look.

Any other tricks?

 

[CooperDragon]

Sounds like a crafty little guy! He probably just isn't used to salads as a staple which can be a real challenge to change as you're seeing. It's great that you've been able to get his weight up a bit. I'd continue to monitor that regularly. Once it seems stable you may be able to withhold bugs for a few days and see if his appetite kicks in enough for him to go for the salad. I've had luck "tricking" dragons into eating veggies by cutting squash up into worm shapes, and rolling cooked sweet potato into worm shapes and then just wriggling them around a bit in front of their face.

 

[cerise]

I'd like to add that I blended greens with water and a tiny bit of Apple juice, and have been giving this via syringe at bath time. Mooki loves to drink water in the bath, so it was easy dripping the blended greens on to his lip. He laps this right up. It's the only way I've been able to get greens into Mooki!