New Beardie Questions

[Abriana8]

Hey everyone,
I've been researching beardies for two years now and finally got one. I rehomed/adopted a 2 year old from someone a week ago. I got him better lights and a more interactive habitat set up. He loves being held, and is super easygoing. I just have a few mild questions/concerns.

He only eats a few bites of lettuce and veggies each day.
His old owner said he's picky, but he was just getting apples and lettuce and roaches from them. I'm doing more nutritious salads (collards, bok choy, butternut squash, strawberry) but he only has a few bites each day. He has a major appetite for dubias though. I read perhaps I should deprive him of dubias until he gets over being picky & eats his greens but I'm hesitant to do that because I put his calcium and vitamin supplements on the roaches.

He is still very alert and moves around when I let him out of his habitat. He sleeps a lot and doesn't move much in his cage.

He has pooped twice in 7 days. Is that normal?

I know some of it may be being in a new place with a new person. He also wasn't spending any time under his UVB bulb so I got him a MVB as his basking temps were relatively low. He's now under a 165 watt MVB about 12" from it with a basking temp of 97°

I will give it a few days and see if his appetite picks up with better heat + light but thoughts from veteran beardie owners are reassuring and helpful

 

[KeyBlu422]

You can deprive him of dubia and dust the salad instead. Eventually, he will come around. Alternatively, you can try a little nicer method and throw in a hornworm or something like that in the salad and he will likely eat the salad to get to the worm or eat some salad while trying to just get the worm from the salad. As for the poop, baby beardies poop on a near daily basis while older beardies defecation schedule can vary. I do wonder why he is sleeping so much, especially since the weather is slightly starting to warm up, maybe someone else can answer as to why he's doing that.

 

[CooperDragon]

How is his weight and overall activity level? If his weight is good and he is active, then holding back on bugs should be OK. Keep offering a variety of veges in his salads to try and find stuff he likes. Hand feeding helps sometimes. You don't need to supplement the salad. That's just to make up for lack of nutrients in the bugs. Salads are quite nutritious on their own and things like collards are naturally high in calcium.