No feeding response - HELP please!

[Alliemac]

I have a 5 month old beardie that is recovering from what I think is a pretty serious impaction due to mealworms. I've taken her off the mealies and won't be going back to them. We've spend the past 10 days cleaning out her system by feeding her a mixture of chicken baby food, pumpkin, water and a little calcium with a eye dropper a few times a day. Warm baths twice a day too. For 2 days she has been pooping nothing but baby food poops with no more mealie casings so I think we're in the clear.

Here is the problem. She was previously fed half mealies and half crickets for protein. She prefered the mealies but I'm not going there again. I've learned the hard way by making a noob mistake and learning from it. I tried to give her some crickets today and she looked at me like I was crazy and then went to the eye dropper spot and looked at me. She obviously wants baby food but I want to get her back on a proper diet, you know? She just had no feeding response at all. So what do I do now?

ETA: She eats her salad just fine everyday so that isn't an issue. It's just the protein that's the problem.

How old is your dragon? 5 months
How long have you had your dragon? Since she was 6 weeks
How long is your dragon? 10" or so
What is the sex of your dragon? female (I think)
What size enclosure do you have your dragon in? 36"x12"x12"
What type substrate do you have on the bottom of your tank? Tile
Do you use UVB lights? Yes
If so, Is it a coil, compact, fluorescent tube, or Mercury Vapor bulb? 18" florescent tube
What is the brand name and number of your bulb? Wattage (if MVB)? reptisun 10.0
How old is your UVB bulb? Less than 2 weeks
How close can your dragon get to the UVB? Within 6"
Do you use a separate basking bulb? What kind and what is the wattage? Yes, 60W ceramic heater
What are the basking temps? 102-106
What is the cool side temp? 75
Do you take the temps with a stick on thermometer, a digital thermometer with a wire and a probe end or a temp gun? Probes at both end
Where exactly are you taking your basking temps? The probe lays on her basking rock and she lays next to it
Do you use a heat rock or heat pad? No
What do you feed your dragon? Please be specific. Dandelion greens, endive, kale, mustard greens in a salad with grated squash daily. I also add different fruits and veggies daily like peas, green beans, banana, apple. Gutloaded crickets - 3 week size
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)? Morning, mid day and night
Do you gutload (feed) your crickets, worms, etc? I buy them gutloaded in small quantities from a leo breeder
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them? Rep-Cal Herptivite and T-Rex Bone Aid 5 times a week each
Is your dragon having regular bowel movements (poops)? He is now
Do you bath your dragon? How often? Everyday
Do you mist your dragon or offer water other than in the bath? I mist 3 or 4 times a day and give her drinks with an eye dropper
Does your dragon share an enclosure with another dragon? No
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done? No, but I took her to a PIJAK certified reptile tech who recommended the course of treatment that got rid of the impaction

 

[Alliemac]

Anyone?

 

[jacqui778]

Hi,

Well, I'm not what you'd call a beardie expert, but I'll take a shot at it....

Sounds like your dragon has gotten used to being spoiled! Not the first time someone has come for help because of that.

Do you feed just chicken babyfood?

What I would do is offer fresh salads daily (if you don't already) keep your diced squash on top. Then, try some squash babyfood. As usual, make sure it's just squash and water, etc etc so on and so forth. Hopefully the squash babyfood will get your dragon to eat the actual squash. Not sure if this will work, but squash babyfood had my salad rebel munching down his salad, so there's a chance, right?

I'd also slowly but surely lay off the babyfood. I wouldn't stop all at once. If you feed her babyfood 3 times a day, lower it to 2. Once she's used to this, lower to 1. Then stop. Keep offering other food alternatives during this time and feed her less babyfood with each meal.

Also, I'd try Phoenix Worms. Depending on where you are located, either Mulberry Farms (west) or Ghann's Cricket Farm (east) has the best prices on PWs. My dragon eagerly consumes them, they wiggle a lot, and I'm guessing that they taste good. I don't know. I've never eaten one, don't plan to. But Reggie always looks at me like 'Are there any more?!'. Hopefully you can get your dragon to eat some of these. I don't use crickets because of the chance of parasites.

Good luck, and I hope you get this figured out!

-- Jacqui

 

[Alliemac]

I've only been giving the baby food since she's been impacted. She does eat her salad daily but she had no feeding response to crickets today. Instead she seemed to be waiting for more baby food. Since she's no longer impacted I want to get her back hunting her protein but she's just not having it.

 

[jacqui778]

I would try worms, then, and slowly backing her off the babyfood. I've also dipped worms IN babyfood for Reggie. Or maybe sneak in a worm when your beardie's mouth is open.

Whatever it takes to get her eating.

-- Jacqui

 

[msmaui]

I, too, think the Phoenix worms would be a good idea. I get mine from Mulberry Farms and my baby LOVES them.

 

[Alliemac]

I would try worms, then, and slowly backing her off the babyfood. I've also dipped worms IN babyfood for Reggie. Or maybe sneak in a worm when your beardie's mouth is open.

Whatever it takes to get her eating.

-- Jacqui

That is a great idea! Are phoneix worms the blue ones? I'm in Canada and the supply of feeders we can get is not the greatest.

 

[Alliemac]

I've checked around locally and all I can get are butterworms and silkworms ($1.99 EACH :shock: ). I could really use some more ideas for getting her to eat protein on her own. She eats alot of salad daily since I hand feed her every morning and then have fresh salad in the tank all day long that she nibbles on but protein is a no-go unless I give it in a syringe or mealies (which I won't feed again).

HELP!

ETA: I'm totally fine with spending the money short term on silkworms if that's what's needed but I can't afford to feed her them exclusively due to the cost.