Not eating his greens

[jessiepa]

Hello. My Beardie suffered an impaction over the holidays and has recovered. My issue is he stopped eating his veggies and greens. He will only eat his crickets and worms. I tried bockchoy and Swiss chard I cannot find collard greens in the supermarket. He doesn't eat his other veggies either. I tried coaxing him by moving his food to pretend it's a hornworm but he ate one and realized it warn't and walked away. I know greens are important and need to know what to do next.

 

[Picklepies]

Heya, ove had some success with a handful of greens in a bull clip nailed by his basking spot. Peaches will take a few bites a day, and will now go over to his food bowl to eat more I give mine rocket and mashed butternut squash also which they seem to like if you haven't yet tried it, hopefully something will work xx

 

[jessiepa]

I checked YouTube to see what other people have tried. I tried moving his food a bit to get him interested. Today bought fresh basil and added a bit in his greens and I know cucumbers have no nutritional value but I sprinkled a few bit in thinking maybe different smells would attract him. In the summer I have an organic garden which he gets many organic veggies like beet leaves , sweet peppers,fresh parsley,celery leaves, green beans and carrots we even have organic strawberries and blueberries that I sometimes give him but in the winter it is harder. Since he has been sick he will not eat his veggies. Do I still give him his bugs?

 

[jessiepa]

We went to the vet today. She couldn't feel any impaction. She says only X rays would tell if he still has a bit of it left. He is pooping very runny stinky stools. Can't afford x rays but we had his poop analyses. He has no parasites or candida. She says possible enteritis and he is on antibiotics for 14 days. I am tired of force feeding him and he is fed up with me. He still refuses to eat. I have tried everything but last night we finally got him to eat 2 super worms a this morning too. Hope the antibiotics does the trick. He seems to like the taste. He has Agnes a tiny bit which is good but still not close to what he was weighing.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Try handfeeding the roughly torn greens and small chunks of veg , if you start off with some bugs and the while she's eating a yummy bug slip a bit of green or veg into her mouth .... this works with mine until they wize up and refuse to eat the yunky greens and veg ... ha ha ... they aren't dumb and soon spit the stuff they don't like out...

 

[jessiepa]

Freddie was always a good eater. But since his impaction has stopped. I tried to give him a piece of Kale along with a hornworm and he ate it but then refuse to eat again for another four days. I hope his round of antibiotics clear up what is ailing him now. This is how it is at times when you bring in a rescue. Once he is off antibiotics I will purée his veggies until he starts eating them again. I just want him better. He always had very watery runny strolls since I got him 8-9 months ago and today for the first time was very soft little logs . Keeping fingers crossed

 

[jessiepa]

I bought a digital thermometer and I can't believe it. I had three dial type thermometers and they were all saying the same temperature but this digital says 98.9 and the dial says 110 wow the dials are way off or is my digital faulty?

 

[jessiepa]

Ohhhh I moved the probe on the basking rock and it is the same as the dial. I guess the probe thing goes right on where they bask. Sorry I am a newbie

 

[SHBailey]

The digital probe thermometer is actually the one that's more likely to be accurate and the dial is the one that's more likely to be off. And you always want to measure exactly where they bask if at all possible, because the temperature can be quite a bit different only a few inches away from right under the light bulb. My reptiles have demonstrated that to me by moving their thermometers around :wink:

There seem to be lots of adult bearded dragons that aren't too good about eating their veggies, and only want bugs, and many of them seem to manage to stay reasonably healthy anyway, ours included. So don't stress out too much if you can't get yours to do the recommended 80% veggie diet -- you may have to settle for whatever percentage you can get :roll:

Bearded dragons are very good at holding out for their favorites until their human slaves give in and feed them what they want, and when it comes right down to it I'd rather let them eat a diet that's not quite what's recommended by the so called experts, rather than let them go hungry. But that's just me, and I should disclose that I'm pretty much a total failure when it comes to "tough love"