Old Member looking for new advice

[Deemac6]

Hey guys, not sure how many are still around from my time, but this forum helped me out three years ago with my then baby beardie.

Thil is now a healthy 3 year old female (who has yet to lay infertile eggs not sure how normal that is). First off I just want to get out of the way her husbandry and what I have tried.

She lives in a 4x2x2 with correct temps, a reptisun 10.0 TUBE and proper colored basking lamp to dampen the brightness of the UVB. She is over all perfectly healthy, eats her bugs great and is active though she does enjoy her lazy time. I've had no issues with her besides the one I bring to you now.

Thil doesn't eat her fruit or veggies. Back when I was on this forum there was the general advice of : keep trying, wait her out, add bugs, etc etc.

Well i've waited her out, tried bugs and pretty much every single item on the beautiful dragons listen that is available to me. As stated she eats her bugs no problem but will not even lick veggies, no matter how long I wait her out, how much I wiggle them, how many bugs I add. Will not touch them.

I've tried all squash, mustards greens, Kale, collards, bok choy, and countless other veggies of the list as well as every safe fruit.

What i'm asking is since it doesn't seem to be a husbandry issue and more just a case of her generally just not liking anything is there any hope for me to get her to eat her fruits and veggies?

Thanks in advance.
Dee & Thil

 

[Deemac6]

Anyone?

 

[Deemac6]

Thanks anyway I guess.

 

[Momomo]

lol why are you getting discouraged so fast. I don't know how things were before on this forum (I am a newbie), but there is not much activity these days. Every topic I started got maybe 1-3 replies, sometimes from the same person. I noticed that only people that have serious problems with beardies and their setups get a lot of answers and also individual beardie threads. Sorry, I have no clue how to help with respect to your beardie and veggies but just wanted to put that out there ^^. Hope someone can suggest something.

 

[Spikey92]

Unfortunately I cant answer your veggie question. But what do you mean with " proper colored basking light to dampen the brightness of the UVB"?
Have you tried handfeeding her? Or try to put some baby food (does she have a favourite) on her salad as kinda dressing i guess? You can then put some bugs on top of this. Doesnt that sound yummy ?

 

[gina]

deemac,
my dragon wont touch fruit,veg or salad,all he wants to eat are his hoppers (locusts) and morio worms....thats it!!,ive tried him with everything,even pureed him a butternut squash,he just stared at it then ran off with a black beard!! he is about 16 months old,we think,he was a rescue case.didnt seem to have a clue what fruit etc even was!!!,or a bath! really not sure what to do about the not eating the healthy stuff!!,but believe me..i know how frustrating it is!

 

[CGuzmanReptiles]

Try giving her veggies first in the morning. Just the veggies and try misting them and leave them for an hour or so to see if shes eaten anything. Thats what I did every morning to make mine start eating veggies and it worked out for me so it might for you Good luck!

 

[casper31]

You can try mixing in a bit of cilantro if you havent done that yet. You can also try dusting the greens with calcium & vitamins. My girl eats more greens if i do either or.

 

[Deemac6]

Thanks for the replies guys, sorry for the very late response!

I wont ever feed her baby food again, but thank you spike.

Thanks Gina at least I know i'm not the only one

CGuzman, thats what i've been doing, i'll keep plugging away at it!

Casper, I've never tried cilantro, I don't know how healthy that is but I will look into it, as far as dusting i've tried that but ended up going back to just dusting the bugs since I know she will eat those for sure,but I'll try dusting the salads again.

Thanks again guys!

 

[ohmybandit]

I kind of force fed bandit her greens. I would take a cut up collard, fold it up, and start at the edge of her mouth and poke and slide it in lol she would eventually eat it. (I wasn't like shoving down her throat. I just let her bite it and once she did I would release and she would finish chewing it) Now when I bring a collard or dandelion, 80% of the time she'll take it from my hand and eat it Maybe she just has to be shown that veggies are good for eating? haha

 

[roxiemom]

NO KALE

 

[Deemac6]

Kale is listed on beautiful dragons as an 'occasionally' which is all it was ever offered notcthat it was eaten anyway. Thank you for the advice but I will continue to follow beautiful dragons nutrition chart and feed as recommended.

 

[casper31]

Thanks for the replies guys, sorry for the very late response!

I wont ever feed her baby food again, but thank you spike.

Thanks Gina at least I know i'm not the only one

CGuzman, thats what i've been doing, i'll keep plugging away at it!

Casper, I've never tried cilantro, I don't know how healthy that is but I will look into it, as far as dusting i've tried that but ended up going back to just dusting the bugs since I know she will eat those for sure,but I'll try dusting the salads again.

Thanks again guys!

Cilantro is good for an occasional feed. I just use it as a mix in now & again to peak Miss' interest. She goes through very jags like a kid. She would only eat mustard greens, then dandelion, now its turnip greens. Sometimes she seems sick of it all...thats when i add a bit of cilantro. It seems to help her interest.

 

[JamesAndApril]

My dragon hardly eats any greens. He loves squash and tears it up. He is about 1 year old now. I wonder if just eating squash is enough veggies for an adult? I mix it into the greens in hopes it gets eatin but hardley any of it does.

 

[Mustashio]

Ugh! The dreaded greens! I, like you, have tried EVERY trick in the book as well as every suggestion I could find on this board and STILL my Tashi has been on an unauthorized hiatus from greens and vegis and fruits! Its been 6 months! When he was a baby he would eat 2 bowlfuls of greens and salad a day! I'd put collards, grated butternut squash, purple cabbage and occasional red pepper and he loved it. Now...well, those days are long gone! I've also tried everything on the beautiful dragons list that I can find in my area, and yes, I've even tried cilantro, basil and mint. Still nothing.

Ive tried adding worms to salad. Nope. I've tried a vibrating dish. Nope. I've tried using a baby food as a salad dressing. Nada. I;ve tried hand feeding only to have him paw at me like a dog scratching his ear, and then getting an evil stink eye! I even tried syringe feeding baby food at one point! So to answer your question, NO you are not alone!

...of course, what else would we do with our lives if we didnt have our beardies to always keep us worrying!

~Jill