My bearded dragon is terrible at eating. Just terrible, always has been. Hes almost 2 years old now and I keep getting more and more stressed about it to the point where I worry about him constantly.
Protein Situation
- Primary protein are dead crickets. I used to buy them live but after they kept escaping and pissing off my family I talked to my breeder/reptile store owner and he told me he and many of his clients buy crickets, gut feed them a couple days, then freeze them and defrost a few at a time for feeding. Although I've never heard of this practice online, my vet said she didn't see anything wrong with it so I've done this since he outgrew juvenile crickets (about a year ago).
- NOTE: please do not tell me to switch to dubia roaches. They aren't legal in my country otherwise I would have switched ages ago
- My beardie loves the crickets and eats them as enthusiastically dead as he did when they were live. He has more difficulty spotting them since they don't move so I generally have to use tweezers and make them bounce around for him to notice but otherwise nothing has changed.
- To counter the loss of exercise from hunting I regularily let him out to run
- I give live butter worms once a week as a treat and scatter them in my room so he chases them
Vegetable Problem:
- My beardie has never eaten his vegetables. I've tried tons of different staple greens: when he was young I used to give him "spring mix" mixed greens, then I tried him on collard, then endive briefly, now I'm trying watercress. I've also tried combinations of all these greens. He wont touch them. I generally mix them with either 1 or some of the following: blueberries, squash, raspberries, carrots, grapes
- Every time I give salad, he eats one or two berries, then refuses to eat any more. If he accidentally eats a leaf on top of the fruit, he'll leave the dish entirely and pretend to sleep under his rock
- If I put bugs on top of the salad, same thing, he picks out the bugs and stops eating if he accidentally has a leaf
- I feed him a pile of greens every day and every day I throw all of it out because it goes rotten and uneaten
- The vet suggested I feed nothing but vegetables to see if hunger would entice him. I went about 4 days serving him only vegetables and he preferred to starve. After 4 days I felt anxious and caved and gave him crickets
Water Problem:
- He never drinks. Not from the water dish, not from the bath, not if I put droplets on his head, nothing.
- I mist him and run a humidifier and bathe him regularily.
BUT HIS HEALTH IS SOMEHOW FINE????
- I've taken him to the vet multiple times now, spent hundreds of dollars on tests and nothing has turned up
- On one vet visit he had a swollen throat which the vet said was due to dehydration. I gave him anti inflammatory for a couple weeks and it cleared up. Still not improvement to appetite.
- He doesn't seem to be losing weight
- Sometimes I think he is low energy but when I take him out of the tank for exercise he perks right up
- Lack of vegetables means he sometimes has hard poops and I usually need to bathe him and massage his belly to get him to go but otherwise the poops are normal colour and stay together.
Tank Specs
- 58 gallons
- UVB Lamp (replaced November)
- Basking spot currently 92 (its the middle of winter so I cant get it warmer then this, it returns to like 95-100 by april but december-march this is as hot as I can get it), coolest side 80
- He has a large rock cave for hiding and a hammock for basking
- Repticarpet substrate
- I dust crickets regularily with Calcium (just calcium, nothing added) and a couple times a week with multi vitamin
IS THIS CAUSE FOR CONCERN????
Guys I'm at a loss here. I am a wickedly anxious person and I've spent so so much on vet bills because every time he moves a bit slow for a day or two I take him to the vet thinking he's finally succumbed to malnutrition. I keep watching videos and googling reptile health just trying to make sure he's okay but none of the symptoms of illness people talk about are present in him other than abnormal eating patters and short bouts of lethargy. Its ridiculous but I genuinely have regular nightmares about waking up and finding him dead. I really want to stop worrying but I feel like he can't hold out of this few vegetables forever.
Some tips or anything to give me some peace of mind would be greatly appreciated
Protein Situation
- Primary protein are dead crickets. I used to buy them live but after they kept escaping and pissing off my family I talked to my breeder/reptile store owner and he told me he and many of his clients buy crickets, gut feed them a couple days, then freeze them and defrost a few at a time for feeding. Although I've never heard of this practice online, my vet said she didn't see anything wrong with it so I've done this since he outgrew juvenile crickets (about a year ago).
- NOTE: please do not tell me to switch to dubia roaches. They aren't legal in my country otherwise I would have switched ages ago
- My beardie loves the crickets and eats them as enthusiastically dead as he did when they were live. He has more difficulty spotting them since they don't move so I generally have to use tweezers and make them bounce around for him to notice but otherwise nothing has changed.
- To counter the loss of exercise from hunting I regularily let him out to run
- I give live butter worms once a week as a treat and scatter them in my room so he chases them
Vegetable Problem:
- My beardie has never eaten his vegetables. I've tried tons of different staple greens: when he was young I used to give him "spring mix" mixed greens, then I tried him on collard, then endive briefly, now I'm trying watercress. I've also tried combinations of all these greens. He wont touch them. I generally mix them with either 1 or some of the following: blueberries, squash, raspberries, carrots, grapes
- Every time I give salad, he eats one or two berries, then refuses to eat any more. If he accidentally eats a leaf on top of the fruit, he'll leave the dish entirely and pretend to sleep under his rock
- If I put bugs on top of the salad, same thing, he picks out the bugs and stops eating if he accidentally has a leaf
- I feed him a pile of greens every day and every day I throw all of it out because it goes rotten and uneaten
- The vet suggested I feed nothing but vegetables to see if hunger would entice him. I went about 4 days serving him only vegetables and he preferred to starve. After 4 days I felt anxious and caved and gave him crickets
Water Problem:
- He never drinks. Not from the water dish, not from the bath, not if I put droplets on his head, nothing.
- I mist him and run a humidifier and bathe him regularily.
BUT HIS HEALTH IS SOMEHOW FINE????
- I've taken him to the vet multiple times now, spent hundreds of dollars on tests and nothing has turned up
- On one vet visit he had a swollen throat which the vet said was due to dehydration. I gave him anti inflammatory for a couple weeks and it cleared up. Still not improvement to appetite.
- He doesn't seem to be losing weight
- Sometimes I think he is low energy but when I take him out of the tank for exercise he perks right up
- Lack of vegetables means he sometimes has hard poops and I usually need to bathe him and massage his belly to get him to go but otherwise the poops are normal colour and stay together.
Tank Specs
- 58 gallons
- UVB Lamp (replaced November)
- Basking spot currently 92 (its the middle of winter so I cant get it warmer then this, it returns to like 95-100 by april but december-march this is as hot as I can get it), coolest side 80
- He has a large rock cave for hiding and a hammock for basking
- Repticarpet substrate
- I dust crickets regularily with Calcium (just calcium, nothing added) and a couple times a week with multi vitamin
IS THIS CAUSE FOR CONCERN????
Guys I'm at a loss here. I am a wickedly anxious person and I've spent so so much on vet bills because every time he moves a bit slow for a day or two I take him to the vet thinking he's finally succumbed to malnutrition. I keep watching videos and googling reptile health just trying to make sure he's okay but none of the symptoms of illness people talk about are present in him other than abnormal eating patters and short bouts of lethargy. Its ridiculous but I genuinely have regular nightmares about waking up and finding him dead. I really want to stop worrying but I feel like he can't hold out of this few vegetables forever.
Some tips or anything to give me some peace of mind would be greatly appreciated
Nhà Cái Cá Cược Trực Tuyến Đáng Chơi Nhất 2024
