Puzzling food feeding dilemma

[BrokenGlass420]

Hi, I'm new and I just have a small question to you awesome bearded dragon experts . I have a silkie bearded dragon that is under 1 year and he won't his greens unless I wave it around his face/mouth. I'm aware that they go my motion censors and he has no problem eating crickets/ worms but everywhere I read, people say that they just put the greens down in a bowl for their dragons and they eat it... mine even if he chomps and the lettuce falls right next to him he won't pick it up. If I pick it up and wave it around his face he does. Is this just something that I'm going to have to deal with forever? It's not that annoying but a bit time consuming and I have to stay home in order to make sure he eats several time because he doesn't eat that much in 1 session.

 

[bobbycarp]

If you don't have an hour a day to commit to a bearded dragon then I feel you shouldn't own one. Trust me, it takes about an hour a day for any pet. No offense, just reality. Keep waving veggies around to get them interested. Leave veggies in a bowl. There are days mine won't eat any crickets or worms but empties the salad bowl. No hard and fast rules. As long as they eat and stay healthy it's a win.

 

[Mistyck]

Ok, they never said that they didn't have an hour to spend. They said,

It's not that annoying but a bit time consuming and I have to stay home in order to make sure he eats several time because he doesn't eat that much in 1 session.

Where in there does it say that they don't have an hour to spend? You don't know how much time the OP spends with their dragon, so don't make assumptions. :roll:

To answer the OP question...

Put the greens in a bowl, then put the worms (if they can't climb out) on top of the greens. The worms can munch on the greens while there, and when the dragon goes to get a worm or 2, then he'll wind up grabbing some greens at the same time. Eventually he will associate the bowl with getting food and the greens as food and eat them from the bowl.

Hopefully you're not feeding lettuce like you stated, and you're feeding collards/turnip/mustard greens. Lettuce has no nutritional value, and really only helps their hydration because it's mostly water.

 

[drakedragon]

The only way I got my bearded dragon to start eating her greens, was for me to not feed her any live food for a few days.

It's not going to die or become ill if it doesn't eat any bugs for 2 days. It never did mine any harm and it got her eating her veg

 

[DixieLonestar20x]

I would not do as drakedragon poster...that is definitely not a healthy way to go about it. Keep waving them around. place your dragon infront of their food bowl and do as mistyck said. try to get them to take worms out of their food bowl. as your dragon gets a little older he will start to associate more with salad greens.

 

[nursejones813]

I used to put a few greens on Slicks basking spot. That helped peak his interest

 

[BrokenGlass420]

Thank you all that replied, and yea, please don't assume i don't have the time, i know the reality of things, im a stay at home mom and have the time, i'd just rather spend it with my daughter than wave food around if there's a better way to go about it. i'm sure if he misses a day or two it won't really hurt him but it doesn't sound too healthy. i appreciate the advice on the different things to feed him, i was never told that, now i know (thus why i signed up for this website, to be a better owner). i'm definitely going to try the worms on top of the veggies, thats a really good idea. keep the advice coming