Pygmy bearded dragon won't eat veggies

[Inter]

I have a pygmy Australian central bearded dragon. He (assuming it's a he, from what we could see) is almost one year old and doesn't have much more growing to do. He has an excellent temperament and has never bitten, bobbed or waved at anyone.

https://imgur.com/pWnS2Fz

He lives in a 60cm x 90cm x 40cm enclosure. He has a 160w UVA/UVB light for the day and a heat light for night (when it's cold enough).

His substrate is a red sand. He loves digging in it.

Temperatures on each side of the tank vary, so he can get warm when he needs to and cool when he doesn't. The temps are generally perfect. He has water and a vegetable bowl.

Now to the issue... the little turd never eats his greens. For over a year now, each morning, we have chopped up a bowl of leafy greens, capsicum, squash, carrots etc. The very first day he ate a piece of squash but hasn't touched anything since.

One time I was able to successfully pull a bait and switch with a cricket, quickly replacing the cricket with some buk choy and he ate it. Then the little **** realised what was in his mouth and shook his head as if something was crawling on his face. He's so naughty.

He loves crickets and I give him a mealworm every now and then. He's had woodies before, as well as fly larvae, but he doesn't go for them as much. I dust them with vitamins or calcium most days.

I have tried covering his greens in bee pollen, calcium dust (which he loves), I've put bugs in there for him to forage (but he's too good at eating just the bugs), I've tried all sort of things but he just isn't interested.

I've read around a lot about this and from what I could find, they don't eat greens much when they're young, but I feel like he should have started by now. I've also read about starving him to force him to eat greens but I'm a bit worried about how to approach that.

How long is safe to feed him greens only, if he continues not to eat them? Whenever I see another dragon eating greens online, I feel as if there's something wrong with this one. Is there anything else I can try?

Thanks

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, are you in Australia ? We call those Rankin's dragons in the U.S. , plus I think woodies are specific to your country. He looks good + hefty but he's still young so it's good that he eats lots of insects but you can actually hold off on those a few times a week to get him interested in greens. As he gets older he may be more inclined to eat them.

 

[smaugthebeardie3756]

I would definitely recommend gut loading your bugs with the leftover salads if you aren't already so that he gets them second hand that way at least. I don't know about pygmies, but others can go weeks without eating. If there isn't another issue preventing them from eating altogether like illness or injury, their survival instincts will kick in and they won't let themselves starve to death.

 

[Inter]

I'm in Australia

All of his insects eat the same greens he ignores plus gutload powder that I sprinkle on their food. I'm confident he's getting what he needs (he probably eats better than I do), I just wish he'd eat what we give him. I'd do a backflip if I saw him eat ANYTHING out of the veggie bowl.

 

[smaugthebeardie3756]

Sounds like you're doing things right and he's getting the nutrition he needs. I would say keep offering salads daily, maybe a couple hours before any bugs, and go to bugs 4-5 times a week instead of everyday like AHBD suggested. As he gets older, you can drop to 3-4 times a week.