Do any of you have beardies that are really stubborn/picky when it comes to eating whatever you have dusted with the calcium or multi vitamin? Our beardie, Buster will NOT eat ANYTHING that has been dusted! We've tried everything! We've put it on his crickets, roaches, and superworms, we've tried to dust his greens, fruit etc etc... he will not touch any of it! Idk what to do to get his calcium and multi vitamin to him. And advice is greatly appreciated!
Mine doesn't seem to like the multi-vitamin that we are supposed to feed once a week. They seem to like the dusted calcium though.
One thought is maybe try adding some in to some pieces of cooked butternut squash? I've read that bearded dragons LOVE a treat of butternut squash and mine ate some yesterday when she wasn't eating anything else, so maybe that is an option to try?
Some of the other more experienced people will probably weigh in and have some good ideas for you.
You could try a different brand. For some reason or another some dragons prefer one type of dust over another. If that doesn't do, you could try liquid calcium but you need to be extra careful with the dosage. If he eats salad and you can provide a nice variety then that should give a reasonable amount of vitamins and calcium (especially collard greens and other high calcium options).
Thank you all for your responses! I will he ting a different brand/type of calcium! I also have 1 more question... and I know this is kinda a complicated subject. But how many dusted/spayed insects do you generally feed? Our beardie is about 9 or 10 inches long now, and I know it varies by size and weight. I have calcium WITH vitamin D, and WITHOUT vitamin D. At my local pet store I keep getting VERY conflicting answers from everyone I've asked. I definitely don't want to overdose him, but I also don't want to under dose him either. I've read some stuff, but I'm just curious as to what most of you do??
I would still offer as many as he wants in about 10-15 min or until he loses interest at that size. Still plenty of growing to do. The actual number will fluctuate so don't worry as much about that. As far as D3 vs no D, that's a bit of a gray area. The way I see it, the D3 is good to have if you use lower output lighting like the compact/coils or T8. If you use a T5 or a mercury vapor bulb then there should be enough UVB emitted to allow for natural D3 synthesis so I stick with plain calcium. If you go with a low D option or an all-in-one like Repashy calcium plus it's probably a happy medium.
Calcium is like salt to us savoury crisps junkies to most beardies - and skinks too - they mostly seem to love the taste , some of mine will even lick it off my fingers when I'm handfeeding them their insects and off their greens and salad when I put it on these.
Add multivitamins to the greens and salad and the usual reaction is yuck ! and a big nose turnup.
So I stopped dusting the greens and salad with multivitamins and wound up only dusting the bugs.
There are liquid forms of calcium that can be bought that are administered orally by syringe and dosed by the lizard's mass.
Thank you all again for your responses!! I'm sorry it has taken me a bit to reply. You guys have definitely put my mind at ease!!
Spacialcoogs: I'm not exactly sure how old he is. He measures about 9-10" long. And the guy at the pet store where we bought him told me he was around 6 months old, but has absolutely NO knowledge of the breeder or his parents, so I don't put too much trust into what he said. As soon as I can figure out how to post a pic on here of him I will
And we measured him yesterday, and he measures at exactly 11 inches long. He's in the middle of his second shed, he just got done with his 1st shed (1st she'd since we've had him, and pet store doesn't know if he shed before) just a few days ago.