Rescued dragon won't eat anything but crickets

[sjcksnmnusa]

I rescued a 2yr old dragon from a relative four weeks ago. Roxy's previous diet was sometimes 5 crickets a day, some mixed greens, but mostly meal worms. She has not shed for almost a year. Her tank did not have a UVB light only a 100 watt daylight incandesent for heat. I now have her in a 40 gallon tank with UVB and a 150 watt reptile daylight bulb and a ceranmic heat emitter. The hot area is 100F and the cool area is 80F. The substrate is screened playsand with a natural rock over an under-tank warming heater, a basking log, and a rough flat-ish rock for perching and climbing on. She is 16 inches long and I do not know how much she weighs. She has grown enough that she is starting to shed. I am concerned because Roxy refuses any veggies, greens and fruits but is eating 40 to 60 half-to-one inch crickets a day. She would eat more but I will not feed her after 6 at night so she will digest them before bedtime. Her stool was green and yellow when I first got her but is now normal. I started bathing her every day and she would take long drinks but now she only drinks a little, if at all.
Is it ok that she is eating so many crickets? She attacks them like she is starving. I have tried all the tricks to get her to eat veggies etc. and she has used all her tricks to avoid eating them. I want to make sure she is getting enough nutrients. Should I give her reptile vitamin supplements? Is it possible to give her too much calcium/D3? I dust her morning crickets with calcium but not the afternoon ones. I have read all the care sheets about feeding veggies and will try the baby food approach next but any suggestions and info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[lauraj1055]

I now have her in a 40 gallon tank with UVB and a 150 watt reptile daylight bulb and a ceranmic heat emitter. The hot area is 100F and the cool area is 80F. The substrate is screened playsand with a natural rock over an under-tank warming heater, a basking log, and a rough flat-ish rock for perching and climbing on. She is 16 inches long and I do not know how much she weighs. She has grown enough that she is starting to shed. I am concerned because Roxy refuses any veggies, greens and fruits but is eating 40 to 60 half-to-one inch crickets a day. She would eat more but I will not feed her after 6 at night so she will digest them before bedtime. Her stool was green and yellow when I first got her but is now normal. I started bathing her every day and she would take long drinks but now she only drinks a little, if at all.
Is it ok that she is eating so many crickets? She attacks them like she is starving. I have tried all the tricks to get her to eat veggies etc. and she has used all her tricks to avoid eating them. I want to make sure she is getting enough nutrients. Should I give her reptile vitamin supplements? Is it possible to give her too much calcium/D3? I dust her morning crickets with calcium but not the afternoon ones. I have read all the care sheets about feeding veggies and will try the baby food approach next but any suggestions and info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

First of all.. it sounds like you have WAY too much heat in that tank. That 150 watt reptile bulb has to give off some serious heat, plus you have a CHE and an under the tank heater? I would immediately ditch the under the tank heater, they don't need that. They need heat from the top, not under them. CHE should only be used at night if it is really cold. What are you using to measure your basking temps with because they sound way too low for everything you are using.

Do you bathe her or make sure she drinks water? especially if she is not eating her greens, she is not getting the water from them. How old is she? It sounds like at her length, she only needs dustings 3x a week. That's what you should use for adults.

I use liquid multivitamins once a week from www.beardeddragon.co I would use these if she is not eating her greens. I would cut back on her feeders to every other day, and see if she will eat her greens. right now she is getting filled up on her feeders, so that could be the reason.