Take away food or wait till he becomes bigger?

[Reza771]

Hey everyone!

So I have had my beardy for almost a month now. I managed to get him used to his new environment, he eats normally and is OK when I handle him. The thing is that the breeder I got him from never feeds his beardies Salad. I tried my best to get him interested but no chance. He once ate half a Blueberry, just because he thought it is an insect I think and after that, he never ate it again. Once I managed to put a piece of salad into his mouth when it was open and he ate it. But that's all I managed to do.

So now I am thinking about two options but cannot decide what's better:

You have to know that my beardy is small for his age because he was co-habited (The tip of his tail is bitten off as well) and he needs food to grow big and strong now.

1) So I was thinking of not giving him insects anymore until he becomes so hungry that he will eat his salad (if necessary I will pull this through even if he won't eat a week) but I am concerned that it will affect his growth since he is already laying behind.

2) Or I just feed him gut-loaded Insects until he fully grows and then stops feeding insects until he eats his salad. Here my concern is that it may be more stressful to him because I made him even more used to only eating insects.

So what's your advice on this?

And thanks for reading through!

 

[smaugthebeardie3756]

Babies need much more protein than adults. Continue offering salads everyday, even if he doesn't always eat it. You can try offering the salad a couple hours before bugs, and use black soldier fly larvae as a lure when you do feed the bugs. Let him see you sprinkle about 10-20 on the salad and see if that entices him. He may not really eat much salad until he is bigger, but getting him used to it being there and knowing that it is food is good enough for now. Continue to gutload and dust your bugs for now, and if he isn't eating his veggies in a year or so when he's getting pretty close to full grown, you can take more extreme measures like waiting him out.

 

[Reza771]

Babies need much more protein than adults. Continue offering salads everyday, even if he doesn't always eat it. You can try offering the salad a couple hours before bugs, and use black soldier fly larvae as a lure when you do feed the bugs. Let him see you sprinkle about 10-20 on the salad and see if that entices him. He may not really eat much salad until he is bigger, but getting him used to it being there and knowing that it is food is good enough for now. Continue to gutload and dust your bugs for now, and if he isn't eating his veggies in a year or so when he's getting pretty close to full grown, you can take more extreme measures like waiting him out.

He's not rly a baby, I think he's near 10 months old now. But regardless, your advice seems reasonable. I usually feed him at 10 pm, two hours after his lights are on. Now I will put his lights on, place the salad and if he doesn't eat from it after two hours I just feed him as normal. The leftover Salad I can still give the insects.

Im going to place an order for insects soon, I will make sure to include BSFL this time.

 

[RangoRocky]

Hey everyone!

So I have had my beardy for almost a month now. I managed to get him used to his new environment, he eats normally and is OK when I handle him. The thing is that the breeder I got him from never feeds his beardies Salad. I tried my best to get him interested but no chance. He once ate half a Blueberry, just because he thought it is an insect I think and after that, he never ate it again. Once I managed to put a piece of salad into his mouth when it was open and he ate it. But that's all I managed to do.

So now I am thinking about two options but cannot decide what's better:

You have to know that my beardy is small for his age because he was co-habited (The tip of his tail is bitten off as well) and he needs food to grow big and strong now.

1) So I was thinking of not giving him insects anymore until he becomes so hungry that he will eat his salad (if necessary I will pull this through even if he won't eat a week) but I am concerned that it will affect his growth since he is already laying behind.

2) Or I just feed him gut-loaded Insects until he fully grows and then stops feeding insects until he eats his salad. Here my concern is that it may be more stressful to him because I made him even more used to only eating insects.

So what's your advice on this?

And thanks for reading through!

When I got mines in October he was eating greens. In December he stopped and completely. So what I did was still kept putting them in his terrarium. He never touched them though. So I did a few things….1) I was feeding the roaches greens so he would still get some of it. 2) i purée the greens with like an apple, blueberries, etc. (not much though) and fed it to him from a soft baby spoon and that worked. 3) to have variety I brought organic baby food like the sweet potatoes, and squash and spoon fed that as well. You can also try using a syringe. Well he slowed himself down on the roaches and last week started slowly eating greens. 4. I brought bee pollen and he must love the taste cuz now he eats greens more. The first couple days I put it up there he didn’t fool with it to much….guess it grew on him. Last result I was gone buy him the Bearded Dragon salad dressing. Took him to the vet for a yearly checkup last week and she said to only feed him roaches 2x’s a week and eventually he would hungry enough and eat it. But by Wednesday of last week he was eating it again like he never stopped.

 

[seleghari]

Reza771....I had to double check to make sure you weren't my daughter posting our situation on the forum! We are having the exact same problem. Our guys birthday was August 7th and he has a tail nip too. And he's only eaten bugs, and half a blueberry in the month we've had him. The breeder said he was eating greens. I think the relocation stress just freaked him out too much, and now he's just spoiled. But I'm not sure what to do...cause he's such a runt!

I have tried so many different tricks putting bugs on his salads, not feeding him for a day, mashing fruit into it, cutting it up in different sizes. I have bee pollen powder arriving tomorrow. And a vet appointment on Friday to check for parasites. I'll keep you posted how the bee pollen works for us. Alot of people on here swear by it.

And I recommend if you haven't already, make sure you get a vet visit in with a fecal to rule out parasites. Definitely really important before doing anything drastic like removing his food source for that long.

 

[Claudiusx]

Babies SHOULD eat their salads | Dietary Needs

Baby dragons should be eating their salads There is an arbitrary ratio floating around in the beardie world that growing dragons should eat 80% insects and 20% salad. Even if this ratio was based off anything viable, let's be honest, many young dragons are lucky to eat a few leaves a month...

www.beardeddragon.org

-Brandon

 

[Reza771]

Reza771....I had to double check to make sure you weren't my daughter posting our situation on the forum! We are having the exact same problem. Our guys birthday was August 7th and he has a tail nip too. And he's only eaten bugs, and half a blueberry in the month we've had him. The breeder said he was eating greens. I think the relocation stress just freaked him out too much, and now he's just spoiled. But I'm not sure what to do...cause he's such a runt!

I have tried so many different tricks putting bugs on his salads, not feeding him for a day, mashing fruit into it, cutting it up in different sizes. I have bee pollen powder arriving tomorrow. And a vet appointment on Friday to check for parasites. I'll keep you posted how the bee pollen works for us. Alot of people on here swear by it.

And I recommend if you haven't already, make sure you get a vet visit in with a fecal to rule out parasites. Definitely really important before doing anything drastic like removing his food source for that long.

That's funny since I am on the totally other side of the world as well (Germany). But seems like the same problems exist xD.

I bought bee pollen from day one but it didn't make a difference. I even took a wet leave with bee pollen on it and rubbed a bit of it on his mouth so he licks it, but he wouldn't show interest.

Babies SHOULD eat their salads | Dietary Needs

Baby dragons should be eating their salads There is an arbitrary ratio floating around in the beardie world that growing dragons should eat 80% insects and 20% salad. Even if this ratio was based off anything viable, let's be honest, many young dragons are lucky to eat a few leaves a month...

www.beardeddragon.org

-Brandon

I read this thread and I may go for the advice given here and take away the insects for a while.

I did put some BSFL on my shopping list tough and I will try to use them to lure him to his salad. If he only picks them out of the salad I may take them away too.

Thanks for posting!

 

[Reza771]

Babies SHOULD eat their salads | Dietary Needs

Baby dragons should be eating their salads There is an arbitrary ratio floating around in the beardie world that growing dragons should eat 80% insects and 20% salad. Even if this ratio was based off anything viable, let's be honest, many young dragons are lucky to eat a few leaves a month...

www.beardeddragon.org

-Brandon

I just want to give an update:

Today is the second day I stopped feeding insects. Yesterday my beardy wouldn't care much, occasionally I would wave a piece of salad in front of his face and he would lick it sometimes, but nothing more.

Today goes around his enclosure like he is searching for food, licking things in the way. I waved a piece of salad in front of him and he ate it! But only once, he wouldn't do it again. I gave him a bath so he stays hydrated.

I hope he will eat his salad soon, I feel sorry having to do this but if I give up now it will be harder the next time I guess.

 

[seleghari]

We just left the reptile vet so today is officially day one for us! She's given him a clean bill of health. Her advice to us was to allow him one roach midday until he eats his salad. That way it will help keep his system active, help with hydration, and stimulate more hunger. We're gonna try that for the next five days. Her other advice that I never thought to try was to wash his veggies in distilled water and see if that makes a difference. Just thought I'd share her ideas. Keep us posted!

 

[Reza771]

We just left the reptile vet so today is officially day one for us! She's given him a clean bill of health. Her advice to us was to allow him one roach midday until he eats his salad. That way it will help keep his system active, help with hydration, and stimulate more hunger. We're gonna try that for the next five days. Her other advice that I never thought to try was to wash his veggies in distilled water and see if that makes a difference. Just thought I'd share her ideas. Keep us posted!

What I do is, I have this "Repti Safe" that makes water safe for reptiles. So I put some water in a spray bottle with a couple drops of it and spray his salad every hour or so. Because I noticed that the salad will dry out very soon otherwise.

Aswell I use the spray bottle to put some drops of water on his nose so he gets some hydration.

 

[seleghari]

I do that too! But I always wash the veggies with tap water when I first bring them home. So Now I'll make sure to use his water. So spoiled!

 

[Reza771]

Day Nr. 3 with no insects:

Still shows no signs of being interested in eating salad. Looks healthy and active. Tried to wave pieces in front of his face, no reaction.

Seems like a very stubborn beardy

 

[seleghari]

Yesterday, I put the bee pollen on salad and put him in his bowl and he actually ate a couple bites! Along with his one roach I put on top. This morning he's eaten a couple bites of endive a put in his face. But that's it. He's also finally started shedding his tail after 2 weeks of it being white. So hoping that doesn't put him off his food even more than usual. Fingers crossed!

 

[Reza771]

Yesterday, I put the bee pollen on salad and put him in his bowl and he actually ate a couple bites! Along with his one roach I put on top. This morning he's eaten a couple bites of endive a put in his face. But that's it. He's also finally started shedding his tail after 2 weeks of it being white. So hoping that doesn't put him off his food even more than usual. Fingers crossed!

Wow, that's awesome! I put bee pollen on his salad every day but no luck. My beardy is shedding as well, his whole body is grey and only his head is already shedded.

Is there a connection between shedding and appetite loss?

 

[seleghari]

I've read on this forum that some beardies loose their appetite for a few days when they are shedding. But this is his first shed since I've had him so I have no idea if that's a thing for him personally.

His whole body too is white but his tail started getting white first. Like I said over two weeks ago. I thought something had gone wrong with his shed, because yesterday his tail had started to almost look almost normal color again. And then today....finally it's shedding!