Teaching them to eat greens

[rebel750]

Is there a way to "teach" your dragon to eat greens and veggies. They get all high and mighty when I grab the food bowl but when I try to feed them veggies they look at it then look at me like I am nuts.

 

[dylanravenj]

What I did when mine was a baby was put chopped bits of the greens in his food dish. The I would put the crickets in the dish on top of the greens. When he would go to eat the crickets he would also pick up bits of the greens too on accident and chew them up along with the crickets. He's loved his greens since! I've never had a problem with him refusing to eat them ever!
Also, what greens are you feeding yours? I've found that mine LOVES dandelion leaves more than anything else

 

[tattykassy]

I recently discovered a video online that showed a few different ways to get them to eat their greens, one suggested putting a piece on their basking spot and I guess they go to lick it and figure out what it is.
What worked for me was waiting until mid-evening, when he's starting to get hungry again, and taking a piece of the salad and dipping it into the water dish and then holding it up to him. The water sort of wets their mouths and when they go to lick it, they also lick the salad piece. Mine hadn't touched his greens in the 3 weeks I've had him and suddenly he was taking them from me like they were crickets! I was so happy
You can try that, its worth a shot!

 

[rebel750]

I will try that. Im not terribly worried, they are all getting plenty to eat, all getting baths, so I guesse I will just see what happens.

 

[MelissaC]

I'm really glad you posted this! I've been thinking the same thing with my baby. I always offer them, but my lizard takes no interest. I want it to have a balanced diet, so I'm wondering how to teach it how to eat it's greens. I'll probably try a few of this things later today when it get hungry again.

Thanks!
Melissa =)

 

[whitehotdragons]

Greens are the first thing we offer our babies in the morning. We hold the first daily protein (insect) feeding until noon because, otherwise, we have veggie haters as well. Sometimes we toss some phoenix worms in the veggie dish to encourage interest. Sometimes it the choice of green. Some of the dragons prefer mustard over collards or watercress over parsley. Each can be so unique in his/her tastes.

 

[MelissaC]

We hold the first daily protein (insect) feeding until noon because, otherwise, we have veggie haters as well.

I hope it's not to late for me to change my lizards habits. I guess it's been kind of spoiled. It's only about 2 or 3 months old, and I've only had it for 3 or so weeks. I've been doing my best, but it's hard for me not to feed my lizard when it's hungry. Tough love I guess =(

Melissa =)

 

[LoveMyHarper]

I am seriously getting frustrated after spending morning after morning cutting up nicely hand picked nice lettuces of all varieties that I have ready are acceptable for daily use. I tried the worms in the greens, floating greens on water, greens alone, greens sprayed with water, greens with crickets, greens with fruit, greens with canned dragon food, greens with special enticing properties ect and they really could care less. I wont give up but after repeatedly reading romaine is a no no green I was bummed, 2 of my 4 ate those greens. Now I see them eat way less but I know those 2 try it. The other 2 are hardly touching their greens but I have seen them try them before.

I just hope since they are younger it's just the typical protein preference and once they get bigger they will like them more. 2 are just 2 months today, one is just shy of 2 months and the other is about 5 months born around valentines.

 

[tattykassy]

It is really frustrating, I've wasted quite alot of food also... Mine is also 5 months and still prefer's the protiens. I'm trying to get him to eat his greens on his own, so far picking my timing in the day and doing the dip and offer method seems to work, although he won't go down and eat them himself out of the bowl.
I'm just going to keep at it, he won't take any from me today but then again he is in the middle of a full-on shed and is quite the grumpy pants. Once he's done I'm going to keep trying
Just keep at it man, eventually he'll try some. Its just like a little kid, veggies arn't the favorite, but if you keep at them eventually they will eat some.

 

[AHBD]

What has always worked for me is to cut the greens into little pieces and drop them in the tank when the babies are hungry. Babies are voracious and they are attracted to the movement when something falls in the tank. They charge right over and usually gobble them up. You can also try dropping one or two insects of choice, the beardie is waiting for more and you pull the switcheroo and drop the greens in the spot where the bug had just been dropped and eaten.

 

[whitehotdragons]

What has always worked for me is to cut the greens into little pieces and drop them in the tank when the babies are hungry. Babies are voracious and they are attracted to the movement when something falls in the tank. They charge right over and usually gobble them up. You can also try dropping one or two insects of choice, the beardie is waiting for more and you pull the switcheroo and drop the greens in the spot where the bug had just been dropped and eaten.

This is also effective with my dragons. They respond to movement. I sometimes have to hand feed veggies to the 2 month olds. It just depends on the dragon I suppose. If I feed insects first, veggies are ignored.

 

[randommonks]

Something that I've recently taken to doing (recently as in last 2 days) is taking a giant leaf of turnip greens (about 3 times the size of my beardie's body) and just dangling it in front of his face. He attacks the thing, and eats more veggies than when I just chopped up the greens and put them into a bowl for him. Last night he ate 3 giant leaves like that, and was too full to eat dubias :shock:

Large poop this morning. Today, I made him eat his dubias first, and then he ate about 2/3 of another giant leaf, in addition to what he had nibbled from during his bowl during the day. Darwin is currently 11" and I would guess 3-4 months old.