Tips on helping veggies be eaten?

[dalton7carlson]

So in September I got a Bearded Dragon from a friend who took it from a not so good owner.
The problem is he wont eat vegetables on his own. HE has to be hand fed and at times he wont even accept that. Ive tried just moving his food around, but he still wont take it sometimes. Any tips would generally help.
He is in a fantastic cage with the warm side about 100 and the basking spot about 105ish and a cool side of about 75 ish. He has one hide oh his warm side (surrently working on the other) and has two reptiglo UVB bulbs (10.0 and the one lower than that that are compact). HE has a UTH and a basking lamp and is in a 4x12x24 ( i know its thin but he is a small beardie). He is about 5 form what I know and he is hydrated but just doesn't like to eat veggies which should be his main staple of food right now. He is 290 grams roughly and 13 1/4 inches. As far as insects he eats superworms mainly with occasional crickets. Since he doesn't eat veggie much I sometimes cover part of the superworm with calcium power ( no d3 atm) but this is maybe 1-2 times a week.
If you have any more questions about him my background is limited but i can tell you anything that I have seen win the past few months.

 

[marblesmom]

What kind of veg are you feeding him?? i found my girl to be particularly picky and i had to find the right combination to feed her for her to eat on her own.

for example, she doesnt really like kale or collard greens and will only eat it if i dangle it in front of her, however she LOVES dandelion greens and butternut squash and will eat that all on her own without me having to hand feed.

I also found that if i sprinkle any calcium on her salads she wont eat them, so my advice would be just play around with a list of foods from here: http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutritionframeset.html


and see which ones are her favourites stay within the green text though of course.

 

[dalton7carlson]

He used to eat collard greens and squash frequently, apples and bananas occasionally as well.
I'll definitely look into feeding him other things. Any tips on getting him to eat out of a bowl?

 

[marblesmom]

once i realized mine was being a picky monster and only eating from my hand i cut it out right away, i jiggled it above her bowl and when she went to get it id put it back in the bowl so she'd get it from there, eventually after a few tries she got it.

She still prefers to be hand fed but, aint nobody got time fo dat! :mrgreen:

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. Most babies don't eat veggies as they are growing so fast they need lots of protein. Just a few words of advice get rid of the heat mat beardies don't feel heat on their bellies and can burn easily. Also get rid of the uvb you have they burn their eyes. You need to get a reptisun 10.0 Tube mounted in the tank.

 

[Loz333]

I found it helpful to put worms in my beardie's salad bowl so they would wriggle around and make the salad look like it's moving. Then they couldn't get enough of it!
Even if they just pick through it to eat the worms, they may accidentally ingest some salad