Using another bearded dragon to encourage mine to eat?

[milo0]

I promise, this is the last post about my stubborn beardie not eating his veggies. I waited him out over a month from almost all foods besides his salads, and this guy is 100% certain that he doesn't want vegetables. Earlier I was watching a few videos of beardie's eating their veggies, when I thought of an idea. What if I were to find someone locally with a beardie who eats their salads normally, and maybe have him watch or be right there as it's eating. In some of these videos, I noticed how if one beardie started eating, the others would make a mad dash to the salad and start eating as well. I'm wondering if maybe Milo just needs encouragement or something from another beardie. Of course, the problem with this would be the possibility of them fighting and all. He has met with 2 other beardies before (one male, one female) and he chased and tried breeding with the female lol. He wasn't super aggressive to the male, but just did his head bobbing thing. I think if I carefully introduced them, he would become relaxed and at ease since he's a pretty laid back guy. This is my absolute last attempt at trying to get him back on salads, because even starving him doesn't work. I'm currently force feeding him a couple bites of green beans, sweet potatoes, or greens a day. I'm just having to shove them in his mouth until he naturally swallows, though he does put up a fight... But at least I know he's getting SOME nutrition.

Do you guys think he could be influenced by another bearded dragon maybe? If he sees them eating, maybe instinct will kick in and he'll act like he needs to eat as well?

 

[sweetiepie9]

Some dragons never eat salads, so feeding him some is fine. Starving him to eat them is never a good idea, they need their protein even more than they need salads.

Getting another beardie to show Milo how to eat isn't a good idea. First you don't want them living together, they will fight and to the death. If a female, he'll just breed her constantly. That's what they do, after all.

I have 4 male dragons and 1 female, all in 40 gallon tanks. My 8 yr old Leo won't eat on his own at all, so he's hand fed everything, bugs and greens. The same with my 4 yr old Gabriel, he also won't eat on his own.

Cierra, Nathaniel (both 1 1/2 yrs old) and Castiel (1 yr old), will eat out of dishes, but sometimes I end up feeding them, too. They can't see each other in their tanks but can when one by one out on the living room floor.

I would just be patient with Milo, give him his bugs (if he's an adults at least 30 a week) and just put the salads in his tank daily. If he eats them, great, if he doesn't, hand feed. It's not worth the hassle to you to force him or starve him.

Leo got really sick when I thought he was overweight and put him on a greens only diet. I took him to my vet, she took fluid out of his abdomen and it went to a lab. Turned out his blood vessels were leaking because of low protein, so now he gets his bugs every day or every other day. Dragons can get sick from lack of protein (who knew?) but now I do and I won't do that again. You'd think, after rescuing dragons for 9 years, I'd now that but I'm still learning new things every day with my crew.

So I'd say just love him as he is. feed the veggies/greens to his bugs, that way he'll get some of their nutrition. Make sure he gets calcium 3x a week, dusting 3 meals of bugs a week and 1 meal of bugs dusted with vitamin/mineral powder. That actually gives him all the nutrition he's missing from greens.

So some dragons will eat all their salads and other won't. But he may learn on his own to take a few bits on his own.

Good luck! But please, don't get another dragons unless you have another set up.

Also, is his UVB correct? What are you using. And is his basking spot the right temp? That can also have something to do with his eating patterns. Hope all this helps.

Also, the starving has been used by alot of people I know to get their dragons to eat greens and it's never worked. They've ended up force feeding or hand feeding their dragons, too.