Vitamin spray?

[Fuzzman]

Hello,
My bearded dragon stopped eating crickets and live pray all together. He's older and only eats his greens for some reason. I tried but he just refuses to eat any live pray. Anyway,I've been using calcium spray as he seem to eat his greens more with the spray then the powder. I read somewhere that I should use vitamin spray 1 week and calcium the next. I was wondering what's everyone's thoughts on this? Thanx everyone

 

[LewisBD]

Hello,
My bearded dragon stopped eating crickets and live pray all together. He's older and only eats his greens for some reason. I tried but he just refuses to eat any live pray. Anyway,I've been using calcium spray as he seem to eat his greens more with the spray then the powder. I read somewhere that I should use vitamin spray 1 week and calcium the next. I was wondering what's everyone's thoughts on this? Thanx everyone

How old is he? If he's older than a year, it doesn't exactly matter about eating bugs anymore, he needs more greens than protein. Too many bugs at an older age will cause an obese beardie.

 

[Fuzzman]

Oh ok,thanx. I had him roughly 11 months (year in mid August) but he was slightly bigger then the other beardies when I bought him. I'm going to give a rough guess as I'm unsure but prob about 15 months. He refuses to eat live prey anymore as he did this on his own so he just eats straight veggies.

 

[kingofnobbys]

At 15 months he is still a juvenile and still growing so needs daily insect protein (live or a provided by feeding him Repashi GrubPie) once per day , he also needs oral intake of calcium. Most likely there are issues with the heating and or UV which will explain his lack of appetite for insects.

Need much more information and details on your beardie's setup and your husbandry otherwise we can't even hazard a guess.

Here's my Cheat Sheet :

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=234738&p=1806050#p1806050

if you work through it methodically , the chances are the likely issues that need to be tweeked or changed will pop right out at you, if you can give very detailed answers we will then be in a position to offer help.
Is impossible to help you if you don't provide thorough details .

It may prove necessary to involve a reptile vet if your bearded dragon has serious health issues.
Are you in a position to afford to take him to a good reptile vet should this prove necessary ?
Has a vet seen him ?

 

[AHBD]

Hi there, how big is he + how much does he weigh ? At 15 months most dragons are adult sized or near it . It's great that he's eating more vegetation, that's actually better for a larger dragon but if he's on the small side he could still use a feeding of insects every other day, but even twice a week would be plenty. It is impossible to calculate how much vitamin he gets from the spray, so use irtsparingly, no more than twice a week.

A few pics of him set next to a pencil or pen to show his size if you don't have a ruler or measuring tape can help. A few pics of his tank will be helpful as well.

Here's how to post pics :

https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload pics

 

[Drache613]

Moved by Moderator from General to Health

 

[Fuzzman]

I hope I uploaded the pictures rite but here's my beardie next to a 12 in. ruler as well as a beardie cage my friend built and used for several years before being forced to sell his beardies due to moving. I plan on building a background soon so its not so bare,lol. My beardie always seems happy and always come to the glass when he sees me. If I don't pay attention to him he will keep scratching until he gets petted. My basking build is a zoo med repti basking 50 watt and my heat bulb I use at night (due to us having the ac on) is a All living things (petsmart brand?) 60 watt as thats all they have as they are always sold out of the better brands and my uvb bulb is a zoo med reptisun 10.0 that sits 31 in. from the bottom of the cage. The cage was free and was told by my friend he always had it there and never had issues. Hope this will help and Thanx for the help.

 

[AHBD]

That's a very nice set up, one big problem is that the uvb bulb is too far away. Is the Reptisun 10.0 a coil or compact or a long tube ? If it's a coil or compact it's definitely not producing near enough uvb, and if it's a long tube t8 it's also not. If you have a t5 it can be effective from about 15" away, the t8 needs to be 8-10" to be effective. The lack of uvb may be affecting his appetite.


And as long as your temps. dont go below 67 F at night he doesn't need a heat source at.

So he doesn't look thin but he should be eating SOME insects weekly to sustain his growth, he should grow a few inches more than what he is and insect protein would be necessary..

 

[Fuzzman]

Thanx,I really like the cage alot and I can't wait to get what my friend never finished. The uvb bulb I'm using is a zoo med 10.0 long tube T8 bulb as I heard they were better then the 5.0. If it's to far away then I'm sure I can definitely lower it somehow but I don't really want to do that as I plan on building a custom background with some platforms soon. If you guys think he need a little bit more bugs,would those freeze dried meal worms or crickets in those jars be ok if I mix it with his veggies? As even when I bought him he always like meal worms over crickets for some reason,lol. He's a strange dude that's for sure but I love him for all his weirdness,lol. Thanx

 

[AHBD]

The Reptisun 10.0 t8 is good at about 10 -11". the t5 would be a much better choice for the distance, but it still should be within 14-15" of the dragon. You can also look in to getting a Mega ray MVB as a heat AND uvb source.

Freeze dried foods aren't that good, real live bugs are much better. Mealworms can be used as part of the diet but not a staple. What other options have you considered ? There are dubia roaches that many owners are raising as well as silk worms. These are more expensive but if you get a colony of dubia started you can produce enough to have free food for the rest of your dragon's life.

 

[Fuzzman]

If I got my background with platform build,would I have to change where my uvb bulbs location? I plan on building it to be about half way up so that the platform will be about 15 inches or a little closer to the light. Oh ok,I thought freeze dried foods would be ok even the better brands. I'm unsure on my options as I don't really have the space to raise some live foods. Especially being he started refusing eating anything live. I tried crickets and even a Dubai roach last week but no go. As soon as I put his veggies down with some calcium spray,he chows rite down. He ate live foods before but lately he just eats only veggies. I went to my local pet shop and asked and he said some beardies will do this as they are all different.

 

[AHBD]

It's true, some dragons will prefer veggies even at a younger age.

 

[Fuzzman]

Oh ok,thanx AHBD,glad to know my LPS actually was rite on something as most don't really know,lol. I just don't want to waste the money or food on something my BD will refuse to eat hense why I was wondering about the vitamin spray for his veggies to make up for the lack of not eating any kind of bugs,lol.