won't drink

[Jsw]

Easter weekend, I took my beardie to the vet where he was diagnosed as dehydrated. He was given an injection to rehydrate him and he came to life. But he still refuses to drink. I give him a bath for 15 minutes at a time. One time, he took a little gulp but other than that he does not. I soak his greens, but he won't eat them. I spray the walls of his viv but he doesn't lick.

He has lost ten grams since last Sunday (508 to 498).

He happily eats roaches and superworms but mostly refuses veggies and fruit. I started putting a soaked kale "leaf" or swiss chard "leaf" in his mouth as he munches his roach, but today he refused to eat while I was standing near him. Probably because of the leaves.

Ideas?!?

 

[CooperDragon]

He's still a pretty good weight. Is he pooping regularly? I'd check those to see if they look hydrated. That's usually a good indicator. You can try dripping water on his nose to lick up if he won't drink in baths. If his poop looks OK though, he may be getting enough hydration from his food. If he isn't into the greens, try cutting some summer squash into worm shapes and see how that goes over. Squash is hydrating. Any leftovers can go to bugs to hydrate them and pass it along that way.

 

[DrogonXSmaug]

You could try putting bugs in his greens to get him to drink, also I’m pretty sure horn worms are a good hydrating but for beardies, so if he likes those you could give him some. Also try splashing the water a bit so he can see the ripples, my beardies won’t drink unless they see the ripples. Hope this helped!

 

[fcooper]

I have three dragons. One drinks from her bath, another will sometimes, and the other won't at all. So I've just used an eye dropper (finally got one after slowly dropping drops from my spray bottle until one day I realized what an ***** I was). It's worked great and my beardies love it

 

[Jsw]

Thanks for the replies. We put bugs in his greens, but he roots through them to get to the bugs. That's why I started just placing a veggie in his mouth when it was open while crunching his roach.

He last pooped a week ago today, and it was very hydrated but he had just had the injection from the vet on Sunday.

I'll try some squash.

I'm just concerned because he always chooses to curl up in his cave. He'll come out and roam around the room and seems content to do that and seems to like climbing on the kids laps and enjoys being fed his roaches and worms, but the minute he goes back in his cage, he crawls in his cave. He doesn't change places throughout the day and doesn't really get up on anything and bask.