littlebirdy
Juvie Member
I am thinking about cutting back on Clovis' bugs to try and encourage him to eat more salad. I don't want to keep feeding him as though he is a juvie throughout his adulthood, but since I don't know his hatch date, adulthood could well be right now. :? He went to the vet for parasites earlier this month and besides a couple of lingering pinworms, he is completely healthy. The vet where we take him specializes in exotic animals, but one doc there told me to give him as many bugs as he will eat in 20 minutes (like you would for a juvie), and another told me to only give bugs a few times a week (like you would for an adult).
What are your thoughts and experiences concerning this? Has it actually encouraged reluctant salad eaters? Do you gauge veggie to bug ratios by what the beardie is eating, how big the beardie is, or the beardie's age?
Detailed stats are below!
Name: Clovis
Age: Unknown.
Sex: Unable to determine for sure, think he is a male
Length: 14 inches with a slight tail nip
Weight: Between 250-300 gram
Tank: 3 feet 3 inches long, 1 foot 3 inches wide, 1 foot 4 inches tall
Objects in tank: Clovis has a PVP pipe joint wrapped in non-adhesive shelf liner to act as a hide and a basking spot, and a plastic stick. Currently he's being treated for parasites, and when that clears he'll get his three rocks and his water bowl back in there.
Tank cleaning: As per vet orders, everything is bleached with a 1 part bleach to 30 parts water solution and newspaper is changed every day. I let the bleach dry completely before I put him back in there. When he is parasite free, I will bleach it every 3-4 days. Poopy newspaper is removed as soon as I notice it. Sometimes he doesn't poop until after I leave for work, in which case it's in there for a while, unfortunately.
Substrate: Newspaper and paper towels, eventually moving to tile
Temperatures: 100-115 on basking side, 80s on cool side, 70s at night via temp gun.
Basking light: 75 watt plant bulb
UVB: 36 inch Reptisun 10 tube, can get 6-8 inches from it if he climbs on his stick
Lights on from 6:20am-8:45pm on a timer, misses about 2 hours of that time for snuggles and floor time
Diet: collards/endive/cactus/turnip greens (usually collards) + spaghetti squash/butternut squash/acorn squash + juvenile beardie pellets and dried crics if I can find them again (he actually does eat them) in the mornings after lights have been on for about an hour, buggies in the late afternoon or evening. Of the salad, he eats most of the squash and hardly any of the greens. He gets 10-12 of the little pellets while eating the squash. Bug-wise, he's currently he's getting as many Reptiworms as he will eat in 10-15 minutes daily.
Vitamins: I dust the Reptiworms five days a week with calcium. He gets pellets a few times a week and I don't want to give him too many vitamins, so I stopped using vitamin dust.
Poop: Usually in the mornings during his first hour with lights on, usually excretes a lot of water with it. He will usually poop a second time during the afternoon. Notice an undigested worm sometimes in poop, and when I gave him minced squash I noticed some squash chunks in his poo as well. Poop mass has been encased in urate lately.
Hydration: Mist veggies daily, soak him until he poops every other day
What are your thoughts and experiences concerning this? Has it actually encouraged reluctant salad eaters? Do you gauge veggie to bug ratios by what the beardie is eating, how big the beardie is, or the beardie's age?
Detailed stats are below!
Name: Clovis
Age: Unknown.
Sex: Unable to determine for sure, think he is a male
Length: 14 inches with a slight tail nip
Weight: Between 250-300 gram
Tank: 3 feet 3 inches long, 1 foot 3 inches wide, 1 foot 4 inches tall
Objects in tank: Clovis has a PVP pipe joint wrapped in non-adhesive shelf liner to act as a hide and a basking spot, and a plastic stick. Currently he's being treated for parasites, and when that clears he'll get his three rocks and his water bowl back in there.
Tank cleaning: As per vet orders, everything is bleached with a 1 part bleach to 30 parts water solution and newspaper is changed every day. I let the bleach dry completely before I put him back in there. When he is parasite free, I will bleach it every 3-4 days. Poopy newspaper is removed as soon as I notice it. Sometimes he doesn't poop until after I leave for work, in which case it's in there for a while, unfortunately.
Substrate: Newspaper and paper towels, eventually moving to tile
Temperatures: 100-115 on basking side, 80s on cool side, 70s at night via temp gun.
Basking light: 75 watt plant bulb
UVB: 36 inch Reptisun 10 tube, can get 6-8 inches from it if he climbs on his stick
Lights on from 6:20am-8:45pm on a timer, misses about 2 hours of that time for snuggles and floor time
Diet: collards/endive/cactus/turnip greens (usually collards) + spaghetti squash/butternut squash/acorn squash + juvenile beardie pellets and dried crics if I can find them again (he actually does eat them) in the mornings after lights have been on for about an hour, buggies in the late afternoon or evening. Of the salad, he eats most of the squash and hardly any of the greens. He gets 10-12 of the little pellets while eating the squash. Bug-wise, he's currently he's getting as many Reptiworms as he will eat in 10-15 minutes daily.
Vitamins: I dust the Reptiworms five days a week with calcium. He gets pellets a few times a week and I don't want to give him too many vitamins, so I stopped using vitamin dust.
Poop: Usually in the mornings during his first hour with lights on, usually excretes a lot of water with it. He will usually poop a second time during the afternoon. Notice an undigested worm sometimes in poop, and when I gave him minced squash I noticed some squash chunks in his poo as well. Poop mass has been encased in urate lately.
Hydration: Mist veggies daily, soak him until he poops every other day
