Adult Beardie Won't eat Roaches

[Ryan Wright]

I have an adult female beardie named Noodle. In the past month or so she has had issues pooping, only pooping once every other week. I am trying to swap her from superworms to roaches to help reduce impaction (i am keeping her on tiles). However, she refuses to eat any roaches. She has gone several days without eating any bugs (still digging in to her salads though). After three days of refusing the roaches I gave her superworms again, which she instantly devoured.

I really want to switch her over to roaches as her low poop frequency concerns me. Are there any tips for encouraging a beardie to try a new food. Is it okay if I give her only roaches until she eats them, or is that dangerous?

 

[BeardedHippy]

Hi, adults can go for several weeks between poops, its not so unusual. At her age she should be eating mostly veg(90%), so having an appetite for that is a good thing. She doesn't need to eat bugs every day, its more protien than she needs. Superworms, though not ideal as a staple due to high fat content ,pose very little impaction risk (mealworms do). The trouble with fatty worms is they are like candy for beardies and dragons will often hold out for them over other foods.

Dragons like to hunt and usually cant resist moving food, if she wont hunt for them try hand/tong feeding them, once she eats a few she might get a taste for them. Saying that, beardies are notoriously fickle when it comes to food. They can turn their noses up at some foods, then a few weeks later be eating them like no tomorrow. Keep trying them you never know.

There are other bugs you can try, variety is the spice of life after all.