Baby beardie won't eat greens or drink water???

[SpicyOda]

I have a 7week old beardie and he won't eat any greens whatsoever. I tried mustard greens, misting it, mixing it with pellet food, dangling pieces in front of his face. He's not having it. Any ideas on how to get him to eat them?

Also, I haven't seen him drink from his water bowl, which is changed every day. To keep him hydrated I give him a bath once a day and drip some water on his face so he can lick it off. There's urate in his poo. I just want him to be as healthy as possible!

 

[Tyler_Vance]

Babies are known to be picky eaters. Mine is two years old and still won't touch any bug or salad that has the vitamin powder on it. As long as he's eating bugs you should be okay but keep offering the plants. Maybe someone else can chime in on this but I what I've done is skipped an extra day for bugs to see if he would get hungry enough for veggies. But at 7 weeks I would just keep feeding it whatever it will eat.

Are you gut loading your insects? With what If you are?

Something I've done to ensure he's getting some water besides the bath is put the roaches in a bowl that has water in the bottom so when he eats one he gets some water as well. Crickets obviously won't stay in a bowl. But if your gut loading think of it as what your insects eat your beardie eats. So if they're well or even over hydrated your beardie should get some as well

 

[SpicyOda]

I get them from work (Petsmart) and the have cricket powder and the equivalent to cricket quencher. Then at home I give them orange cube. He only eats crickets.

 

[Tyler_Vance]

Maybe try putting some bright colored veggies in with the salad. I will look when I get home but they're red orange and yellow mini peppers. I pull the seeds out and grind them up and put it on top

 

[PatsyB]

Babies need more live food at this point so don't worry if he doesn't eat his salad just yet. Still offer a small one everyday he may come around. Some beardie are shy eaters and don't want to be watched, so it is possible he is eating some greens but you just don't see him. My guy who always ate his salad is now doing that to me. I don't see him eat it but I see it in his poop.

Another good idea is to gut load your crickets with the same veggies you feed your beardie. It's very easy, you can feed the crickets the stems and ends that you don't want to feed your beardie

 

[swanmom05]

We breed dragons so I have raised over 100 from egg status at this point and most of them don't care for the greens in the beginning they prefer the bugs. However it's recommended from day one to give them greens to get them used to them eventually they will come around. Make sure when cutting the greens the pieces are not much bigger than their head also it's recommended to make 2 to 3 items in a dragon salad as they can be picky eaters. I usually do two greens and one item of color like a squash. I also have some dragons that don't like to be watched when they eat. With a small dragons it's not recommended to have a water bowl however I use a spray bottle with a light mist in their face you can tell how thirsty they are if they keep drinking it was recommended to me to do this up three times a day as you watch the dragon you can tell if you need to do it or not. Baby dragons tend to like crickets as they jump and they can see them move also reptiworms as they are full of calcium and liven up as they get warm so they're kind of slow moving. I usually put these on top of the salad to help lure my Dragons to the salad hoping they eventually start to eat it and they usually do. Unfortunately when you first get your Dragon you try many different things to see what they like to eat eventually you'll figure it out and makes it easier on the shopping just don't feed them lettuce or spinach. Or if you know who the Dragon came from you could ask what they said it. Good luck.

 

[swanmom05]

 

[krystal&otto]

Bugs are more important at this point. I've heard of people using organic baby food as a dressing to intice the beardie to try though.