Changing my rescue's diet

[Crazy Dragon Lady]

Thursday evening my husband and I rescued a 4 year old high color dragon. He's VERY fat and has visible rolls. I inquired as to what they had been feeding him and they said mice. I'm not a fan of mice at all. I know he needs to be on greens and roaches (coming soon). Any ideas on how to get him to eat greens??

I have other dragons but never had this problem before.

 

[Hdrydr31]

I am currently trialing this PatsyB and I think a few others use bee pollen sprinkled on the greens, she says he beardies get excited when they see her sprinkle it on...My Izzy is kind of indifferent so far but with her semi brumating not a good judge at the moment.. However it is supposed to be an appetite stimulant from what I've read.. What I also do is I put some greens in with her supers, dubia bowl that's in her tank and when they move around it moves the greens that in turn catch her attention..
just keep trying he's not used to eating healthy so it may take some time..

 

[PatsyB]

Diets are tough! I just basically cut back on Luci's bugs and he automatically just ate more of his salad but then he was always a good salad eater. Dexter has been a hard one because she doesn't eat greens. We had a break thru today. I sprinkled some silk worms with bee pollen and put them in her salad and she ate some worms and some greens! You could try to make a green slurry or smoothie and drip it on his nose and see if he licks it off. Another thing I learned with Dexter, she is lazy so eating salad out of a bowl is a bit tricky for her but if I put it on a plate she pays more attention to it.

One thing you need to watch out for with your guy is fatty liver disease. It's basically caused by being fed a high fat diet, like mice. I had never heard of it until people started talking about the fat in super worms, which is what I use as a staple.

Do you have a picture of him?

 

[Crazy Dragon Lady]

In the back ground of the one picture you can see his first BM here with us. Luckily I thought he felt chilled and gave him a warm bath, he then pooped.

 

[PatsyB]

Poor guy, he looks like he just doesn't feel good Try the bee pollen. Not only can it act as an appetite booster but it contains lots of minerals and vitamins that are beneficial. Also get a probiotic to help with the diet change from fatty to healthier foods. Glad to hear that he's pooping at least, maybe he will poop out all of this bad food they were feeding him.

 

[Crazy Dragon Lady]

My husband was curious and dissected the dragon's poop. He said lots of fur was in it. We did give him a few crickets but he didn't know that he was supposed to chase them. He kinda got the hang of it after about 6 crickets but he is not fast enough to catch them. Poor guy.

Where would I find bee pollen?

 

[Hdrydr31]

I got mine from the vitamin shoppe... You may need to take the back legs off the crickets to slow them down a bit..

 

[Crazy Dragon Lady]

Oh so like GNC?

 

[Hdrydr31]

Oh so like GNC?

yea maybe, I've not tried them..I don't think I'll need anymore for quite some time it was like a 32 oz container it was granules so I ground them down into a powder.

 

[PatsyB]

Yes, GNC or the Vitamin Shoppe. I got the granules too and I ground some of it down for the beardies and the rest I'm using for myself

 

[Hdrydr31]

Yes, GNC or the Vitamin Shoppe. I got the granules too and I ground some of it down for the beardies and the rest I'm using for myself

how do you take the pollen? in a tea or what?

 

[Crazy Dragon Lady]

I guess I was worrying for no reason. He ate 3 small crickets before he gave up chasing them. (I had some out for the smaller dragons.) Then he ate half a leaf of collard green without prompting. Maybe he is wanting good for him food... Only time will tell.

 

[Hdrydr31]

I guess I was worrying for no reason. He ate 3 small crickets before he gave up chasing them. (I had some out for the smaller dragons.) Then he ate half a leaf of collard green without prompting. Maybe he is wanting good for him food... Only time will tell.

I'm sure he will be fine it sounds like he is on the road to being a nice happy dragon..

 

[PatsyB]

how do you take the pollen? in a tea or what?

Haven't tried it in tea yet but that would make sense. I've put it in smoothies and I also sprinkled it on top of peanut butter on toast or a frozen waffle.

 

[jarich]

How often are you feeding him? And what is the basking area temperature? How are you measuring it?

 

[Crazy Dragon Lady]

Just to give everyone an update, he is doing fine. He is eating his new dubia roaches like candy and his "salads." If given the choice he likes orange bell pepper over greens... too bad he has to eat them all. He loves to run around my apartment avoiding the toy poodles and getting into everything. He enjoys sleeping on his rock all day.