Nigelk8485
Bearded Dragon Egg
- Messages
- 2
As the title says, I'm having a very hard time getting my bearded dragon to eat.
First, a little about him. He's around four years old, about 20" long or so including the tail, and I'm not sure on his weight. He doesn't seem thin or malnourished to me. There are pictures attached so you can judge.
He is in a 4'x2'x2' enclosure. The basking area gets to around 105 degrees, the cool side stays between 78-85 degrees depending on the time of the year. I have a 24" Reptisun 10.0 UVB bulb which he can easily get within 3" of the bulb when he lounges on his branch which he typically does for a minimum of a few hours a day.
The trouble comes with feeding him. When he was younger I was able to throw in some live crickets, superworms, Phoenix worms, and he would gobble them up. Then as he started getting a little older, around 1-2 years old he lost his interest in live insects. It almost seemed like live crickets scared him, so I began feeding him insects with tongs so that they weren't jumping around all crazy and disturbing him. As I started filtering out insects and putting him on a more vegetable-heavy diet he just lost interest completely. I have tried everything from different variations of foods, using the vibrating feeding dish, sprinkling insects on his veggies, leaving the food and refusing to hand feed, placing them on a white paper towel to increase the contrast...nothing works.
The only way he will eat his vegetables is if I hand feed them to him and even then he only eats a little bit and then he is done. I'm willing to continue hand feeding if that's what it takes but it's so inconvenient between school and work and other pets that feeding him becomes a 30-45 minute ordeal because I'm having to handfeed him.
If anyone else here has had experience with a difficult lizard and were finally able to get them to eat the food, please share how you did it.
Also, and sorry for the long post, I'm just trying to get as much information in as possible, the main foods I feed him are collard and mustard greens as a base. Then topped with bell peppers, yellow or butternut squash, grapes, blueberries, apples, and usually I throw on some Dragon Bites or whatever the little red cubes are. Orange seems to be by far his favorite color and what attracts him the most. He will chase down the tongs for butternut squash or peaches, but he will not willingly go over to his dish and eat them.
First, a little about him. He's around four years old, about 20" long or so including the tail, and I'm not sure on his weight. He doesn't seem thin or malnourished to me. There are pictures attached so you can judge.
He is in a 4'x2'x2' enclosure. The basking area gets to around 105 degrees, the cool side stays between 78-85 degrees depending on the time of the year. I have a 24" Reptisun 10.0 UVB bulb which he can easily get within 3" of the bulb when he lounges on his branch which he typically does for a minimum of a few hours a day.
The trouble comes with feeding him. When he was younger I was able to throw in some live crickets, superworms, Phoenix worms, and he would gobble them up. Then as he started getting a little older, around 1-2 years old he lost his interest in live insects. It almost seemed like live crickets scared him, so I began feeding him insects with tongs so that they weren't jumping around all crazy and disturbing him. As I started filtering out insects and putting him on a more vegetable-heavy diet he just lost interest completely. I have tried everything from different variations of foods, using the vibrating feeding dish, sprinkling insects on his veggies, leaving the food and refusing to hand feed, placing them on a white paper towel to increase the contrast...nothing works.
The only way he will eat his vegetables is if I hand feed them to him and even then he only eats a little bit and then he is done. I'm willing to continue hand feeding if that's what it takes but it's so inconvenient between school and work and other pets that feeding him becomes a 30-45 minute ordeal because I'm having to handfeed him.
If anyone else here has had experience with a difficult lizard and were finally able to get them to eat the food, please share how you did it.
Also, and sorry for the long post, I'm just trying to get as much information in as possible, the main foods I feed him are collard and mustard greens as a base. Then topped with bell peppers, yellow or butternut squash, grapes, blueberries, apples, and usually I throw on some Dragon Bites or whatever the little red cubes are. Orange seems to be by far his favorite color and what attracts him the most. He will chase down the tongs for butternut squash or peaches, but he will not willingly go over to his dish and eat them.
