Sal won't eat greens...

[lexi]

Every day, we give Sal a variety of veggies and recommended greens. He never seems to eat them. On occasion, I have seen them moved about a little, but they just end up outside of the food bowl and not in his tummy. He may lick water off of them, as he seems well hydrated, but he does not eat them.

We tried a trick recently that was recommended here which was to put a superworm or roach underneath some greens so he would see them wiggling and in trying to eat the insect would also chomp some greens by default. It worked once and then he caught on and would actually spit out the green and just eat the insect if he got them in the same bite!

The reptile shop we go to says they can go for 4 days without eating.... they recommended not giving him insects for up to 4 days so he would become interested in his greens again. We tried this, but he is stubborn. I don't want to deprive him of some sort of food for more than 4 days. They also recommended not giving him insects until the afternoon and always providing the greens first thing in the morning, since that's when they are hungriest, which we were already doing.

I don't know what to do to get him to eat his salads, and I don't want him to get sick. Is there anything I can do to get him more interested? His temps are good (basking 105F and cool side 85F), and he's alert and active, no signs of illness. I know that, as adults, a significant amount of their diet should consist of greens and veggies and right now his certainly does not.

Help ???

 

[renich]

Stubborn little Sal. We used to go through spurts where Bernie would eat his salad like a champ and then go on strike from salad eating.

Couple of things to try -
1. Yes, you can hold the crickets and only offer salad. I've heard of this being done.
2. You can mix up the greens. Try and find a favorite. A lot of beardies love butternut squash. Try putting some in a pile with he greens on top.
Try red pepper, another known favorite.
3. Experiment with different greens/veggies. Try some you haven't done before - collard, mustard, parsley, broccoli leaves. And different veggies - red cabbage, sweet potato, peppers, squash.
4. Make a variety of the salad. Don't offer 1 or 2 things. Offer 3-5 all mixed up.

Whatever you decide, don't give up. Keep offering them daily.

 

[crypticdragons]

They can go longer than 4 days without food. How old is he? Many dragons dont "develop" an appetite for them early on.

 

[lexi]

We were told when we adopted him that he was 2. We don't feed crickets, just dubia roaches, phoenix worms or superworms.

I sort of wonder if he was never switched over to an adult diet - we put the "yummy" stuff underneath (this was also recommended) like the squash or carrots or yellow pepper. We're going to try prickly pear cactus and we'll get some red pepper to try, too. It almost seems like he doesn't even recognize the greens and veggies as a food source. I even tried shredding the squash or carrots into "wormlike" shapes and wiggling them, but he's too smart for that, it seems. I also tried dusting them since his bugs are dusted but he doesn't make the connection or doesn't want to.... most days, he completely ignores his food dish with the greens in it. They are undisturbed almost all the time.

 

[crypticdragons]

You can with-hold live protein from an adult that age for as long as 2 weeks (im sure it can go longer but the 2 week point would be were i broke lol)
Offer him fresh veggies every day a few times a day. Each time you offer leave it in his tank for a while. Trust me a living animal will not starve itself to death in the presence of something edible.

 

[lexi]

Thanks, guys. I'm going to try your suggestions

I'm also going to try to hold out on the protein longer... it's hard when he looks at you with that cute little dragon face :

 

[ewood810]

Hey, Sid is that way some times but he goes in spurts. Right now he LOVES a mix that has a couple diff types of greens in it but for the first months we had him he wouldn't touch his greens and would only eat fruit. Apple raspberry stuff like that. Now he will eat a little cantaloupe but prefers his greens. We threw out lots and lots of stuff trying to find out what he would eat. If you can try the mix, I am not sure exactly what its called but it has Romain letus and some purple letus in it. I know thats really all sid will eat now, till he goes back to fruit. But we had to experiment. I hope this helps I know what a headache it can be to have a picky dragon. Also another thing we found is that he dose prefer to eat while he is out running around. Just put his bowl on the floor by him when you let him out.

 

[lexi]

Hey, Sid is that way some times but he goes in spurts. Right now he LOVES a mix that has a couple diff types of greens in it but for the first months we had him he wouldn't touch his greens and would only eat fruit. Apple raspberry stuff like that. Now he will eat a little cantaloupe but prefers his greens. We threw out lots and lots of stuff trying to find out what he would eat. If you can try the mix, I am not sure exactly what its called but it has Romain letus and some purple letus in it. I know thats really all sid will eat now, till he goes back to fruit. But we had to experiment. I hope this helps I know what a headache it can be to have a picky dragon. Also another thing we found is that he dose prefer to eat while he is out running around. Just put his bowl on the floor by him when you let him out.

Romaine is actually not a good staple green for beardies... it is mostly water and has no real nutrients.

We have tried apple (no dice) but I'll try raspberries and maybe some strawberries. I've heard for some it can be a color thing (some like orange things and some like red, etc.)...

 

[Jeebs24]

My beardie, Gollum, didn't seem to eat greens either. I left it out be he never touched it or I just didn't seem him eat it. I finally tried a trick by adding something bright coloured so I shredded some carrots on top to attract his attention. It worked and he ate the greens!!!! He only ate 2 pieces of green which were 2 inch squares but hey it's something!