Was doing great on Dubia, now he wants MEAL worms??

[Steven Simon]

My 4 month old beardi has been doing great on Dubia, eating 12 to 20 a day for last 3 to 4 weeks. All of a sudden he stopped eating for a day or 2, had some meal worms sitting around tried offering meal worms and he will eat them non stop. Maybe 20 of them or more.
Should I be concerned?

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[Canicke]

meal worms are high in chitin. not so very good. he might have just gotten tired of the dubias. you can try super worms, but they might be a bit big for your little guy. do you know the between the eyes size guide? feed nothing bigger than the space between the eyes. try going back to the dubias. you can also try crickets. I provide cricks to both of my adults every once in awhile. they are such a pain I only do it occasionally. I have a separate viv in an outside room that I use. dump the crix in then add beardies and let them chase em down. only when I get into town and stop by the pet store - I wont keep crix - the stink, make noise and are just generally a pain. do you offer greens? your guy may not take to them right away - he's a bit young, but give em a shot. please see the links below my signature for some AWESOME info put together by a couple of our members

 

[Lasen72]

If you live close to a Petco, they sell smaller superworms, that might be better for your dragons size. Would be better than the mealworms

 

[Hdrydr31]

Yep just may need to change things up some and offer some different bugs.. Superworms, waxworms (not a staple), butterworms (not a staple), silkworms, phoenix worms

 

[Steven Simon]

Super worms are staple? He's still eating meal worms, and won't touch the dubias,?

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[PatsyB]

You introduced him to junk food and now he wants nothing else! I would trick him and switch them with super worms, they look the same. Also, try to add more variety to his diet so he doesn't get tired of one thing.

 

[Steven Simon]

I introduced him to Super Worms and some wax worms in the last 2 days. He seems to love them... He pooped today as well, so good digestion....
He just wont touch Dubias anymore. He ate them for a solid month....

 

[Hdrydr31]

I introduced him to Super Worms and some wax worms in the last 2 days. He seems to love them... He pooped today as well, so good digestion....
He just wont touch Dubias anymore. He ate them for a solid month....

Don't worry they can tend to be kinda picky at times, just hang on the dubia and keep trying.

 

[LAME]

My male has been doing this too, now he only wants to eat superworms. He's even started to turn his nose to the junk food (waxworms).

 

[Steven Simon]

My guy is just getting more and more challenging. He still is super lazy, the only thing has been eating is wax worms, now he's on total hunger strike and hasn't eaten in 4 days. I'm just stumped. He went through a full shed 2 weeks back. But ate thru it.

To this day he started on crickets, then went to Dubias, then Super worms, and now wax worms. Now nothing?? I've also offered fresh veggies numerous times..... Lighting is all perfect.....

Someone please give me a glimmer of hope.

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[KrissyLeigh]

My guy is just getting more and more challenging. He still is super lazy, the only thing has been eating is wax worms, now he's on total hunger strike and hasn't eaten in 4 days. I'm just stumped. He went through a full shed 2 weeks back. But ate thru it.

To this day he started on crickets, then went to Dubias, then Super worms, and now wax worms. Now nothing?? I've also offered fresh veggies numerous times..... Lighting is all perfect.....

Someone please give me a glimmer of hope.

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What a goober! Once he starts eating again, I would vary the diet. I have also heard they can get bored. Mine gets black soldier fly larvae and salad every morn and dubia roaches every evening, but has random supplemental hornworms, waxworms, and crickets. I wouldn't completely freak out yet, if the issue is 4 day strike but no other obvious issues. I have force-fed before, but at this point it would probably stress him out more than it would help... might want to double check his temps, when it first got cold mine wasn't eating as much and I realized I needed to up the temp because the room was colder than before.

Was he growing? It doesn't sound like he was eating a lot? 12-20 insects a day does not sound like much... when mine was 4 months he was eating a minimim of 20 worms and 30 roaches and salad and supplemental insects, every day.

 

[Steven Simon]

He has for sure grown in last few weeks, he just did an almost full body shed 2 weeks back. He has gotten thicker and his legs have filled in. The probelms we have is he has never been a hunter. Even when eating dubias. When we put food in cage, he just stays put. We have to pull him down from his basking spot, place him on the carpet and put food in front of him. He's very challenging... Some of the superworms he ate a week ago and back may have been a tad large. Yet he has pooped every day, even today. Though he's not accepting our live food. We do have Dragon Pellet food in the cage. Maybe his nibbling at that.... It's been 5 to 6 days since he eat anything with gusto...

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[Hdrydr31]

Just keep offering live food and greens daily they won't starve themselves.. when they are hungry they will eat. I wouldn't give the pellets as those are just processed and are like junk food really don't give them any benefits.