Need some advice

[alex_33]

Hello, i jsut recently acquired a baby bearded dragon and am having troubles getting it to eat its vegetables. Any one know of ways to encourage my beardie to eat his veggies?

alex

[reptilez]

How old is is and where did you buy it. Usually babies are supposed to be eating before they are for sale.

Move the veggies around so they look like moving prey, after a while they will get used to eating it and eat it out of the food dish.

[Reptscue]

Hey Alex!
Try putting some crickets in a deeper bowl than normal and sprinkle some veggies in there also. When he goes for the crickets, hopefully s/he will get a mouth full of veggies. :D

Just curious....how old/big is s/he?
and what kind of set up?

Good luck with the new baby! :p

[fr0glet]

I find my beardie won't eat just any ol' thing. He's still a juvenile and REALLY REALLY LOVES prickly pear cactus leaf. He also goes for dandelion greens readily, and he's just so-so on collards, mustards, and carrots.

I put mealworms on top of salad and he eats those first. Sometimes he likes his salad to sit around for a day and get crunchy, then he eats it dry. :)

[Kyle Walkinshaw]

With mine, when he's hungry he will only eat a few bites in front of me then he'll just stare like he wants to say "HEY, how about not watching me eat?" LOL so I leave and when I come back veggies are gone :) and like Fr0glet said, sometime they let them sit for a while. Putting live FAST moving prey in with the veggies should also help. :) Good luck with him/her :)

[tHeGiNo]

What your going to want to do is give him veggies first thing in the morning. At night, feed him crickets. That may do the trick :D

[Snake_Hunter]

Hey alex 33
Heres a trick i used for my new BD i started feeding him crickets from my hand to build a better relationship with him and then started feeding him veggies from my hand. It worked for me and you've got nothing to lose from trying it. Mines learned to trust what i give it, so hope this useful method works for you any questions i can help ya with you can contact me at memphis_raines89@hotmail.com or just pm me.

Andrew

:groove:

[alex_33]

Wow, thanks for all the great advice! I'm going to try all of these methods, untill i get one that works. My beardie is around 7 inches long from head to tail (probly a bit smaller). He is in a 36 x 12 aquarium for the time being. thanks again for the help.

alex

[Kyle Walkinshaw]

I think I am going to have to disagree with Snake_Hunters method here. When I first had my beardie and alot on time to feed I hand fed him his crickets and after a few weeks he got too used to it and when I tryed just putting a dozen or so in there he just sat and stared but when I picked one up, he'd take it from my fingers. It took a few long weeks to get him eating by himself again so unless you have lots of time to kill don't hand feed unless its a last resort

[fr0glet]

I do both with my beardie. I think it's SOOOO cute when he takes mealies from my fingers, but I want him to eat out of the dish, too. So I just give him one or two from my fingers and put the rest in the dish... if he looks at me funny I just poke the worms and he runs right down (like a little maniac) and mows them out of the bowl.

Man, there is nothing like a maniac lizard to get me giggling!! Hehehe I can't even type that without getting all giggly. Hahaha maniac beardies :D

[Snake_Hunter]

Hey Kyle Walkinshaw

I've never experienced this kind of behavior with my little beardie I usually hand feed him once a week and the other times he loves to run around and hunt on his own i just take the stuff out of his enclosure and he'll line up at one end and charge down to the other to see how many he can get before the crickets run to the other side. Anyways thats how i've now got him on veggies and it's worked for me. Guess i lucked out.

Andrew

:groove:

[Kyle Walkinshaw]

Andrew, you have to remember that all beardies are very unique and all have individual personalities. What may work for one, may not work for another. I was just giving my opinion on the topic. So Alex, feel free to try all methods and wait to find one that works for your beardie. Good luck

[ThEmAdHaTtEr]

Originally posted by fr0glet
Sometimes he likes his salad to sit around for a day and get crunchy, then he eats it dry. :) Mine does the same thing. But I give him Romain lettuce. She likes it but only if I hand feed it to her. Give it a shot.

[eyespy]

Cricket burrito! Wrap greens around a cricket and handfeed. Leave part of the cricket exposed so it can see legs and antennae wiggling. Works pretty well for most beardies.

Sweet stuff! Smear peach baby food on the greens. Allow the beardie to slurp a bit of baby food off his snout, then your finger, then handfeed some greens smeared with the stuff. Works for almost all beardies I've met.

Float some in the bathwater. Only works for some, and those select few have to really enjoy their tubbers.

Crickets come alive! Make up a little salad in a bowl. Stun some crix in the freezer for 15-30 seconds so they arent' moving at all. Put them on the salad. When they warm up enough to start moving the beardie often gets both crickets and salad.

[reptilez]

Originally posted by eyespy
Cricket burrito! Wrap greens around a cricket and handfeed. Leave part of the cricket exposed so it can see legs and antennae wiggling. Works pretty well for most beardies.

Thats exactly how my friend got his baby beardies to start eating. and thats exactly whatr he called it, a Cricket Borrito! LMAO:joker:
-Reptilez

[fr0glet]

In response to dried, crunchy greens:

Originally posted by ThEmAdHaTtEr
Mine does the same thing. But I give him Romain lettuce. She likes it but only if I hand feed it to her. Give it a shot.

Hey Mad Hatter, a word of warning about Romaine lettuce. It's barely any better than iceburg lettuce - meaning little to no nutrition. It fills up their stomachs and just gets pooped out without benefitting your beardie!

You want something rich in calcium - like collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, escarole, and parsley. Prickly pear cactus leaf is a real favorite and REALLY high in calcium!

Hey IM me again! I crashed and lost your message :(

[critters]

Hi Alex :o)
I have 3 bearded dragons. Since the day I received them they would not eat any greens. It was like trying to get a kid to eat his / her spinach. Finally on a whim I went to Kroger and got Gerber baby food stage 2 mixed green vegetables and they LOVE it! I also got Gerber baby food stage 2 banana. I bought a baby spoon instead of using a huge metal spoon. My oldest (the one as my avitar) usually tries to eat the spoon and all (lol). Hope this helps.

Critters :o)

[eyespy]

critters, banana is pretty high in phosphorus so make sure you give extra calcium either by supplements or a menu item so that you don't end up with an imbalance.