Bearded Dragon won't eat veggies

I have recently purchased my first beardie and I can not seem to get her to eat her veggies. I have done a lot of research and tried many tricks, I've tried mixing meal worms to look like the food is moving, which she will pull out the worms and leave the greens,I've tried a couple dabs of baby food on top, she will have nothing to deal with, I've tried hand feeding, I've also tried with holding crickets for a day or so, when I do that she will eat about 3 bites (if I'm lucky) usually 1 or 2 and back to her basking log. However if I offer dusted crickets she will eat 10-15+ at a time with no problem. I got her March 8th 2012 and she was already about 14" or so then. The veggies and fruits so far I've tried are: mustard greens, collard greens, F/T mixed veggies, apples, bananas, strawberries, and black berries. I've read that beardies eat more veggies as adults, but I'm wondering if this is true, so if anyone has any other advice or ideas please share.

Try Romaine to get her started. Romaine is much better tasting than collard or mustard greens to dragons (or at least to every dragon I've ever owned). Once she's eating Romaine, you can try mixing in other more dark leafy greens.

First You need to remember that beardies pick things up very easily. No hand feeding, no babying. Or else you will have to do it every day. Secondly. If she is young she will eat more bugs then veggies. But I raise my babies eating veggies. So they will eat them as youngsters. But they just need more protein at that stage. She still should and would eat them.
What is your set up like? This is the key question. The second question is what are you feeding and how often? Dusted or not dusted?


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Originally Posted by Jabberwocky Dragons

Try Romaine to get her started. Romaine is much better tasting than collard or mustard greens to dragons (or at least to every dragon I've ever owned). Once she's eating Romaine, you can try mixing in other more dark leafy greens.

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I will pick up some romaine tonight and try that, thank you.

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Originally Posted by Homegrownscales

First You need to remember that beardies pick things up very easily. No hand feeding, no babying. Or else you will have to do it every day. Secondly. If she is young she will eat more bugs then veggies. But I raise my babies eating veggies. So they will eat them as youngsters. But they just need more protein at that stage. She still should and would eat them.
What is your set up like? This is the key question. The second question is what are you feeding and how often? Dusted or not dusted?


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

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I dust her crickets w/calcium D3. I will normally give her crickets in the morning along with a fresh dish of veggies/fruit, and when I come home in the evening the same thing. I have her in a 20gal long tank.I keep her warm basking side at 105-110, and have her on an auto timer so she has a 12hr night/day cycle. I have a log hide and climbing branch, and a hammock to get even closer to the heat, I just use paper towels now for her substrate, because I heard cal-sand was bad for them. I also have a water dish in her cage she wants nothing to do with..lol stubborn.

So is she eating the protein 2x daily? And are you dusting the crix with ca d3 2x daily?
What I'd do is give her the veggies in the morning. Only dust the veggies with pure ca. Then in the afternoon Give her as many crickets as she'll eat in one sitting. Eventually she'll see she has a schedule and shell snack on the veggies through out the day and eat her bugs in afternoon. This is the schedule I follow and by the time everyone gets their bugs, veggies are gone. Even with my little ones.
If you are dusting daily with ca w:d3 stop. They can be overdosed with d3. Change that to 3 times a week tops. I only use mine 2x a week. But you've got a growing youngin. For the other feedings use pure ca. Remember they get d3 from the UVB lights as well.
Beyond just a couple tweaks I would say you just have to get her in the habit of eating her veggies. That shouldn't be hard.
Ps sorry if I gave you info you already know. I'm alway on and off so I like to cover everything.


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