Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have new hatchlings. There are four that were born on Sat/early Sunday. I tried last night and again today to drop a couple of pinheads in the tank. They run like crazy to get away from them!!! I am feeding them a formula of strained peaches/baby bird powder/pedialyte out of a dropper and they are eating that. What do I do to get them to eat crickets? or is it just to early to try to get them to eat crickets??

It may be too early yet. Give them a few days. Also a good way to do it is put some of the crickets in a small cup or container and hold it at an angle in front of them. I did that with my little girl and once she saw them walking around in there she jumped right into the cup and started attacking them!

About half of each of my clutches were afraid of the crickets at first as well. Plus if your feeding them the strained syrum stuff.... they probably don't feel that hungry and why chase a meal down if someone is spoonin it in? LOL I'd take all of that treatment I could get as well. Out of curiosity what is your cage setup like for them? I wouldn't worry about them they always figure out that the little jumpy things are food. Also, try just feeding them dusted crickets first thing in the morning after the lights have been on an hour or so. Then if you still want to use the syrum stuff use it of an evening at least 2 or 3 hours before lights out. That should get them to used to eating crickets. Your having too much fun aren't you? I have a clutch of Snadfireyellow/pastel/zilla/goldfroggy X SandfireRed/RedFlame incubating... It just takes toooooo long for them to start hatching!!!!
Best Wishes,
Robert

I am having an absolute blast. There are four babies so far in a 20 long tank. Paper towel for substrate. basking area about 110-115 degrees, cool side about 85. There is nothing cuter than a new hatchling!!

Give them a few days. They will start to eat the crickets. I also recomend 1/4" crickets not pinheads. Mine will usually take to veggies before crickets. And both take a few days. I would stop using the food mixture you are using now. As it is spoiling them. They might decide to only eat that and then you will have unsellable dragons.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

I ahd some babies that didn't go for crickets and acted scared of them for 3 days after hatching. It's not cos they won't eat them, it's because they aren't hungry yet. They've got plenty of yolk left from mommy so jsut give them time. try 3/4 or 1/2" crickets, pin heads are super small for them.

I've only had to "spoon" feed one baby as a hatching because it had problems with it's yolk and was very thin and small when born. He needed extra TLC. But all the rest of my 23 babies jsut took time. They know what they're doing, it's instinct.