Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm having a hard time getting my beardie to heat his greens... I've tried all sorts of stuff and am having little success. about three months ago he had signs of too much of the byproduct of Thiamine (sp?) from frozen veggies so I put him on vit. suppliment on top of his calcium. I'm still not able to get him to eat his greens. Carrots are even not his cup of tea.

Is this normal? Does anyone have any suggestions? My beardie is a juvinile eating lots of large crickets at the moment.

Sara

Beardies are stubborn creatures sometimes. Have you tried cutting back on the crickets? In addition, feed the greens in the morning after he has a chance to heat up.
J Marchon Reptiles

That is what I do with all my guys and it works out great. I feed them greens first, then crickets later in the day. They get to where they are equally excited to see the greens as they are the crickets. You could also try putting worms into the greens. He would go to eat the worms and pick up some greens in the process!

Jessica
www.yellowroomreptiles.com

Jeeeesh I hadn't thought of that. Easy fix it sounds like. Do you feed frozen (thawd) greens or fresh?

Well I'll start tomorrow morning and skip this evening's feeding and add some worms to the green mix. I bet it will work...

Thanks for the advice so far. Anyone else feel free to chime in.

Sara

I feed mine fresh greens always. Collards, Turnip and mustard are some of the best you can give them.

Jessica
www.yellowroomreptiles.com

I've fed mine dandelion greens, kale, collards, endive, sweet red pepper, sweet potato, squash, carrots, zucchini and a little bit of apple or pear or melon or berries.

The last dragon I lost was almost 12.

It is best to feed as many fresh greens as possible. Freezing greens actually destroys Thiamine which is probably why your dragon had a deficiency on it before (or what was, overdose of thaimine byproduct?). Some frozen vegetables, chopped and sprinkled ontop of fresh greens is fine though.

Another trick to get dragons to eat their greens I have used in the past with good results, is making sure the greens are finely chopped and dropping some silkworms or newly shed superworms into the greens. Superworms tend to burrow into the greens and their movements bring 'life' to the greens and entice dragons to investigate. Silkworms don't burrow at all, but they are very noticeable and when dragons eat them, silkworms feet always have some greens stuck on them, so the dragon gets a taste of greens with their worm. Another fact is dragons don't always have the greatest aim and often wind up taking in a mouthfull of greens with their insects anyway.
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PHLdyPayne

My Beardy (George) didn't eat many greens until he was about 15 inches. Now he happily eats his greens and other veggies in the morning and his insects at night (he is still growing - he's 17 inches now). I did three things to get him into greens. First of all, I gave him a day off of insects. Secondly, I always mist the veggies before feeding him and during the day (when I am home) so they are nice and moist and as fresh as can be. Finally, I often hand feed him some of his veggies and/or bring him over to his food dish. This seems to get him interested.

Hope this helps.