Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone,

It's my first time posting here, so please be gentle

My friend owns bearded dragons, and she was recently given another who doesn't get along with hers, and so she is giving it to me once I get my set up. Now, let me give you a little background on this little guy.

The people who had him before my friend bought him for their daughter, who ended up being terrified of him. The father was then in charge of looking after him, and he was only home 3 days out of the month, and the mother refused to look after him. All he was fed was crickets, nothing else for about a year or so.

Now, what our problem is now is trying to get him to eat something otehr than crickets. I don't have much experience which beardies, let alone ones with issues. Most of my expertise is geared towards snakes. I know the habitat requirements and the diet. My only concern is trying to switch him to a more diverse and nutritional diet. I know beardies are picky, hence why I'm asking you all

If he is hungry I doubt he will be picky. Usually the picky ones are the ones that are a little spoiled and know something else is coming later. The ones that are malnurished and ready to eat will eat anything.

If he has only had crickets chances are that the first time you through something in with him he will be surprised but, he will also want to eat it.

Ernie

I have had dragons that will only eat one thing and for 3 days without eating they will still only eat that one food item and they would rather die than eat anything else. So, I would try to wean him off of them. Reduce them to half and give him super worms, veggies, etc. He will most likely do better that way. If he starts to lose weight and will not eat anything than I guess there is nothing else to do. I would also try to put them in the fridge until they are dead and then put the in salad and he might eat them.
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Darien Drollinger

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I'd like to know more about the dragon. What is his age, length, and weight?

CC bdlvr. also does he/she eat its salad if so I wouldnt worry so much as crickets are the best thing. Bad would be if the lizard didnt eat crickets or salad because that is their staple if nothing else. When u run out of crickets buy a few super worms and try them as they would be the second most available food but not as nutritious as crickets. You can try silk worms and roaches but are harder to find in most areas if not have to be shipped and can become expensive especially if the dragon doesnt eat them.

The dragon is about a year old. I do not have the dragon in my possession yet, as my friend still has him, though she says for being a German Giant, he's rather undersized.

I just wanted to gather information on techniques I could try to encourage him to eat. As of right now, all he will accept is crickets, as that's all the previous family ever fed him. I thought of applying the scenting principle with snakes to this guy, and try to mix mushed up crickets with veggies in a vibrating food bowl, but as I said before, I haven't much experience with beardies, and thus I don't know if that will work.

I'd just offer a nutritious salad full time when the lights are on. Growing dragons eat mostly live food. So I'm not that surprised that an undersized dragon would eat mostly crickets.

Here's a good resource for greens and vegs.

http://www.beautifuldragons.503xtreme.com/Nutrition.html