Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys. My eggs started hatching. Although, after apparently losing power for most of the day several days ago, I dont expect many of these to hatch. The first one that has come out is great looking. But no matter what I offer, it does not want to eat. Any suggestions? What's the best thing to feed it?
Thanks.

It can take up to 5 days for a hatchling to eat it's first meal. How long has it been? Why do you think the rest won't hatch? If you lost power and they cooled then they should be OK. Hot can kill them but cool temps. just make it take longer for them to hatch.

Right,they can take days to eat the first meal...I don't offer anything until the second or third day and your eggs should still be fine.As for what to feed,go with quarter inch crickets dusted every other day with calcium powder,vitamin suplement every 3-4 days or even once a week.Because the crickets are so fast and can disappear under cage furnishings,I get a container like an oatmeal cylinder or some kind of cleaned-out can[coffee,etc.]or jar,put the crix in with tiny pinch of calcium powder,and shake until crix are dizzy.Then when they are dumped,the crix are semi-stunned and baby can gobble them before they disperse and find a hiding spot.Give greens as soon as you do live food...they may not eat the first few times but will do so very quickly.Use SOFT greens,turnip,mustard,mulberry leaves[from trees] are all god.Chop finely...if you think the dragons won't eat them,drop small pieces in the cage and eventually[once they are in a routine of eating]they will eat the leaves.You can safely do this if you don't have a substrate that sticks ..otherwise use a paper or plastic plate.Spray babies daily...they won't like it at first but will soon realize that as their water source.I've been doing this for over 14 years and ALL of my babies eat as much greens as they do insects.

Like the others mentioned, bearded dragons rarely eat out of the egg. They are full of yolk from the egg and this lasts for several days to a week. Wait a few days then offer small crickets, a quarter inch or so, or even small phoenix worms (just not the ones that have a dark shell, just the white/clearish ones). Dust as already suggested.

You can put quarter inch crickets into a shallow lid or bowl, to help prevent them from running off. Crickets a quarter inch and smaller are not really good at jumping so they tend to just crawl around. If you are keeping more than one per container, provide either a large feeding dish or better yet several dishes so each dragon has a chance to eat. I also recommend housing no more than 3-6 per container. Separate any that get bigger than the others to prevent it eating all the food and preventing smaller babies from eating/basking.

As for your eggs, unless your incubation rose in temperature, a little cool down due to lack of power won't be a problem, just keep incubating till they either hatch or rot. A good well insulated incubator will not lose heat fast, so the temps may not have dropped too much if the power outage was low. At worse, it would reach room temperature and as long as that wasn't below 60F you shouldn't have any worries.
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PHLdyPayne

Like they said it can take 5days and even up to 7 for them to eat on they're own. Most will have an appetite sooner than that. I like to place mine in a sweater box with most paper towel for 2 to 3 days and just leave the box in the incubator. Then i put them in there rearing cages and start offering crickets. Most of mine eat around 4 or 5 days. They also started munching on they're greens after about 2 weeks. its good to offer veggies early so they know that they are a source of food.

Let us know if they start eating here soon.