Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have recently adopted a beardie from a friend of mine who could no longer take care of him. I have two beardies already who are perfect little pets. They eat anything and everything I feed them, they are well socialized happy little guys. After living with me for a week I moved the new guy in with my bigger beradie and they get along famously. My problem with the new guy is his eating habits, it seems he only likes romaine lettus. He tries to eat crickets but it's like hes slow or something he cant quite pick them up no matter how hard he tries. I wonder if he has a problem with depth perception. I got one of those feeder rocks, and covered those little crickets in calcium powder. He is still too slow with his tongue. So far I've attemped to feed him, Strawberries, squash, dandelions, crickets, superworms, mealworms, Roaches, silk worms, and pinkies. It's almost as if hes soley surviving off lettus. And to top it off, my larger Beardie is becoming a real pig and finishing up what the new guy doesn't eat. I swear he's starting to get a pot belly. Anyone have any suggestions as to help his depth perception problem? Oh also i've tried feeding tongs too.

First off I would keep him in a separate cage...one week of 'quarantee' is insufficient to rule out any diseases or parasites. Also with your old male already eating all the food, its obvious your newer dragon doesn't get a chance to eat more.

Separate him and continue offering a variety of food. If he has a hard time eating crickets, feed superworms, silkworms, butterworms and hornworms (I would not bother with pinkies...except as a rare treat, maybe once a month but even then, better to leave them to egg laying females).

As for his depth perception, many things could cause it...he could simply have bad 'tongue/eye' coordination (my female isn't all that great either, but she gets her insects after a couple tries). Or it could be a physical defect, a problem with the eye etc...all of which could have many causes. Only way to really know if there is something wrong is to bring him to a vet who specializes in reptile care, especially lizard/bearded dragons.

You can always chill a bowl of crickets in the fridge (put the crickets in a zip lock bag in the fridge for 5 minutes or so till they stop moving) then pour into a small bowl. This will make it easier for your dragon to get a cricket, even if he missed the one he was aiming for (due to being enough crickets to line the bottom of the bowl).
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PHLdyPayne

What are the sexes of the Beardies?