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eating/moving questions

superbajf Dec 16, 2003 04:07 PM

we got our first bearded dragon on sunday and me and my boyfriend both tend to freak out a little if we sense anything might be wrong. he's definitely flipping out right now and so i wanted to ask a couple questions to make sure this behavior is normal?

when we brought him home he ate like 3 or 4 crickets right away and since then he hasn't eaten anything. there has been 8 crickets in his cage since yesterday morning and we're kind of wondering what's wrong! i've read that for the first couple days they won't eat much.. but not at all??

second, we gave him some fresh greens but as i've read, he completely ignored them! they dried up before he even gave them a second look. what do you normally mix together with the mixed greens. i've heard a lot about "salads" and im wondering what everyone else uses.

he's so damn cute and i know my boyfriend is pretty concerned so any help would be appreciated.

Replies (2)

reiko Dec 16, 2003 04:48 PM

when adjusting to a new home many dragons will not eat and take time to settle in. how old is your dragon? what are your temps like? be sure your basking temps are between 105-115 (younger guys tend to like it on the warmer side) what is your setup like?

giving him time to adjust is a good idea. let him hang out on his own and get used to his surroundings. Many will take some time to catch onto salads, a lot of younger dragons will not eat much or any salad it just depends on the dragon. For babies and juvis their proteins are far more important, but getting them accustomed to eating salad now is always a good idea as when they get into adulthood their greens and veggies will make up approximatly 80 percent of their diet.

some good base greens are collard greens and turnip greens, some great additional greens are deandelion greens, kale, mustard greens, escarole, endive and all different types of squash. Those are just a few to give you some ideas, giving variety is always a good idea changing some of the ingredients daily to keep them interested, i always use a base of collards as they tend to keep fresh easiest and then add 2-3 other greens and veggies daily as well as different types of fruit a few times a week .

check this site out

www.beautifuldragons.com

there is a great list of dragon safe foods there.

I hope that this helps some. by the way, its best not to leave crickets in your dragons enclosure, whatever he does not eat should be taken out right away, crickets have been known to gnaw on dragons during the nighttime and cause quite a bit of damage.

>>we got our first bearded dragon on sunday and me and my boyfriend both tend to freak out a little if we sense anything might be wrong. he's definitely flipping out right now and so i wanted to ask a couple questions to make sure this behavior is normal?
>>
>>when we brought him home he ate like 3 or 4 crickets right away and since then he hasn't eaten anything. there has been 8 crickets in his cage since yesterday morning and we're kind of wondering what's wrong! i've read that for the first couple days they won't eat much.. but not at all??
>>
>>second, we gave him some fresh greens but as i've read, he completely ignored them! they dried up before he even gave them a second look. what do you normally mix together with the mixed greens. i've heard a lot about "salads" and im wondering what everyone else uses.
>>
>>he's so damn cute and i know my boyfriend is pretty concerned so any help would be appreciated.
-----
reiko
photos

superbajf Dec 17, 2003 10:11 AM

damn.. i'll definitely take the crickets out. last night we thought he ate some but they were just hiding underneath something. he ate some greens last night though.. so at least he isn't starving. i'm not even sure how old he is actually.. we never even asked! we're going back there today though so i'll ask then.

another question - the crickets keep hiding underneath the fake grass stuff we put down on the bottom of the tank. we were told that he can't have sand in the tank right now.. is that true? i saw some VERY fine sand at a pet store the other day but we were told not to use sand AT ALL until he's bigger. he's not a tiny, tiny baby right now.. he's probably about 31/2 inches long (excluding tail).. he was the biggest baby at the store. he took a poo yesterday though and it was quite large.. i couldn't imagine sand getting stuck in there!

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