Hi guys,
Its been one week, one day since I got my baby beardie and he still refuses crickets and worms. A friend of mine gave me a few silkworms to try and still a no go. Is it neccesary he eat them? This week hes eating Rep Cal Juvie pellets, dandelion greens or mustard greens or collard greens, squash or green beans, raspberries or mango or strawberries. The salad/pellets are in the morning and afternoon(when I come home for a lunch break, around 12:30) then just pellets in the evening. Other than that hes great. I hold him at least 10 minutes a few times a day and sun him in natural light 1 hour every other day. Now for the questions: 
-Ive always read the striations on the stomach, neck, and tail are signs of stress but Gator will have them while hes sitting in his cage but when I hold them the fade away. *????*
-Is it normal for beardies to "taste" everything? And I mean everything, especially things that have bright colors.
Thnaks a lot,
Nykole
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Replies (2)
np
How big is his cage? I'm asking because it almost seems as if he feels safe in your hand but not in his cage. Often too big of an enclosure can stress a baby beardie out. One thing to try is to cover 3 sides of the aquarium with paper or something. Another thing you can try, which seemed to work well with my beardie, is put some green vines in there.
With regards to not eating the insects I don't think it's too much of a problem. My guess is that he doesn't recognize them as food items. As long as he's eating the rest of the stuff you mentioned and getting supplements right now it's not a big deal. I've seen that some have successfully raised babies on pellets and salad alone.
You didn't mention any supplements. If you aren't already, start dusting his pellets/greens once a day with calcium and 3-5 days a week with multivitaminm.
You might want to try cutting back on his holding time. I think that may be contributing to his stress as well. I'd say for a couple weeks don't handle him more than once a day. He needs to get used to his surroundings and a week isn't going to do it. It may be a couple of weeks before he gets settled.
Yes it is normal for your beardie to taste everything. It's used kind of like the tongue of a snake.
Hope this helps some. Good luck!!
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Rob Talkington
