Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, I have had RepCal Pellets as part of my dragon's diet since before they had that great fruit smell they have now. I think they are a great addition to an already balanced diet. The problem I have with them is feeding them to hatchlings.

For the past two breeding seasons I have soaked my pellets and then sat down and patiently cut each one in half before feeding them to the dragons. I noticed that when the dragons are really little they are not very good at grabbing a wet and soft pellet, and sometimes they get frustrated and give up. I would even have some of them grow up to not touch pellets at all, they figured they were just wasting their time trying to eat them I think. Since I have started cutting them in half they eat them as fast as I can drop them into the dish. This is great, and they all grow up eating pellets really well now. The thing is, when I have 100 babies at the same time cutting up this many pellets takes A LONG TIME.

At about 4 weeks I stop cutting them, and they seem to be able to handle them better.

Ok, so what do you guys do for the really little guys?

Please help! Thanks.
Kakadu Dragons

I used to keep a bowl of just pellets in the cage and then another with their salad. I noticed that very rarely did any of the pellets get eaten out of the bowl. When I moistened them and placed them on top of the salads I saw more being eaten throughout the day. (probably by accident) By the time they are 3-4 weeks old I see them going into the salad bowl and picking the pellets out first. I've never tried cutting them in half unless I was actually hand feeding. Do you drop them in one at a time or place of small bowl of cut ones in at one time?

Mike
www.outbackdragons.com

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I feed them out of 5.5 inch clear petri dish lids. I usually put the lid down and drop the pellets and greens into the lid. THe dropping catches their attention. They do really like the pellets, but they young ones will grab at a full sized pellet up to six times with no success, some learn the turn their head and bite approach, but some just give up. Its those that I have noticed never go back to pellets. The frustrating experiance of not being able to eat the big pellets hurts thier pride or something, and they avoid them, hehe. They do eat the cut pellets really really well, thats not a problem at all. I have not had any non-pellet eaters since I started cutting them. I never allow them to be hungry enough to force them to eat something, I couldn't stand it, so maybe that is the problem.

It just takes so long!
Kakadu Dragons

The babies from our girl are fairly big so they can eat them off the bat. I know someone who has smaller babies & they crush the pellets with a mortar & pestle & just sprinkle the powder over the veggies. Seems to work just fine.

I hope that helps.
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Joel R

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