Hi again guys :-}
Feeding my Water Dragon has proven a very challenging chore. He is as stubborn as anything and I have tried and tried and tried. I don't know what it is that's making him so fussy about eating, but I was hoping someone out there has experienced the same, or knows what the problem is. He went the whole of December without eating and when he has finally decided that he will, he only has 1 zoophoba at a time. He is 10 inches from snout to vent {not including the little bit of tail he sadly lost}. He is as active as anything jumping around his enclosure and he loves to be out all of the time but unfortunately it is too cold to have him out too much :-{. His temperatures are at the right setting around the clock. He absolutely refuses crickets now so I don't bother with them at all. I ordered some silkworms from the internet at the beginning of December and I didn't receive them, so the company sent me some hornworms to tide me over til they had some more silkies available. He ate one of the hornworms {outside of his enclosure} and never ate anymore after that. He has eaten one zoophoba in the past week and just now when I tried to feed him another it fell in his water and he dived in to get it, but when he couldn't catch it, he just left it floating in the water and wouldn't take anymore from me. Since I acquired him in September, he has never attempted to catch his food if I left them to roam around the enclosure, so have had to feed him with tongs the whole time. He is not skinny enough to see his ribs, but will be soon if his eating behaviour doesn't change. To be honest I don't know how much food is enough for a dragon of his size, and therefore don't know how much to offer him and how often. I have tried putting a deep dish in his enclosure with 3-4 zoophobas and left it for a few days but he didn't eat any of them. I am now waiting for my silkworms to arrive so I can see if it will make any difference to his eating pattern. Is there any sort of fish that I can put in his water bowl to entice him to eat? He does love it in there and seems to go for the zoophobas if they are there, even though he gives up. I was thinking if there was constant movement in his water bowl, he would make more attempts to catch his food. I really am finding it a chore to feed him now and I don't know what else to try. Also, would putting a friend in the enclosure with him make any difference to his behaviour?? I was thinking that having a mate and seeing him/her eating, would entice him to eat also. He is still as active as ever so I don't think it could be anything medical. Any advice/suggestions would be like gold to me at the moment and greatly appreciated.
Thank You :-}
PS I forgot to mention that I have also tried him with waxworms, but again 1 at a time and it will be a long time before he eats again.
