Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello all
my frilled is about 4 months old
the problem i got with him is that he never eats on his own.
i always put a bowl at the buttom of the terrarium and he dosnt eat, he only eats if i take the roach with tweezers and put the roach infront of him.

how can i adjust him to eat on his own from his bowl?

That sounds pretty normal.

Some of my frillies will only eat when hand fed, some will eat from a bowl.

Frillies, in my experience, get rather lazy, and if food is brought to them, they learn that they don't really need to go looking for food.

The ones that eat from a bowl will do so only if hungry enough. They still prefer to be hand fed. BTW, try silkworms and/or hornworms.

i tried superworms and the smaller worms i forgot the name (the little ones that turns into bettles) and he dosnt like it
but when i serve him roaches (ive got 2 kinds of roaches)
he eats them happilly

btw.. i never saw him frills
is it normal? i pick him up and every thing and he dosnt do a thing.. how can i know he even have the abillity to frill if he never done so (since when i bought him)?

If you can get them, try silkworms and/or hornworms. All my frillies like them better than superworms. They are better nutritionally as well.

I'm sure your frillie is physically able to frill. The frill is linked to their jaw and hyoid bone. When they open their mouth wide, the frill will display.

As far as making them frill, the most reliable way I have found is to point the base end of a light bulb at them. Something about it, maybe it looks like a big eye, sets them off. It works with all but one of our frillies. Don't do it too much as it is stressful.

hornworms, i think i can get them izily.
i will try the bulb thing just to be sure he knows how to frill.

i got 2 more questions
does he need to eat every day? cause sometimes mine eats 1 day and not eating a thing the day after

and
what is the humidy lvl need to be?
i always keep it at 70%-90%
is it good?

humidity can be 60-80, but the more the better as long as you let a few days to dry out to reduce risk of RI(respitory infection)
i have a frill dragon thats a female, she is about 6 months old, 130 grams, and she doesnt eat much, she didnt do much, and was very stressed untill i got a murcury vapor bulb.
because she is imported from a farm in indonisia, she is use to REAL sun, mvb is the closes you can get to natural sun in a bulb form so far, so obiously she thrives.

i really recomend horn worms or silk womrs (horn worms bite, silk worms have no imune and may die from bacteria) you choose which you'd like!

as far as meal worms and super worms, supers are really fattening not much protien, meal worms really dont offer anythingg but risk of impaction!

roaches are GREAT feeders!!!

try this, try keeping food in a bowl that is eye site of her fav basking spot. keep it there for a few days, minimize stress by not handleing her or anything like that, and see if the roaches disapear! may take a few days, its ok, they can go a few days (and longer) with out food, its a trick to do with water dragons who are also stuborn, they wont starve themselves (unless extreamly stressed) and as long as your frill is swimming/playing/drinking its water it should be fine for a few days trying to encourage bowl feeding.

also are your temps correct? body temp of about 95ish is best for digestion. if your frill feels cool when you try to feed her, maybe thats why?!

good luck keep us posted!!

its either good or bad that she's not frilling up, good because when frilling up its because they are afraid!! bad because if they arnt frilling it could be that they are already SO stressed that they dont give effort into frilling.

if you think its the 2nd reason, just minimize handleing as much as posible, for at least 7-14 days

thank you very much for the answers
my frill is captive breed so no worry about the sun thing
although i do bring him out with me in sunny days.

the temp's are ok about 90-100f at the basking point and about 75-80f in the rest of the terrarium.

ill try leave a food in a bowl for few days and avoid handling to see if this trick works altough it looks like he rly loves the tweezers (lol).

and i dont think he is over stressed cause he does eat and does climbing on me.. so i guess he's just rly rly calm or alrdy knows me

ok so i tried the bulb thing
no luck

im beginning to wry

dont worry about it to much, my smallest frill wont frill up at me, but put it infront of my other yong frill and they both frill up!!
then my oldest frill is such a spazz she'll frill up and run away if you even get close, its a good thing that your frill is comfortable enough to not frill up... its better then having a frill to afraid to eat and bask!

well i guess ur right..
although i know he is afraid of me.. sometimes when i go pick him up from the terrarium he breaths heavily and turn his back to me.. but when he is on me he is calm again