# Bearded Dagon not eating Veggies.



## Scooby (Dec 25, 2003)

Hey everyone,

My bearded dragon has been either eating very little or almost no veggies since I got him. I grab crickets from the pet store once a week as a treat, which he goes to town on. I've been reading online that fully grown adult males are supposed to have a diete that consists of all vegies. I purchased him about 3 weeks to a month ago and can not find the original owner to find out what she was feeding. I have been feeding Mixed frozen veggies, ranging from (Green, Red and Yellow peppers, Onion, Asparagus, Green and Yellow beans, Very little carrot as I do not want to give him vitamin a poisening, Mushroom and anything else I can find.) Does anyone have any suggestions? A friend of mine recommended I gut load crickets and just continue with them since he seems to love them. Anyone have further suggestions?


----------



## louisvillain2.0 (May 16, 2007)

Scooby said:


> I've been reading online that fully grown adult males are supposed to have a diete that consists of all vegies.


You need better online sources. They do eat vegies in the wild but that makes up only part of their diet. There are a fair few that live around my place in the bush, you do see them on the abondoned turf farm across the road eating dandelion flowers and stuff but mostly they munch down on insects and the like. Saw one eating a crowned snake the other day.


----------



## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

My female barly will eat veggies so i have to give it to crickets... I do however try to hand feed her slices of fruit when i can since she will usually take it if she thinks its alive.


----------



## SERRAPYGO (Feb 4, 2003)

My beardie refuses veggies, too. An ocassional pea is about it. 


> A friend of mine recommended I gut load crickets and just continue with them since he seems to love them. Anyone have further suggestions?


I agree with your friend. Keep offering the veggies, but, don't deny him what he really wants. Pretty much what I'm doing with mine right now.


----------



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Part of the problem is, as well, you're not offering the right veggies. First off, ditch the frozen garbage. They're not that great for us and they're not that great for our animals. Always go fresh. Next, look for leafy greens. Dandelion, collards greens, mustard greens to name a few staples. I add in some baby spinach, bok choy, kale, and other things from time to time as well. Some of the squashes are also great sources of what they need... Going fresh will ensure there is TONS of flavour to attract them. Frozen veggies are water logged and lacking in flavour.

Properly gutloaded crickets can also help. Make sure you're feeding them more than just carrots and potatos if you want your dragon to get something out of it. There are commercially available gutloads or you can make your own. I personally make my own cricket gel using agar agar (a gelatin substitute made from seaweed) and a powdered cricket diet marketed by Allen Repashy. It works great. The crickets last and my animals thrive.

Unfortunately a lot of beardies are not offered greens enough when they're young so it's very hard to get them going on them later in life. Your dragon won't die. Just make sure you're offering them daily. Mine is a bit picky as well. He actually likes his greens dried out most of the time. That's when he chows down on 'em. But he eats them and that's important.

You also haven't had the dragon for a super long time so it's hard to say whether or not he's properly settled in yet. I'm willing to guess there's still some adjusting going on.


----------



## dark FrOsT (Sep 23, 2006)

i agree 100% with mettle


----------



## ...Jay... (Nov 2, 2006)

Of all the fruits/veggies I've fed beardies, collard greens seem to be the one that most like the best. If you dont feed crickets, or mist them for a few days they will usually take the collard greens, if for no other reason than they are thirsty and get a lot of liquid out of them. I chop them up and if they still wont take them I will mist onto the greens right in front of them. Once they try lapping the water up off the greens they will usually try some. Then they realize its good food and will continue eating it.

After they are taking collard regularly I start mixing diced squash into it, then you can start getting them to eat all kinds of good stuff by mixing it in the same way.


----------



## shiver905 (May 27, 2009)

Ya, ur source is wrong.
your adult beardie isnt suppoed to eat all vegies.

But it SHOULD be suplimented.

Some beadies dont eat vegies because it was never given to them while young.
Thats just plain previous owner stupidness.

as for him to start with vegies is going to be very difficult.
I would just leave some in there. Maybe he might try it.

Or tie some collard greens on a string move around his vegie bowl wait till he gets it try that a few time..
Just be creative.

Try to get him on pellets also,
Crickets are ok. But messy, smelly and annoying.
But pellets and greens are quiet. Sprinkel some calcium power on them also.


----------



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I'm not a fan of the pellets and most beardies aren't either. Just another example of processed foods. Bugs, properly gut loaded, and dusted with calcium are a tried and tested method of going about things.

If you're not a fan of crickets - and I know I am not - there are alternatives. The most expensive is silk works. But like I said, that's pricey and supplies are variable. Super worms work quite well and are the choice food for many breeders when it comes to their adult and juvenile dragons (babies are obviously too small to eat these). And then there are some tropical roach species that are excellent, specifically _Blaptica dubia_, which are easy to raise and easy to manage as a small colony. (Always be sure to check the legality of roaches in your area before getting them.)


----------



## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Mettle said:


> I'm not a fan of the pellets and most beardies aren't either. Just another example of processed foods. Bugs, properly gut loaded, and dusted with calcium are a tried and tested method of going about things.
> 
> If you're not a fan of crickets - and I know I am not - there are alternatives. The most expensive is silk works. But like I said, that's pricey and supplies are variable. Super worms work quite well and are the choice food for many breeders when it comes to their adult and juvenile dragons (babies are obviously too small to eat these). And then there are some tropical roach species that are excellent, specifically _Blaptica dubia_, which are easy to raise and easy to manage as a small colony. (Always be sure to check the legality of roaches in your area before getting them.)


Super worms are also very easy to bred yourself. All you need is some containors, film cannisters (ask at walmart- i got a whole bag for free as they throw them out) then add a super into each and let them pupate. A coupel weeks later they will be beetles and you can add them together with other beetles and they will breed. keep them on things like oats, wheat germ, milk powder... and give them a slice of potato of something for moisture. They will soon breed and you have tons of babies thats you can feed to any sized dragon depending on how big they are at the time. One thing is it has to be a bit above average room temp to breed (ive bred them in the summer with no additional heat, but they dont breed when its colder. All you have to do is feed some then put some back into the film cannisters toget more beetles as the old ones will die in a coupel weeks.


----------



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Awesome tips Sean. I remember at one point in time I was actually going to try this out. Maybe now I will.

I think it'll be hard to find those film canisters though. Might have to improvise with something else.


----------



## ...Jay... (Nov 2, 2006)

You can use anything that keeps the worms seperate and cramped up a little. They had little containers of playdo for handing out at halloween, so we got my son a bunch right after halloween for really cheap and I used the old containers after poking some holes in the lids. You just need anything small to seperate the worms. They are wierd like that, and wont pupate unless they get a little stressed out, which happens when you put them in a little container like that.


----------



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Huh, that's pretty weird. But sounds like it's worth trying. Thanks!


----------



## Scooby (Dec 25, 2003)

Wow! Thank you all very very much for the information. I managed to track down the original owner as she used to work at the LFS in my area. Apparently all she ever fed the beardie was Super Worms. I've been mixing it up between super worms and crickets doing the supplement shake every other day prior to feeding.

I also re scaped his interior as well as she didn't have any beneficial decorations for him. (Basking area, Shaded area with some faux plants)

He seems much healthier now and less tempermental. Thank you all again for the info.

I definitely plan on reading more into breeding superworms. I breed ghost shrimp right now for my cichlids, I'm all about saving money over here!


----------



## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

How are the veggies going?

He really does need them to make his diet more balanced.


----------

