Baby not wanting to eat

[artes]

Hello. I have had a baby bearded dragon for about two months, named Travis. Here is a photo of her taken a couple weeks ago, just because its cute -

She's starting snubbing food recently. She appears to be terrified of crickets, and turns her nose up at veggies. I took her to the vet to get a fecal test, and they couldn't see anything wrong. She started eating again after the vet, and then stopped again two days ago. I got worried today and held her and handfed her three crickets (by handfed, I mean pushed into her mouth, not forcibly, but it wasn't necessarily willing on her part). This afternoon, I managed to only get her to eat half a cricket (poor beheaded guy) and a small bit of a piece of kale (her mustard greens are wilted, and the store only had kale in stock today).

I'm worried about her. Is there anything I can do to try to convince her to eat? Any food you can think of that will drive her wild and make her nom it? At this point, anything she would be willing to eat I would give her.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Have you tried mealworms? Babies need a lot of insects.

You mentioned Travis in another thread, not knowing if it was a boy or girl. Could it be a Tina instead, and she's gotten rebellious over gender issues? If you're looking for a therapy couch for her, check out barbie accessories

Hope you know I'm just kidding but not about mealworms

She's cute!

 

[artes]

Lmao!

Thanks for the compliment! And she will eat mealworms, but only if I feed them to her. She won't eat them on her own. Maybe she just wants to be a princess or something...

 

[gothra]

Have you tried increasing the light intensity in her tank? Bright lights, resembling natural daylight, can stimulate their appetite. I got this information from the videos in Megaray's website (Understanding lighting Part 1 & 2) http://www.reptileuv.com/reptile-video.php?nav=h Basically, if the environment is not bright enough, everything will appear brown to them; therefore making them less wanting to eat.

I thought of the lighting issues because you said the trip to the vet got her eating for a couple days; and I wondered if it was due to the trip outdoor.

p.s. Thanks for looking through my gecko album!

 

[Chestersmom]

What are her temps? Babies that small like it pretty hot. Between 105-110. Another thought, what size crix are you feeding? You could try feeding Dubia roaches too.

 

[artes]

Her temps are in the 95-100 range. I'll get a brighter lightbulb and see if that helps. I do take her outside occasionally - I put her in a critter keeper and we sun on the back porch. I do it about every other day.

Originally, I was giving her 1/2 inch crickets that were on the small side, but now that I'm handfeeding her I'm doing 1/4 inch crickets. She is eating better now that I'm continuously handfeeding her - she ate 8 crickets and 10 mealworms yesterday.

I'm going to the petstore today, so I'll get her a higher wattage bulb basking light. Her's is 100 watt, which I guess is not enough.

 

[artes]

I checked the temps directly on top of her basking rock, and its actually 110 on top of her rock (at max, it does drop to 108 depending on what the AC is set on). She has a UV bulb too. What else might be delaying her eating? She is undersized for her age, but she is growing slowly.

 

[prettyinpink]

She's very small, I'd recommend not to handle her or take her outside until she's good on her diet. The problem just sounds like she's stressed, things are moving too fast for her.

How big is her tank? Could be too big which is also stressing her. Those dark lines on her belly are stress marks, but they can also be heat changes (they'll change colors from heat) if she isn't stressed.

Btw- meal worms are NOT recommended for beardies, they're too hard for them to digest and very risky. If you can, I would avoid them. They're good for leos but not beardies.

Some babies will get annoyed by crickets if they're in a large enclosure and can't catch them. Make sure to make sure all crickets are out of the tank after feeding so she doesn't get bit, that can make her refuse them for good. Or until she forgets that they hurt her.

You can try Phoenix worms or roaches, I'm not sure about roaches since I've never used them with babies...if you're able to get them small that's worth a shot.Phoenix worms are really good for her but very pricey. Always offer the greens even if she's not eating them, she may try it eventually - this is how they get their water.

beardeddragon.org is a great forum if you need more help

It could just be as easy as she's stressed.

Are you using a probe to measure temps? (Just making sure it's not those stick on kinds, because those aren't accurate)

 

[Kristi23]

Erica's post above is very helpful. I used small dubias for my baby with no problems. Hornworms are a favorite of my older beardie. You could probably feed the tiny size ones now. Silkworms are great, too. One warning with handfeeding. They get used to it. My older one was handfed early and now he only eats that way. I won't handfeed my younger one and he chases his food everywhere. I learned the hard way.

Good luck with her. She probably won't eat many veggies unless her breeder fed them right away. She needs more bugs than anything right now.

 

[artes]

It is a digital stick on thermometer with the long white thing with a thingy that measures on the bottom. I'm sure that was a helpful description - I have a migraine right now. -_-

Her tank is a 29 gallon fish tank. She has a big chunk of driftwood, a basking rock, a potted aloe, and a water dish.

If perchance she is stressed, how would I destress her? I don't know that she is, but I'm willing to try any destressing technique to see if it helps. As for the mealworms, she's mostly eating them right now just to help fill her up since she's so busy snubbing crickets. She is getting better about eating the tiny crickets though, so I should be able to ditch the mealworms. She did mostly just eat the ones who had just shed, as opposed to the really hard ones. If she is stressed, I can't imagine handfeeding is good for her, so do you think I should put her in a small container for feeding and let her hunt the crickets on her own?

 

[artes]

I managed to get her to eat a couple of small pieces of squash today!

 

[artes]

For one more piece of good news, she's gained one gram since the fourth! Go Travis!

 

[cinderbirdswing]

her enclosure might be too big. She looks very small, like 4-6 weeks old small. The breeder I got my beardie from recommends keeping babies in a 10gal for a bit so they can find everything they need. I moved my guy up to a bigger cage at about 8-10 weeks old. I always make sure I mist and feed in the same spots too so he associates those spots with food. As babies they dont always go crazy for greens, most of their diet will be insects as a baby and it will change to mostly non veggies as they grow.