Gippsland water dragon refuses greens

[Ashton28602]

I’ve owned my 7 month old water dragon for around 5 months now and at the beginning when he was smaller (they grow quite quickly) I only fed him mealworms mixed with salad and some calcium dust but after the first couple months I converted to feeding him large crickets, earth worms and a coupla super worms with calcium dust every now and again because I read somewhere that gut loading them with insects during their first year is good, but now I’ve been trying to get him back on the fruits & veges (banana, strawberry, rockmelon, salads, carrots) now that he’s getting bigger but he refuses to eat them, should I be stubborn and only feed him fruit and salads until he caves and eats them or should I wait till he gets older and continue to feed him only insects? Any methods or advice would be fantastic.

 

[pythoninfinite]

These dragons are primarily insect eaters, especially when young. They will live very happily and healthily on insects and other protein-rich diets for their entire lives. Youngsters are often not interested in vegetable matter, so don't force the issue. Go easy on the sweet fruit though - they can and do get tooth decay if given foods which have a lot of sugar in them. It may be slowing down for the cooler months now anyway...

 

[TheRamiRocketMan]

At that age veges aren't 100% essential, they mostly eat insects. If you really want to push veges though I'd offer veges everyday and refuse to feed them insects, they'll cave and eat it eventually. Don't worry, they can go days without food.

My 9 and 15 month old both eat fruit and veges if I leave it in there and they are hungry, you just have to be stubborn with them.