feeding beardies

[Gerry]

guys and gals

my beardies are currently feeding very well on live crickets. they go nuts for em. but a question. is there anything special I need to do to get em onto their veges? I know its meant to be abt 80% live and 20% veges at the moment but 80% veges when theyre older. Is there anything special I need to do now or will they just start eating veges (and other prepared foods) when theyre older?

At the moment they just ignore all veges and pellets. Ive tried chinese greens, tomatoes, corn, pellets to no avail.

thanks for any info

 

[stripes]

my beardie was the same when i got him, he would not eat anything but crickets, i just starved him for a few days and then he started to eats pellets and vegies, now i just feed him vegies and pellets and ocasionaly pinkie mice as a bit of a treat (he loves them) hope this helps

 

[beknluke]

I have babies ATM as well. They also won't touch any of the veggies - BUT, if I offer them Bok Choy (sorry if I have spelled that wrong) or dandelion leaves by hand then SOME of them will eat it. But only by hand.... I think that persistance is the key and eventually, they'll like the look of it on their own

 

[Gerry]

sweet. maybe I'll try that. failing that I'll try not feeding em for a day or so..

thanks

 

[serpenttongue]

Which beardies do you have Gerry ? I've been told that vitticeps eat far more veges than pogona. I've never kept vitticeps but of all the pogonas i've had this is what they've eaten for me, at all ages: Brocoli, clover, dog/cat food, banana, raw meat, strawberries, deshelled snails, any insect, mince, worms, peas, carrots and spiders.

 

[instar]

I give my barbatas a veg plate, buk choy, thawed green peas, dandeline flowers, some fruit etc every 2nd meal. I find if I spray it with water they will munch on it happily enough. every other meal is dusted baby woodies, , small moths, chopped earthworms etc, very rarely mealies (fresh moulted)
I got them eating veg etc by mixing mealies with the greens, then they ate greens while getting the mealies. now they eat the veg alone, but will leave the veg in favour of insects if i offer both at once.
how much veg/insects are barbatas supposed toget anyway? mine seem really healthy.

 

[Gerry]

pogona vitticeps. central beardeds serpent.

actually instar, i like that idea. might introduce em to some meal worms then add veges to em. problem with crickets is I cant keep em in the damn bowl

 

[serpenttongue]

Damn. I just looked at my post. Where i wrote pogona, i meant to write barbata.

 

[instar]

Gerry, if you pop the crix, roaches etc in your freezer for few minutes, they cant move, just lay on their backs weakly kicking (you have to get the timing right) its enough to draw the lizards attention but the crix cant escape! :wink:

 

[diamond_python]

My little central beardies go nuts for woodies and crickets, but are much slower on greens. The problem with my little ones is that they were all the same size, and now one of them is really thin where as another one is nearly twice the size. He is huge (all related and born in Sept) compareds to my other 2. I am worried the others don't eat as much because of him. Is that possible?? His head is nearly twice the size and his stomach is double easily yet they are very similar lengths. All born on the same day. I am just worried about my smallest one.

 

[africancichlidau]

Damn. I just looked at my post. Where i wrote pogona, i meant to write barbata

Ah, so what you really meant was Barbata Vitticeps

 

[beknluke]

I separate my guys for at least 1 feeding a day, ie, offer one of them food in a separate container at a time.. It's very time consuming, but at least I get to monitor their eating. But yes, I too have 2 guys that are smaller than the others and who aren't as bigger eaters. I am setting up a sparate tank for them to live in permatantly - I am thinking that there is some 'playground bullying' going on and a bit of stress....

 

[africancichlidau]

I used to get bullied all the time in the playground Come to think of it nothing has changed! Bar the playground that is

 

[Gerry]

Ive only had mine for a couple of weeks so when I try and seperate em for a feed, they get very uncomfortable and refuse to eat. very understandable I guess. but yes I notice 1 of the 3 is definitely smaller and not feeding as well (although it is feeding which is a good thing)

 

[indicus]

Gadday Gerry, or i should say good morning, try feeding a small bowl of mixed vedges daily, sprinkle some mealworms or fly-eggs etc on your vedgies, they carn't help but eat some greens while 'pigging-out' on the insects. After a while they develope a taste for it......Goodluck.

 

[Gerry]

thanks for all the different pieces of advice but I seemed to have worked my little guys out. I basically threw the usual chinese greens into their tank (rather than using a feed bowl) then sprayed water above it. The movement of the water seemed enough to get their attention and they started munching. anyway this may be another option for those that encounter this prob.

 

[diamond_python]

Well, you are probably right. It does look like (believe it or not) that the smaller ones choose not to eat when the bigger one is around. They all arm wave at each other but one is growing so much faster than the other too that if you saw them, you would not think that they were born on the same day. I will try the seperating thing and see how that goes as I need to get some size into the 2 smaller ones.

 

[Guest]

my beardies didn't eat either when i got them i ended up having to hand feed them and then one day one dragon got the idea and all the others started to eat veges out of a dish. There is also a new product that has a dish that when u push a remote control button it vibrates and makes it look like its moving.