Juvie Beardy - Force Feeding and Stressed Out

[jact38]

Hey folks

We bought 2 beardies about 6 weeks back. One has been good from the get go, and eats like a trooper. We give her crickets in a little glash dish, she leaps on it and gets right into it. We think they are about 6 months (maybe 7 inches nose to tail) and give them medium size crickets.

The other one though, oh boy. He just WONT eat. We took him to a leading herp expert who said we simply had to feed him, he had lost so much condition. So we have been assist feeding him 4 crickets a day - which we can get done but he HATES it. Once they are in he munhces away but getting his mouth open now is a nightmare. We tried suerpworms chopped up and woodies but same result.

So, what could be causing it. We figure as it is in with another the enclosure should be OK. They are in with a UV10 basking light, a 150w ceramic which close up gets to 40 ish and about 12 inches away is a river rock on about 35. She always has her mouth open so I reckon its warm enough up that end.

He is active and when he comes out he scampers all over, so not impacted I dont think. He is going poopies and also getting baths. He seems happy and inquisitive. He is the one doing the head bobbing, she is doing the waving. I dont think he feel threatened, he seems to be the boss.

Anyway, I dont know what to do. Any suggetions? We have force fed so much now that the poor bugger has little sores on his snout (my wife cried about that) and now we are trying from underneath to coax his mouth open which is even harder.

The herp guy said baby food had ZERO nutrition for them and not to bother.

And yes, they get fresh veggies each day, rocket, apple, sprouts etc but they dont seem to touch that. We still do it religiously though.

We mist them and they have a shallow dish and warm river rocks to bask on. We have 5 pythons by the way and they are all great, so not new to reptiles but new to lizards.

Thanks

Andrew

 

[Chris1]

so the vet did a fecal smear and cleared the possibility of paratises affecting his appetite?

baby food is better than nothing, it will sustain him for longer than nothing, which is the point of babyfood.

however, you can buy bearded dragon pellets, soak in hot water and much tehm up so u can syringe feed him, you can throw the pellet mix in a blender wiht a few crickets and a pinch of calcium if u like to make his slurry as nutritious as you can.

i have force fed insects, and i have offered slurry in the past, slurry is far less stressful for both u and ur beardy.
just put a drop on his nose, gently press ur fingernail between his lips so he tastes it and as he licks add more.

be creative if youre worried about his nutrition, theres nothing a blender cant do!

if theres a noticeable size difference u might wanna seperate him from the other one, even if u dont 'think' hes stressed, it can be really hard to tell. look out for subtle behaviours like sitting on the other ones head and pushing it off teh basking rock,....

for salad, asian greens, bok choy, chinese broc, green beans, butternut punpkin, are better than apple and sprouts, the rocket is good tho.

 

[Defective]

are they in the same enclosure together? if they are, try separating them. there maybe some dominance occuring. the male will feel more free in an enclosure of his own.
at 6 months they are fine to eat large crickets and as for force feeding until you can get another enclosure (if this is the case) what i did with my boy Yoda, was got the veg and fruit that he ate by mushing in pestle and mortar then thickened with calcium dust and dripped it on his nose.