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Onyx the Picky Dragon

candyapplecorn

New Member
Messages
16
My girlfriend's bearded dragon Onyx, ~3-4 months old, has always been a voracious eater. He would eat upwards of 60 crickets a day if we actually let him. Lately we've limited the number of crickets he gets to 30 a feeding, twice a day, and we've added in daily vegetables to his diet. Once a week or so we would feed him mealworms, but only as a last resort when we ran out of crickets.

Yesterday morning I fed him 30 crickets and he ate them fine. However that night my girlfriend tried to feed him crickets and for the first time ever he refused to eat them. This morning we tried feeding him crickets and he wouldn't eat them either. However, we gave him some collard greens and he ate those in a jiffy. And when we brought out the mealworms he started clawing the glass and became excited like he always does when he sees the mealworms.

My girlfriend and I think that maybe Onyx has turned into a picky eater and just likes mealworms so much more than crickets that he decided not to eat crickets. The crickets were literally crawling on him today and he showed no interest.

Could it be that Onyx has become a picky eater? I've searched with my google-fu and found a lot of threads about bearded dragons turning down vegetables, but I haven't found any threads about bearded dragons turning down crickets. Ours is accepting vegetables and mealworms, so he has an appetite. But he won't eat dem crickets!

A little info on the husbandry: We have him in a 20 gallon terrarium. We've got a basking spot which gets up to 95° F, and cool side is usually at least 10° cooler. The humidity is usually between 40 and 60%, typically reaching that high 60% in the night and morning, and dying down to the safe 40% in the afternoon.

We're using a ceramic 60W heating element, and a UVB/UVA strip light in conjunction to provide that good 'ol vitamin D. My girlfriend also feeds Onyx about ten or so crickets dusted with calcium powder every day, and she feeds him the same amount dusted with vitamin powder once a week.

Really, I think I'm into reptiles, but she expresses so much more concern for her pet than I ever have. She seems like she's doing a great job, which is why I can't figure out why Onyx is being a picky eater!

Oh well, guess we'll have to feed him worms and veggies in the meantime...?
 

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dragonmetalhead

Active Member
1,000+ Post Club
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1,037
That is weird. Mealworms aren't very nutritious, so they're not ideal of you're limited to one protein source. Beardies will eat just about anything. Jabbette eats grasshoppers, horn worms, silk worms, sails, mice, and even fish on occasion. Phoenix worms are a great source of calcium if you can find them, although my beardie doesn't like them. Some will also eat nightcrawlers. Try offering onyx other foods to find out what he likes. By the way, he's a beautiful lizard; I love the coloring.
 

Strange_Evil

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
896
temps seem fine, i'd get him off the sand though and a larger cage, straight to the 4x2 if possible. Have you tried other insect feeders yet? Like dubia roaches or locust. Roaches should be the first try, mines goes nuts for roaches. Meal worms aren't ideal, especially for smaller dragons under 16".
 

candyapplecorn

New Member
Messages
16
Ah thank you so much for your responses. We just gave him a bath, massaged him a little, pulled the poop off his claws, etc, and put him back into his tank. There were some leftover crickets running around from this morning and he immediately pounced on several. I think he was just being moody :) Thanks for the replies!
 

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