I'm not sure why but now rex wont even eat repti worms. He only shows interest in roaches which I won't feed him every meal as im trying to build a colony and it's small at the moment. I'm thinking maybe i should shorten him down to one meal a day in the afternoon. I gotta find a way to break this not eating crap. If he has to get hungry in the meantime to understand im not playing this "favorite food" game so be it. Anybody have any other suggestions because I've had it to my wits end preparing meals for him and he turns his head to the side. Somebody said it earlier eventually hunger wins out. I'm not spending any more ridiculous amounts of money trying to find the right feeder for him. That ship has sailed. Crickets or bust lol.
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Feedings
- Thread starter Justus85
- Start date
Repti worms are small, without a huge amount of movement. Dragons don't have vision like we do. They're key responses function well on what moves the best and tastes the best.
I suggest if you're having trouble staying ahead of the feeder game, to order more roaches. It always pays to order additional adults vs babies because of rate of multiplication. You'll want to have 2 separate bins, one for your feeding colony, one for your breeding colony.
Withholding food from a young dragon isn't the way to promote health and growth. It's the way to head off down a bad road. This ain't a cheap hobby. And hunger doesn't always win out this day and age. 10 years ago maybe, today not so much.
I suggest if you're having trouble staying ahead of the feeder game, to order more roaches. It always pays to order additional adults vs babies because of rate of multiplication. You'll want to have 2 separate bins, one for your feeding colony, one for your breeding colony.
Withholding food from a young dragon isn't the way to promote health and growth. It's the way to head off down a bad road. This ain't a cheap hobby. And hunger doesn't always win out this day and age. 10 years ago maybe, today not so much.
I wouldn't call him little. He is 15 inches long so a juvenile. Ang Gina when I say he only eats roaches I mean a little bit. However once or twice a day I catch him munching on salad. But this isn't chronologically correct. Only adults eat majority salad. He should be getting a lot of protein to grow from his live feeders but his interest in all of them is fleeting.
Piggy is a year old now and I tried not feeding crix for 2 days, but did feed salad and she did not eat for the 2 days she was not offered crix. She will now only eat salad if she has 2 supers on it. I ordered her silks and she will only eat one of them and leave the rest but once again will eat her supers happily. Next on my list of things to try are horn worms. I know it is frustrating but think about it this way, would you want to be forced to eat something you don't like?
Boy have I been there and done that. Pogie has to be the fussiest eater ever. ONLY crickets with thee very occasional silk (I think they dont move evough for her)
My friends juvies also tend to eat more salad than live feeders, and they are fine. But they at least some live foods 1x day
Also Abraxis went through the same issues of his not wanting cricks so he chopped them in half and added them to a mixed salad. His 2 beardies were gobbling up the salad and got their crickets without realising it. Just a thought :-\
But like Sandra said you wouldnt want to eat something you hated right. And I know roaches are pricey, but I also know they are considdered better than crickets. Have you tried throwing in roaches and cricks mixed together and maybe some crickets will get eaten too. I tried this with mixing supers and crickets once.
My friends juvies also tend to eat more salad than live feeders, and they are fine. But they at least some live foods 1x day
Also Abraxis went through the same issues of his not wanting cricks so he chopped them in half and added them to a mixed salad. His 2 beardies were gobbling up the salad and got their crickets without realising it. Just a thought :-\
But like Sandra said you wouldnt want to eat something you hated right. And I know roaches are pricey, but I also know they are considdered better than crickets. Have you tried throwing in roaches and cricks mixed together and maybe some crickets will get eaten too. I tried this with mixing supers and crickets once.
in the wild they are eating many different things in a single day. Here they eat what is offered, even if we offer many things they still don't get to "pick" what comes to them. Chris complains every time I have to get a different bug b/c Piggy will not eat. He keeps telling me she is getting WAY more expensive then we planned for. Then on the other hand there is Oscar, he is 6, and eats anything and does not care. Maybe when they get older they are not as picky. You don't hear much about the adults around here being picky eaters. Hang in there as annoying as it is, we will either get used to it or they will just eat whats offered.
LOL...I don't know about all this. Maybe I was just lucky or maybe because I didn't give a choice...but with Spyro....he at crix and greens. Never, not once did I ever have a problem feeding him. Of course there was always the occasional day during shedding that he wouldn't eat much, but other than that never. I know you guys all change around their protein because of variance. I didn't change up protein ever. He always got crix. But I did change up greens/fruit. Every couple of days he got a different mixture of greens and a different type of fruit. Just a thought coming from an "old person", lol!
It is totally random from what I can tell. Rex is a problem dragon through and through. But im trying to find a way to work around his quirks. In the beginning couple of months rex acted just like spyro did. Then I saw a post on here about offering variety so I fed him dubia and that totally screwed things up. Wish somebody would have mentioned that they may turn on crickets if you offer them roaches so I could have at least fed off my crickets first, lol(only found that out after the fact). Now I am getting a new little girl from Brian that is supposedly a big chow hound. My hopes is that she'll eat the remainder of my crickets.
Here are my thoughts unless you are prepared to offer many different proteins all the time don't offer anything but crix ever. I learned the hard way just like you did Justus. If I ever get a young one again it will only get crix and nothing else. As far as veggies I will switch that up b/c that is just a quick trip to the store not searching the internet for different feeders, best prices, paying for shipping, only to have the nose turned up at it.
