Ok, my two female Bearded Dragons are my youngest ones. They are about a year old each. Over the last few months I have noticed them becoming increasingly more picky about their diet. They don't eat much of the veggies I give them. 90% of it has to be tossed. They don't touch the dry Bearded Dragon food at all! They have gotten so they won't eat mealworms either. They chew them up and spit them back out. The only thing they want is crickets and they won't take more than a dozen a day(each). My other Bearded Dragon eats great...mealies, crickets, dry food....whatever is in the path of his mouth he eats.I swear he would do a backflip if he could for a pinkie. The girls are together. They are not obstructed as they have feces every day. I wouldn't worry so much about it except they don't seem to be growing all that quickly and they are not nearly as fat as my male, in fact, they are down right skinny. Is there something else I should do? Has anyone else come across this problem? I have tried giving them crickets two to three times a day but end up chasing the crickets around to remove them from the tank cuz they girls won't eat them. I have tried plain collard greens as well as various mixtures of veggies. The temps are consistant, 95-105 during the day, 120 basking and 70-80 at night. I feel like a bad mommy!

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Hard to notice, gleaming from the sky
When you're staring at the cracks
Hard to notice what is passing by
With eyes lowered

"The Leaving Song"- AFI

0.0.1 Mali Uromastyx (Spike)
1.2.0 Bearded Dragons (Hercules, Megora & Eeyore)
1.0.0 Bi-color Flame Point Himalayan (Koda)
1.2.0 Children (Dimitri, Mercedes, and Mariah)

Most times they train us to feed them what they like =) but I never heard about chewing mealworms and spiting them out.... that's weird!

Do you feed them together at the same time inside their enclosure?
Have you tried any "cold turkey" method? I mean, not feed them for a couple of days and then try to give them veggies only?

Either way, you could try a probiotic like NutriBac to pump up their appetites.

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Wish list: Blue Tongue Skinks and Uruplatus =)

Could try hiding their crickets (or in our case superworms, which they love) in with the vegetables this way they might get some worms with the vegetables. My older two seem to be slowing down in their eating at this time also but I think it is more due to the changing of the season and the individual Bearded Dragon.

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Colleen

They could also be preparing to brumate. Certain times of the year, they slow down and sleep more and eat less. 120 is a bit warm, might try lowering it to 110-115.

rbl mentioned Nutribac which is really great stuff and helps stimulate the appetite. PM me if you are interested. Supers are great also, mine devour them.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

My mom and brother were taking care of my guys while I was gone for around 6 months. They started feeding them these redish/purple moist cubes made by Nature Zone "Bearded dragon bites". They all will eat them, except my male it seems. He is the pickiest eater out of all of them (5 dragons). Pretty much all he will eat is crickets, and silkworms. They LOVE silkworms, if you haven't tried those yet.

This sounds quite normal to me. I've found that the Bearded Dragons change their tastes like humans do. Persist with the other foods though; have you tried not feeding them crickets one day and just giving them veg that day? You might find if you alternate your foods they will be more likely to eat different kinds. We tend to feed our Bearded Dragons locusts more often than crickets now, as we have a source where we can buy them quite cheaply and they have more meat on them than crix, although we still feed them occasional crickets. They get live food 2-3 times per week. All other days they have veg and they generally eat it all.

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

I agree with everyone. I have a female that just stopped eating mealies one day and then about 3 months later I tried again cause she seemed interested and sure enough ever since then she eats them all the time. Good luck!

well I have just started collecting herps and I like to try to give advise if it is not right please correct me. are they really skinny like do they look anorexic if the do it might be parostitis but like I said I am not sure a good start to figuring out why is to contact your local exotic animal vet if they think it could be linked to parasites bring them a feces sample for my vet thats only
12$ and they can tell you if he has parasites or if theres something wrong with there digestive system

Hi all, I have tried all of the advice above. I adjusted my temps. I used the nutri-bac. I seperated the girls completely. I held back on the crickets for several days. One of the girls perked up and ate the veggies. I guess she figured if she was hungry she better eat. She still spit out the mealies but is eating much better otherwise. My other girl just got worse. I took in a feces sample...nothing. I tried giving her pedialyte...nothing. I took her into the vet and other than being under nourished, there is nothing wrong with her. They were even kind enough to keep her for a couple days for me for the bargain price of $240 only to find they don't know what's wrong with her. She won't drink even if I drip it on her snout. It's like "failure to thrive". She just won't eat anything at all! She looks much worse than before. The vet said to be prepared for the worst. What am I doing wrong?

__________________
Hard to notice, gleaming from the sky
When you're staring at the cracks
Hard to notice what is passing by
With eyes lowered

"The Leaving Song"- AFI

0.0.1 Mali Uromastyx (Spike)
1.2.0 Bearded Dragons (Hercules, Megora & Eeyore)
1.0.0 Bi-color Flame Point Himalayan (Koda)
1.2.0 Children (Dimitri, Mercedes, and Mariah)

Sent you a PM.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!