is this enough food for my bearded dragon??? please help!?

Question

my bearded dragon is 3 years old and anorexic. i feed her twice a day by pureeing up food in a blender, and syringe feeding her (i slide the tip of the syringe into her mouth and squeeze a little bit in at a time.)
her meals are as follows: breakfast-- 6 CCs of blended water, corn, green beans, peas, carrots, romaine lettuce, apples, broccoli, calcium powder, water, and this apetite stimulant/caloric supplement called jumpstart.

dinner: 6 CCS of blended crickets (the kind that you buy in a can from petsmart), water, and bearded dragon pellets.

is this enough food? or should i give her more?
please just answer the question i asked. please don't give me any more suggestions on how to get her to eat on her own because it doesn't work. she is used to syringe feeding, because at one point that was the only thing keeping her alive because she stopped eating. i still offer her live food, but she never touches it. never. she is healthy otherwise. a healthy beautiful dragon. :-)

please do not tell me to try giving her live food, and have that be your only answer,
DUH. don't you think i KNOW that?? i SAID that i offer her live food, but she DOES NOT EAT IT. if i do not syringe feed her, she will stop eating until i syringe feed again. one time i tried it and after 2 weeks i decided that she NEEDED to eat. i wasn't going to let her starve.
so just tell me if i am giving her enough. gosh. is that too hard?

Answer 1

Feeding/supplementation:
Bearded dragons are omnivorous and should feed on both vegetation and protein. Crickets, mealworms, superworms, and a salad mixture should be staple food sources. Never feed your dragon too large of a prey item. We suggest feeding prey 1/2 to 3/4 the size of the space between your dragons eyes.
Dragons require a variety of greens including collard greens, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, mustard greens, turnip greens, and dandelion greens. Stay away from iceberg lettuce, large amounts of kale, cabbage, or spinach. We also suggest a variety of vegetables such as carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, peas, corn, and fruits offered in small amounts. Other specialty additions can include cactus fruit, dandelion flowers, and hibiscus flowers. This salad mix can be offered daily using different combinations of ingredients.
When feeding crickets, make sure your source of crickets is clean. You may gutload your crickets with commercial cricket and/or we suggest offering your crickets fresh fruit, greens, and water. Remove all old food from your cricket container. Mold can be toxic to your lizards. We suggest using a moistened paper towel/sponge, citrus, or carrots to provide water for your crickets.
Whenever possible try and provide a variety of appropriate sized prey items for your dragon including super worms, silk worms, roaches, grasshoppers, preying mantis, and a variety of other bugs (not fireflies). However we strongly suggest not using bugs found outside, as they may have pesticides that can kill your dragon. Also, use waxworms in limited amounts, if at all. They contain little nutritional value, and although relished by the dragons, contain high amounts of fat.
You can also feed rep cal pellets to your dragons at a young age. The best method we have found to start dragons on the pellets is to moisten the pellets, and drop them like crickets onto a paper plate in front of the dragons. This will generally trigger a feeding response from the dragons. Generally they will only eat a couple of pellets in the beginning, but with patience and age they will start to feed heavily on the pellets. The pellets have less risk of parasites, associated with much live prey.
You can also feed pinky mice/rats to adult dragons; this is especially good for females during the breeding season.
We feed all of our hatchlings a minimum of three times a day to ensure optimum growth and health. As dragons get older, their appetite will decrease. For adult dragons, you can offer greens daily and crickets or worms 3-4 times per week. As dragons get older, you may decrease the amount of protein offered.
We suggest misting your dragons once a day, especially as hatchlings. Dragons will drink during spraying and may also be "trained" to drink and soak in a water dish inside the enclosure. They also enjoy an occasional warm (not hot) bath.

Answer 2

Like I said before. Animals are not anorexic. Your pet's feeding problems are due to either incorrect care of the animal or a medical problem. Asking the same question over and over again on here isn't going to fix any of these problems. Fix the problem and you wont have to worry about force feeding her. And if she was healthy she would be eating herself. Animals don't forget how to eat just because you've been force feeding them. People are giving you really good suggestions to help your problem the right way but for some reason you don't want to hear that there may be something wrong with what you're doing.

Answer 3

What is the age of the dragon? This seems to be more in the vicinity of "power feeding". PF is normally used to beef up a reptile before or during breeding season, or to grow them faster then normal resulting in a shorter life span (Too much meat for bearded dragons will hurt their kidneys..). Remember, in Nature a dragon is exceptionally lucky and happy with getting a single solid meal per day. More then that will lead to obesity. Good job on the greens though...

Answer 4

Why don't you try feeding her at least 10cc three to four times a day, that sounds like such a little, try feeding her more of the cricket and calcium pulp, and see then if she does not pick up weight, why i say this is my beardie is two weeks old and she eats 8 - 10 medium crickets three to four times a day, depending on how hungry she is, and what you are feeding your beardie soundsa tooooo little. I have also heard from a breeder that silkworms are excellent nourishment for beardies

Answer 5

try to up her food intake to 3 times a day. how warm is she she needs to be at about 80-85 in her tank. does she have a heat light, under tank heat pad, and a full spectrum light. the thing you might want to try while you are syringe feeding her is to up the heat alittle to see if that might help. if they are not warm enough they will not eat because their metabalizum is not energized enough for them to move. try to soak her in luke warm water because she might be backed up if you know what i mean, the warm water makes them go potty. i have 2 beardys and i got them from a pet store and they were the same way and i did everything that i mentioned and i will tell you they perked right up and started eating on their own.
try those things and i hope you get her to eat on her own. also just to let you know you will have to get her used to eating on her own soon they need to be able to get their food them selves.
good luck

Answer 6

Do you know what her weight is (in grams)? The amount of food she needs would be calculated off of that weight. Has your vet done any bloodwork? It seems like you are doing a great job, sometimes the anorexia can be symptom of a treatable illness. If you do go to a vet, try to find one that is board certified in reptile medicine(it makes a BIG difference).

Answer 7

Bearded dragons need food that is alive! They are also carnivores by the way. Try catching or buying crickets and putting it in his tank. WHen he or she is hungry, it will catch one and eat. Bon Apetite!

Answer 8

will she take more. try giving her an extra cc. a day for a week then add anouter one. Good luck as long as your heat and lights are good she should make it.

Answer 9

Animals can't be anoerexic...sounds more like a gastrointestinal disorder. I'd take it to the vet and see what's wrong....

Answer 10

Ask your vet. There is this stuff called Stimulap that might help.