How you feed your juveniles is very important since it is not the same as you do to your adult or baby beardies. They have a different dietary requirement slightly.
a). Food ratio
Unlike baby bearded dragons whose diet is 80% feeder insects and 20% veggies, you need to reduce the amounts of feeder insects to 60% and increase vegetable and greens to 40%. You can also include commercial food. Fluker’s, Zoo Med, Rep-Cal have juvenile bearded dragon foods.
b). Feeder insects
The best choice should be Dubia roaches, crickets, grasshoppers, silkworms, locusts, hornworms, and black soldier larvae or any other staple. Others include butterworms, waxworms,
Only allow them to have mealworms, superworms, or those with hard shell (exoskeleton) ones they are at least six months as they may cause impaction.
The general rule when it comes to feeder insects is to ensure they are smaller than the space between these pet’s eyes.
Finally, avoid wild-caught insects (may have insecticide, pesticides or carry parasites), boxelder bugs, ants, stinging insects, fireflies, scorpions, lubber grasshoppers, house flies, just but to mention.
c). Veggies, fruits, and safe plants
Among the staple vegetables and safe plants include dandelion greens, turnip greens, cacti leaf, cacti pear, alfalfa plant (not sprout), squash, escarole, endive, collard greens, kales, mustard greens among others.
There are also many other veggies, safe plants/flowers, and herbs to feed you can feed to these pets occasionally. However, spinach, rhubarb, lettuce, celery, among others, are either unhealthy or don’t have many benefits.
Finally, juveniles can eat fruit treats like apples, bananas, blackberries, and so on. However, you should avoid avocados and other unsafe fruits.
d). How much food to give them?
When feeding them, we won’t recommend a specific number of insects since their size may vary. Just stick to what they can eat in 10-15 minutes and remove any remaining food. It won’t be sensible to say how many crickets or other feeder insects they should eat since their sizes may vary.
e). How often to feed them?
Juveniles need to eat 3-4 times, while 2-3 times a day will still work well. Ensure they have feeder insects at least once a day.
f). Calcium, vitamin D3, and multivitamins
Dust their food 4-5 times a week with calcium and two times with vitamin D3 or any multivitamin that has vitamin D3.
f). Juvenile bearded dragon not eating
If they are not eating, try varying their food, give them appetite stimulants like Zilla Reptile Health Supplies Jump-Start Appetite Stimulant or any other in the market. Also, mask their meals with what they like, try hand-feeding, have terrarium plants since they can eat them, etcetera.
Stress, being picky eaters, shedding, impaction, sickness, and internal parasites are the most common reasons why your beardie may not eat.
Finally, if they are entirely not eating, seek the intervention of your herp vet before considering syringe feeding. Your vet will first find the underlying problem and manage it.