Lizards may require or demand hand-feeding or syringe-feeding, but we may never know exactly why. I have been blessed with two of these darlings of particular culinary delivery preferences, and based on when their eating habits changed, it’s possible that a stress may be a major contributor. Our first beardie, Copper, needed hand-fed around the time I stopped being home with her all day.
At a little more than 1 year of age, our Lil’ Murph got so depressed from my being out of the state and country for 2 weeks, that he physically and mentally “shut-down.” By the time I returned. He no longer ate solid food and I had to syringe-feed him. This lasted around two years. Fast-forward 4 years from that and he eats solid food again, but he must be hand-fed, or he will not eat.
Lizards form a bond with their humans, but it isn’t always obvious until our absence!! This is what can happen with lizard parenthood that you may not expect. Bearded dragons, for whatever reason, is the species most prone to this behavior. This is not normal, but it does occur. If you appreciate lizards, be dedicated to being their family, their friend, and to tending to the unique needs that you may encounter.
In this post, you’ll learn what you can do if your scaly sweetheart is otherwise healthy and happy, likes greens, veggies, and fruits, but won’t eat from his/her dish.
We do things in the following way because it saves time for us to have everything ready. Not every veggie or fruit works well this way, but most do. If your lizard doesn’t eat for a day or two, don’t stress it unless he or she isn’t acting normally. Be patient and try the following:
🦎Keep a dish (preferably a glass container with a lid) of a variety of your reptile’s favorites in the refrigerator. Be prepared to offer a variety because they may not want the first 4 different veggies or fruits you sliced thinly to perfection and offer. They may not want carrots, broccoli, grapes, or red bell pepper. They may want pear and green bell pepper!! Yeah, they can be that choosy!!
🦎To use in conjunction with your variety dish, keep a small plate and paring knife with a tiny dish of calcium powder (as many lizards need just a bit more than is found in the diets we supply) and a paper towel or small rag for finger-wiping or clean-up. These are handy to have all together.
🦎We are currently using Fluker’s Repta Calcium with vitamin D3 and phosphorus free (D3 is offered in beautiful doses from natural sunlight – but we have cold winters here) . We are also using Fluker’s Reptile Vitamin with Beta Carotene. We mix just 1/4 of a scoop of vitamin powder to 1 scoop of calcium powder because Lil’ Murph has a variety in his diet, and they shouldn’t get too much vitamin A. He doesn’t get much of this vitamin/calcium blend. Only a few bites are dunked in this powder every other feeding. Consider how much actual calcium intake happens from the common suggestion of powder-dusting crickets, etc.
🛒You can get these items here: https://amzn.to/4a2tULV for calcium powder and https://amzn.to/4a7xlRu for vitamin powder
*We earn a small Amazon affiliate commission from items purchased through our links found here and throughout LizardPlanet.com.
🦎Keep an eye on food in the variety dish, as some items will turn bad before others. Some tips and things to consider:
•Most things, if placed in the dish as fresh, will remain good for at least a few days. Grapes and a whole carrot will stay good for quite a while. Just cut away carrot skin as it dries. Bell pepper slices will become somewhat slimy before initially leaving a white-ish liquid beneath them. Discard once you notice sliminess.
•Broccolli tips may turn dark, but if the rest looks and smells good, snip off the tip. As for pears and apples, at feeding time, cut a thin slice through the skin towards the core to slide out a perfectly thin piece. As the flesh oxidizes and browns from air exposure, just slice off to reveal fresh fruit underneath. No, this fruit is not pretty cut open in the crisper, but it saves food and money.
•Buy organic food or grow pesticide-free food and flowers for your lizard if you can, in other cases, wash food very well and spare giving pesticide-laden skins. Sadly, greens most healthy for lizards are terribly contaminated. See this for your own health as well: https://draxe.com/health/dirty-dozen/#:~:text=And%20get%20this%3A%20Kale%2C%20collard,%2C%20had%20101%E2%80%93103%20pesticides.
•As bearded dragons age, they become more herbivorous. In fact, Murph is entirely vegetarian except he will eat occasional bites of chicken (with no spices, cooked in olive oil and water only). He also likes cashews and almonds. I keep these in the dish with his veggies as it softens them. Do not give hard nuts to reptiles, it can hurt their insides. These offer some protein and are offered sparingly.
•Fruits contain natural sugars that aid in periodontal disease, especially in lizards with acrodont teeth, these include but are not limited to bearded dragons. Offer fruit sparingly and consider brushing acrodont teeth and gumlines after each meal or once daily with Maxi/guard or vet recommended product. Even a water rub down with a fluffed up cotton swab is better than nothing.
•Don’t offer foods high in oxalates regularly. Oxalates bind to the calcium in their bodies and it cannot get metabolized. This can lead to metabolic bone disease. Here is a good reference list of such foods: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/bearded-dragons-feeding#:~:text=Your%20bearded%20dragon%20may%20prefer,trace%20minerals%2C%20preventing%20their%20absorption.
🛒You can get Maxi/Guard here: https://amzn.to/3IO4wNN
What if hand-feeding doesn’t work? F-I-N-I-C-K-Y
Of course, if we have animals that won’t eat for a couple of days, or their eating habits have changed dramatically, you may consider taking them to the vet for a wellness check as soon as possible before dehydration happens. In the event that nothing is wrong, we’ll move on to the possibility of your needing to syringe-feed. It’s time consuming to a degree, but in the big picture, all this could average only 10-15 minutes a day. Our system may not work for everyone, but you can try this:
🦎In a blender, mix fresh food that your lizard likes. Add a couple of dashes of calcium powder and vitamin powder if needed (lizards getting the majority of UVB by artificial lighting need some calcium with vitamin D3). We filled the blender 1/8 – 1/4 the way up, after the blending. Do a consistency test with a syringe. If the smoothie is too runny, it will basically just drip down and your lizard will barely get anything. What you’re looking for is a consistency of thick baby food. Add a tiny bit of water if it’s too thick, blend and test. Add food if it’s too thick. Blend and test. Repeat as needed.
🦎Then, get an empty baby food or small jar. Fill it with 3 days worth of smoothie. Freeze the rest. When needed, leave out to soften enough that you can scoop out another 3 days worth to refrigerate. Place the mostly still frozen smoothie back in the freezer.
🦎After each syringe use, rinse it inside and out and leave the 2 pieces unattached to dry before the next use. If you haven’t a syringe you can buy them in bulk. Many pharmacies, such as at CVS will kindly give you a couple if you ask. Some are very small with an opening too small for a thick smoothie to flow through, so keep this in mind because you may ask for two different sizes. Sometimes the rubber tip will break off and get stuck in the tube, so don’t let yourself get down to only one. It’s good to have syringes around the home anyway because you never know when you may find an orphaned animal. These things happen, and it’s good to be able to feed a starving animal right away.
🛒You can get syringes here (thickness/thinness to consider): https://amzn.to/4a6AVev
Lizards can be quite moody. Maybe something has stressed your lizard: a new human or animal family member, absence of a human parent (possibly the one being in their life who they have ever grown to love or trust), or something else.
This guy has fed his beardie with a syringe for 2 years. He calls it a slurry, I call it a smoothie. This is what he does and how he does it. Just another option:
I recently discovered, but can’t find it again, a video of a man showing how to force-feed a lizard baby food (prune food because she was um, plugged up) on Youtube with a syringe. He mentions to be careful to get the syringe tip past the glottis. The glottis is the beginning of the airway in a lizard’s mouth caudal to the tongue. The glottis remains closed unless a lizard is taking a breath, however, when force-feeding a lizard anything fluid or semi-fluid such as baby food or their special smoothie, there’s a chance that they will inhale and get it in their airways which potentially can lead to a respiratory infection. This is not fun for anyone, as you could have to give them a shot in the tail every day. It hurts them and your heart.
In order to force-feed a lizard as that man suggests, the lizard’s mouth must be pried open quite wide. Although they’ll recover from this treatment, people generally never need to traumatize them in this way. In nearly every circumstance, if a lizard is thirsty or hungry, he or she will lap water or semi-fluid food if dripped onto the front of the mouth.
See the glottises of a bearded dragon and carpet python here: https://www.theveterinarynurse.com/content/practical/how-to-anaesthetise-reptiles/
If your lizard is brumating, they can receive food only rarely, as you do not want food rotting in their little digestive tract because their metabolisms are at a minimal functioning level during this time. Chances are they will not pass a poo for weeks or months until they begin to feel awake. Placing your sleeping beauty in warm water for 20 – 30 minutes a few times a week should hydrate them as they can absorb water through their skin. They may come to long enough to take a couple of drinks. Place their chin on a rag (ya know, like a bath pillow:) and don’t leave them alone. Check the water temperature very often. Drain some out and restock with warm as needed.
🦎
Our first goal is to build a stand for Murph’s enclosure. But they are hundreds of dollars for a prefabricated one, so I’d like to build one. It seems like I get a splinter just looking at rough wood, so wish me luck, please! Another reason for custom-building one is because as you’ll see in the photo below, these windows are too short. The stands I’ve seen aren’t as tall as I’d like. Murph isn’t always coordinated and he tumbles, which is why his cage is styled as it is. It is approximately the size of a 67 gallon-sized (approx. 255 liters) enclosure. I redecorate it occasionally, but must have an elevation so he can look out the window. He does like to climb a bit, but item placement is tricky. His “stand” is currently an old desk covered with a blanket to conceal his storage tote of items and his “Murph perch.”
Below are the specs thus far for Murph’s stand. I’ve not researched costs yet, as I’ve not calculated the square inches of lauan I need or the hardware. Once being a professional painter, I don’t need to work hard on the paint/exterior finishing products. I fizzled out from frustration at some point during designing his stand. I’ve never designed a woodworking project before, and I haven’t felt like mathing. Don’t laugh at my drawing. I do draw, but I haven’t done drafting-type stuff. Forget the ruler and graph paper, I’m winging it. 😗 I began this months ago. How efficient am I?!
Our second goal is to keep a surplus for (and hopefully not need it) for vet visits. When Murph had x-rays and bloodwork during 2 visits to a college with a small/exotic animal hospital, that was nearly 1k$ including gas expenses. We posted those bills so that people can estimate potential costs of lizard care: https://lizardplanet.com/2022/10/06/ive-made-2-appointments-for-lil-murph/ and https://lizardplanet.com/2022/10/17/finding-an-exotic-animal-vet/ and https://lizardplanet.com/2023/01/08/oral-health-for-lizards-the-doctors-the-cost/
Finally, our third goal is to fund this website. If we don’t pay to keep this site monetizable, we will keep the domain regardless and continue to do what we’ve always done without profit (shopping for items you already need through our links is greatly appreciated), which is to share tips that we hope will save lizards lives, show others who lizards really are, spread awareness of the suffering they experience before and during pet store or shelter life, and of course, continue to share the beautiful, world renowned bearded dragon, huge personality and finicky eater of LizardPlanet.com that is our Lil’ Murph.
Thank you friends and strangers.
Give me Lizardry or give me Death!
❤️Murph and Dawn
LizardPlanet.com 
Leave a comment