bearded dragon appetite

Question
Our bearded dragon is about 6 months old. He looks healthy but we are struggling to get him to eat his fruit and veg!It is offered daily but not eaten.  We have also noticed that he will not eat black or brown crickets!! He just watches them run around but makes no attempt to catch them!! We have dusted them with Nutrobal yesterday and he ate 7 of them straight off....but then put one in with no powder and he ignored it!!! He enjoys locusts, but seems he will only eat crickets if they are white!!! Is this normal????

Answer
Hi Claire,
many times, pet store beardies are never offered their greens and other veggies so the new owners get to fight the fight...
Many times, we have to resort to "tough love" to get them to eat their greens!!!  If he is nice and plump, don't be afraid to withhold insects for a few days...in the hopes he gets hungry and decides that his "salad" is gooood food!!!  You can also try hand feeding some long narrow strips of greens.
A few things you can try is to super fine chop only one dark leafy green and add some butternut squash that is grated.  To this, add some of the crickets that he likes..the hope is that he gets the greens with the crickets...you can also hide the locust.  be warned, many beardies catch on quick and will wait til the insect comes to the top of the food!!! You may find that he does have a food he doesn't like that is getting mixed into his "salad".  Many beardies, especially young ones, do not care for fruit at all.  That fine as its not vital they have fruits.
On the Nutobal, that is a pretty strong calcium so you really don't want to use that all the time.  
I would check and see if there are some vitamin or other food enhancers that would be ok to use daily.  Also, many beardies LOVE the repcal adult bearded dragon pellets.  What you can do with the pellets is to put them in a spice or coffee grinder and use it as a mix in for his greens.
It would be tough to only feed freshly shed crickets..as they are generally lighter in color..have you tried any silkworms yet?  He may take a liking to them and they are good for daily use.
Its important to get him eating his greens since as he gets older, the greens are the major part of his diet.
Here is a link to what they call some of the greens in other countries. http://www.anapsid.org/resources/vegetablenames.html  Here in the US, the greens are generally what we call collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens and Arugula.