little 3TBT munches dead tree leaves but not fresh greens

[Loohan]

I noticed him doing this a couple days ago, too.
If i put out fresh greens, they dry up uneaten, and still he won't touch them.
This evening i gave him a soak, he had a good bowel movement. I was out of store-bought maggots and there are no grasshoppers out yet, so i tried to feed him a defrosted grasshopper. He snapped at it a couple times without result, so i tore it apart for him, but then he was no longer interested. (He did eat one a couple days ago, or part of it, but that one had lain in his warm dish, ignored, for days.)

So i put the grasshopper pieces in his dish in his tote, and set him in front of it. Next thing i knew, he was noisily eating this dry leaf. I don't think he actually swallowed much.

At the very beginning and end of the vid you can see a white ball. That's calcium carbonate. He has never touched it, nor the cuttlebone i previously had in there. Yet his shell has always been hard.

 

[Yvonne G]

I usually allow my babies to get a little hungry, then they'll eat the greens I offer.

 

[tortdad]

I usually allow my babies to get a little hungry, then they'll eat the greens I offer.

I have to do things with my yearlings too

 

[Loohan]

What kind of time span constitutes "a little hungry" for a 1-yr old boxie in April?
He has not eaten since Saturday the 4th, and today's the 14th. I have, in his bowl, the same grasshopper as i tore in half and tried to feed him on the 6th, as well as a collection of dandelion flower and leaves, chickweed, wintercress flowers and leaves, and plantain, all untouched.

I soaked him just now, (no nether output) and then held him a while for bonding. He cracked me up: he was on the palm of my hand, saw his own left front paw, apparently thought it was a worm, and bit it!
Maybe he's autistic or something. I think he was expecting me to feed him live food on my hand, which i occasionally have done.

So i put him back in his tote, right in front of the salad, and he showed no interest, and ran off to the water bowl for a drink. I notice he often drinks cool water that i just topped off, after his warm bath.

 

[Loohan]

Well, after a full 2 weeks of him fasting, i broke down and fed him a fat superworm.
I had not noticed him eating dead leaves in a long time. Maybe that's because he spends all his time snoozing under a bunch of mulch, except when i dig him out. I have taken him outside a couple times on nice days for a bit of sun.

So today i put into his little feeding dish some fragrant lilac flowers, vetch, chickweed, and wintercress flowers. Gave him a warm soak. Then put him in front of the dish. He sniffed at a vetch leaf, but showed no interest in biting it.
So i put a superworm in there, figuring maybe if i can associate the feeding dish with food, he'll eventually recognize the contents as food.
He went after the worm and ate it. Then he hung around in the dish a while, sniffing at the wintercress but not eating any.
Then he climbed out of the dish, walked a few steps, and started munching on an old dead tree leaf again! Didn't swallow much though.

 

[Loohan]

Yes, the trick is, feed them only sparingly with wiggly stuff IN THE SAME BOWL as the salad.
Last night he ate the medium-sized superworm i fed him, then hungrily looked around for more in the bowl. I think he even bit his left paw again.
Then when he couldn't find any more meat, but his appetite was all jacked up, he settled for some lamb's quarter.

Also a few days ago he took his first bite of calcium.