another on strike.

[christyo2o2]

well we all know the story about how sick scooter was. Well he is doing fine, he is super strong in all 4 legs and he has a really bad attitude about life in general as a chameleon should.

However he has now decided to go on a cricket strike so we bought him wax worms. He isnt interested in those either. It has been about 2 or 3 weeks since we have really seen him eat.

He is drinking alot though. he still loves his water. any ideas to motivate his apetite?

 

[dodolah]

try silkies
and if it still does not work, try some insects that flies (house flies and silky moth for example).
My recommendation is getting the insects from a farm.
I know kammers sell houseflies culture.

and if it still does not work then tough love might be the way to go. let him not eat for 2 or 3 days (depending how old is he). If he's really hungry, he will adjust his attitude.

 

[Dyesub Dave]

Hey Christy,

All my chams love SILKWORMS! My oldest Veiled is on a cricket strike as well. He seems to eat a few if I put the container that I shake them in under his nose but doesn't seem to hunt them down in his cage. He has no problems eating silkworms or butterworms though.

Also ... I recently saw a pic on this forum where a veiled was eating a piece of grape! So of course I had to try this myself. I cut the end off of a grape and stuck it to the end of a branch in my youngest males cage .... he eats everything! I think it was a little big for him as it looked as if he was gagging ... so I kept an eye on him for a while and he eventually got it down. Thereafter I cut the grapes into smaller pieces and I think that most of my chams ate some!

It's worth a shot and I would definitely try the silkworms. Actually my chams seem to love hornworms too so you could try some of those!

Good Luck!!

Dyesub Dave.

 

[PardalisGirl]

Scooter's Game........

Sounds like Scooter is playing mind games with you. My one male Veiled does the same thing. He holds out for silkworms. Won't touch the crickets for several days. He usually wins the game with me. He got three fat and juicy silkworms from me yesterday even though he still had crickets in his cage. I usually don't dole out silkworms to my chams until they have eaten all the crickets in the cage. But my wild caught Veiled is a little thinner than I would like him to be, so I give in to him.

 

[Dyesub Dave]

I usually don't dole out silkworms to my chams until they have eaten all the crickets in the cage. But my wild caught Veiled is a little thinner than I would like him to be, so I give in to him.

LOLOL

Sometimes I figure that I'm going to wait until my veiled eats those lose crickets too! But when I tell him that he just looks at me with that funny little look! Y'know .... 'You stuck me in here so you'd better feed me what I want .... PLLEEAAAASSEE !! LOLOL

So I usually give in too!

Dyesub Dave.

 

[christyo2o2]

LOL you guys are retarted!

I think we will go online and find some silkies sometime thsi week and see what happends. I may even try the fly deal. Do you think wild caught flies woudl be ok or no because of teh bug spray stuff?

 

[dectr6]

If you live in the south there are still plenty of wild grasshoppers around. Me and my daughter collected about 50 Sunday in less than 20 minutes. Just be sure they are from a safe area. He goes nuts for grasshoppers. Good luck. David

 

[TRI0N]

Though people are against wild caught flies I do feed my wild ones.. The concern is that you don't know where the fly has been.. But in the wild this would be the same problem becasue they could have been off a dead animal, dung, high moisterized fungus, etc in the first place. Personally I don't see the threat vs. the average house fly.

I feed mine wild flies all the time and she loves it. Their her favorite snack. Flies don't last more then 30 seconds in her cage. They capture her attention dramaticlly over anything that crawls, slithers, or jumps. Flying insects just get her instanlly up for the hunt.

 

[dodolah]

the cool thing about getting the flies from the breeder is that you can make sure that your flies has not touch or eat nasty stuff.
I do agree with Trion that in the wild those things are probably don't matter..

But i would recommend to buy the culture anyway..
They will arrive in pupa stage.
You just put the pod in room temperature and by 2 or 3 days you'll see about 250 little flies buzzing around.
Put them in the refrigerator (lower one)- don't freeze them to death
to slow their metabolism. (i say about a day -flies start to die when you refrigerate them for more than 4 days).

Put a spoon of baby cereal+1 boiled egg+ Honey+ plain yogurt and blended them together to make a thick liquid baby food consistency..
I'm embarrassed to say that be4 feeding them to the flies, my curiosity get a hold of me...and yes... i did try a bit.. it actually taste good.

open the lid slowly after tapping some of the flies that climb on the side of the cup so they all fall down.
since you refrigerate the pod, the flies will be too weak to fly.
put a teaspoon of the gutload into the pod.
And from now on, you can put the pod in room temperature.

As soon as they wake up, they will start to feed.
Wait about 3 to 4 hours, they are ready to be your chameleon's delicacies.
Put the fly pod in the refrigerator again for about 15 minutes.

And prepare a clear plastic.
Open the pod, pour some unconscious fly into the plastic.
and then pour the fly into the screen cage.
and presto!!! your cham will definitely get excited and start hunting..
quite cool to see the cham hunt flies..
see from a far though just in case you have a shy chameleon.

 

[christyo2o2]

i just ordered some silkies and hornedworms for our scoots. hopefully either of them will get him out of his strike. This is not UPS these guys cant go on strike when ever they please!!

 

[Treetop Chameleons]

mine won the silkies Battle as well.lol


Matt

 

[dj special k]

Dang man... my one year old male veiled is on a cricket strike as well. He refuses to eat the ones in his cage. He looks at them like he's hungry and he's about to zap one, but then he just watches it pass by him. It's disappointing... He's wayyyy bigger than those little guys and he looks so pathetic watching them walk right by him. I can almost hear those crickets taunting him. Well, last night while I was sitting in my room, I noticed that now the crickets have begun ganging up on him. There were like 5 of them on him, I had to take them out right away. I know that was the first time they did that to him, because I watch him closely and take note of how he reacts and how the crickets are when they're free roaming in his cage. They never did that to him until last night. The sad part about that was, he was just sitting there like nothing was happening to him.

 

[Justin Carl]

you guys arent the only ones my veiled is part of this cricket union as well. he ate a pinky earlier, but he has been taking suppers. so i guess he wont starve

 

[Dyesub Dave]

Well right now mine has no choice as I currently have no other feeders. I had hornworms and silkworms for a couple days but they're all gone now. So it's either crickets or he can go hungry for a few days!

Well he does have leaves in his enclosure and I may try some pieces of grapes again but no other bugs until the weekend. (Unless of course he really starts looking unhealthy ... if he's stubborn enough he'll win!)

Dyesub Dave.

 

[Justin Carl]

yea all that is available for normal feeders year around is crickets and suppers

 

[christyo2o2]

so what happends when he doesnt eat for a super long time? can he starve himself or will he give in and eventually eat the crickets? It has been a few weeks.

 

[dodolah]

so what happends when he doesnt eat for a super long time? can he starve himself or will he give in and eventually eat the crickets? It has been a few weeks.

mostly he'll give in..
but, this is the thing..
you gotta make sure that he's on hunger strike..
not sick..

 

[christyo2o2]

yah he was sick but we have been giving him meds.

his colour is super bright and real nice. He is really active and has his attitude problem again which is unfortunately good. he seems healthy and pissed off at the world liek he should. He just wont eat

-Justin

 

[im faster]

yeah my jackson hasnt eatin in a while either.. doesnt even look at crickets.. no silks on the island yet either... arghh...

 

[dodolah]

Mine has won the battle for silkies long time ago.
He stopped eating crickets and get really skinny.
the reason i know he's on hunger strike is because i gave him flies and he's eating it like crazy and ignoring my crickets completely.

So, I gave him silkies for 2 weeks now. and guess what, he's on hunger strike for silkies!
he death grip the silkies and killed it while hunting for crickets.
So, he's back on crickets again.

While my silkies grow so huge now..(they're starting to make cocoon)