Only eating crickets

amf45005

amf45005

Member
Hello everyone! My male veiled chameleon I’ve had for two weeks now only eats crickets, I have Dubia roaches and super worms in there as well. He will only stop by his dish and eat if there’s crickets in there, he won’t touch anything else. Should I just keep giving him crickets so he will at least eat something to grow big and strong? Thanks everyone!
 
How old is he? Can you post a picture? Depending on the age it can take time for them to choose other feeders to eat. They are typically raised on crickets only so new items are not something they are used to. Also size matters with younger chams trying new feeders if they are too large they will back off the new items and choose what they know. :)
 
Honestly not exactly sure how old, my guess based on research would be around 6mths maybe?
 

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amf45005 said:
Honestly not exactly sure how old, my guess based on research would be around 6mths maybe?
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How many insects are you putting in the feeder run? Note your over powdering your feeders. You want a very light dusting they should not look like powdered donuts. Sometimes this will also cause them to back off of new feeders. Dubia move slower than crickets. How many crickets is baby eating per day? I can not tell if you have a male or a female. Have you confirmed gender. Based on size it looks to be younger than 6 months though.
 
Yes it is male piebald for sure, I place quite a few roaches in the feeder in hopes they’ll move around more to attract his eye. He has a healthy appetite for crickets, eats around 10-15 a day. Even if a cricket escapes, he’ll eventually hunt it in the cage and eat it. I just wanted to know if I should encourage him to eat the other stuff or just keep giving him crickets.
 
The issue is if 100% crickets is a healthy diet, that is perfectly fine.
The issue is when hunger strikes start, now you have nothing to fall back on.

I just do feeder cups with a trail mix of feeders and hope for some misses. Its pretty common for juveniles to only each just crickets. And by golly they are also pretty good and getting "just" the crickets out of the trail mix. But once they start getting that final growth spurt into adult, it seems a switch goes off. "hey i could try to catch and chew a dozen crickets, or eat 3 dubia".
 
nightanole said:
The issue is if 100% crickets is a healthy diet, that is perfectly fine.
The issue is when hunger strikes start, now you have nothing to fall back on.

I just do feeder cups with a trail mix of feeders and hope for some misses. Its pretty common for juveniles to only each just crickets. And by golly they are also pretty good and getting "just" the crickets out of the trail mix. But once they start getting that final growth spurt into adult, it seems a switch goes off. "hey i could try to catch and chew a dozen crickets, or eat 3 dubia".
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Thanks for the insight! I guess for now I’ll leave the roaches and worms in his dish as well as crickets, I’ll just have to hope he’ll get curious. Should I try some hornworms maybe? I’m just excited for him to eat a whole bunch and be healthy haha thanks again!
 
My juvenile Jackson's really only eats BSFL, BSF and crickets and his wax worm treats. Occasionally I can get him to eat a horn worm or a silk worm. I never could get him to try a dubia and I just ordered some grasshoppers so fingers crossed 🤞

Just keep offering the different bugs, he will get it eventually :)
 
elizaann2 said:
My juvenile Jackson's really only eats BSFL, BSF and crickets and his wax worm treats. Occasionally I can get him to eat a horn worm or a silk worm. I never could get him to try a dubia and I just ordered some grasshoppers so fingers crossed 🤞

Just keep offering the different bugs, he will get it eventually :)
Click to expand...
I just ordered some hornworms and bsfl, fingers crossed 🤞 like you said haha
 
elizaann2 said:
My juvenile Jackson's really only eats BSFL, BSF and crickets and his wax worm treats. Occasionally I can get him to eat a horn worm or a silk worm. I never could get him to try a dubia and I just ordered some grasshoppers so fingers crossed 🤞

Just keep offering the different bugs, he will get it eventually :)
Click to expand...
Where did you get grasshoppers from?
 
elizaann2 said:
My juvenile Jackson's really only eats BSFL, BSF and crickets and his wax worm treats. Occasionally I can get him to eat a horn worm or a silk worm. I never could get him to try a dubia and I just ordered some grasshoppers so fingers crossed 🤞

Just keep offering the different bugs, he will get it eventually :)
Click to expand...
My guy is picky too not as picky as his. But he will not eat BSFL or roaches by themselves. Have to disguise it with wax worms. He normally eats crickets wax worms super worms sometimes, horned worms. Silk worms (but I have trouble finding medium/large ones everytime I order they come dead or extremely tiny. I ordered from josh’s frogs 25 medium, I got literally 4 and there was mold in there and a bunch of dead tiny ones even if they were medium it would’ve been like 8 worms. And the crickets I ordered were half dead out of 250 (got a refund) but would love to try grasshoppers I bet he’d like them!
 
CryptKeeper said:
My guy is picky too not as picky as his. But he will not eat BSFL or roaches by themselves. Have to disguise it with wax worms. He normally eats crickets wax worms super worms sometimes, horned worms. Silk worms (but I have trouble finding medium/large ones everytime I order they come dead or extremely tiny. I ordered from josh’s frogs 25 medium, I got literally 4 and there was mold in there and a bunch of dead tiny ones even if they were medium it would’ve been like 8 worms. And the crickets I ordered were half dead out of 250 (got a refund) but would love to try grasshoppers I bet he’d like them!
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Grasshoppers go fast but all of my chameleons love them. I'm sorry to hear you are having such a hard time getting bugs. Keep trying.

I usually try to order in bulk just before the weather starts to get bad so that I don't need to worry about bugs for a while.
 
elizaann2 said:
My juvenile Jackson's really only eats BSFL, BSF and crickets and his wax worm treats. Occasionally I can get him to eat a horn worm or a silk worm. I never could get him to try a dubia and I just ordered some grasshoppers so fingers crossed 🤞

Just keep offering the different bugs, he will get it eventually :)
Click to expand...
If you don’t mind me asking where did you order your grasshoppers from i can never find them in the USA
 
elizaann2 said:
My juvenile Jackson's really only eats BSFL, BSF and crickets and his wax worm treats. Occasionally I can get him to eat a horn worm or a silk worm. I never could get him to try a dubia and I just ordered some grasshoppers so fingers crossed 🤞

Just keep offering the different bugs, he will get it eventually :)
Click to expand...
I replied to wrong comment before. My guy loved the hoppers! A bit expensive though
 
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