What is left?

[Jefe The Chameleon]

My panther chameleon (around 10 months old or so I think) is quite a picky eater. He usually won't eat crickets, Dubia Roaches (I have a colony because he loved them when he was younger), Butterworms, and Waxworms. He will only eat super worms every 2 days or so (ranging from 2-4 ish worms). He is healthy, but picky. I don't know of an alternative that I can use as a staple, besides superworms, that I can use and are not super expensive.

I am thinking about breeding hornworms or silkworms if he likes them, but it doesn't sound very cheap and efficient.

 

[Ponyboy]

I do not have any experience with Panthers, but I know my Veiled will sometimes get picky about eating bugs and prefer vegetables like kale leaves, small pieces of carrot and apple, or even just plain iceberg lettuce leaves.

Imagine if you only could eat chicken legs every day, wouldn't you want to change it up once in a while LOL

Speaking of hornworms I have some coming soon from another member on this forum and will PM you the details regarding keeping and my chameleon's reactions to them if that helps.

Cheers!

 

[Twitchet]

Hi there, I asked a similar question about my panther a few weeks ago, I've tried him with everything, he's very picky indeed, although he's happy to eat every day, he has 5 to 8 crickets/ locusts a feed, he won't touch silkworms or roaches, I even bought a colony- not cheap- of banana roaches, a colony of dubias , wouldn't touch one either and I was worried he wasn't getting a varied diet but most replies were not to worry, rely on good gutloading and maybe he might change and eat something new for a while but maybe not ,have you tried him with locusts? I don't feed mealworms or super worms as their bodies are hard to digest.
I don't worry anymore,I'd like him to eat other things, occasionally he's eat something new but he's very happy eating locusts and crickets and 1- 2 waxworms a week, he'd eat them all day long but obviously shouldn't. A very well respected shop here said they actually just fed 80% locusts and the rest crickets but again relied on varied , nutritional and good quality gutloading.

 

[radstusky]

One of my panthers is also a picky eater. He won't eat dubias and only seems to like superworms occasionally. He loves hornworms, but I don't always have those on hand. He's about 2 years old, so I'm not really worried about him. He'll also eat the occasional soldier fly larva. One trick that I do is when he eats a superworm, I add in a small dubia while he's chewing. He doesn't seem to like this too much, but hey it gets him a bit more variety and my dubia are well gut-loaded.

 

[JGspecial]

my panther is just like yours, he wont eat crickets or dubias. hell only eat super worms, horn worms, silk worms (if i can find them), and phoenix worms. its pretty aggravating, anything i put in there other than what he likes will just end up becoming unnutritious and die. starving them doesnt help either. i have 4 chameleons (a Veiled, a Panther, a Jackson, and a Fischer) so i have to keep many types of feeders because they all like certain things. from what ive found NONE of them will eat dubias, its a lost cause. the things ive listed are the only things available to me in my area. its becoming expensive and im going to have to start breeding something.

 

[Virgil1972]

I don't know if it would work but you could try some tough love. Put some roaches in a cup and wait.

 

[Jefe The Chameleon]

Hi there, I asked a similar question about my panther a few weeks ago, I've tried him with everything, he's very picky indeed, although he's happy to eat every day, he has 5 to 8 crickets/ locusts a feed, he won't touch silkworms or roaches, I even bought a colony- not cheap- of banana roaches, a colony of dubias , wouldn't touch one either and I was worried he wasn't getting a varied diet but most replies were not to worry, rely on good gutloading and maybe he might change and eat something new for a while but maybe not ,have you tried him with locusts? I don't feed mealworms or super worms as their bodies are hard to digest.
I don't worry anymore,I'd like him to eat other things, occasionally he's eat something new but he's very happy eating locusts and crickets and 1- 2 waxworms a week, he'd eat them all day long but obviously shouldn't. A very well respected shop here said they actually just fed 80% locusts and the rest crickets but again relied on varied , nutritional and good quality gutloading.

I live in the US so I am unable to get locusts.

 

[Jefe The Chameleon]

I guess I'll stick with superworms only lol

 

[MissLissa]

Feeding superworms exclusively is not a great plan, in my opinion- they are pretty fatty and in my experience are likely to lead to obesity if fed in exclusion to everything else. If your cham is a healthy adult (i.e., over 8 months of age) and at a good weight with no issues, I might go a bit tough love on him, with some addendums.

A few days offering him a variety of things that are not superworms may encourage him to get hungry enough to try something new. With the collection of Veileds and Jacksons that I care for at work, we've had to go as far as 6-7 days with some to get them off their favoured item. We weigh them at the beginning, and by the end of the week if they haven't started eating we weigh them again. If they have not lost appreciable amount of weight (<1.5% of original weight), we will continue to just offer them the new bugs and none of their favourite. If they have lost a bit of weight (near to/over 1.5%) we will try the sandwich method, where you offer them a single item of their favourite thing- likely they will snap it up like candy- and then immediately offer them another item of a different thing (hornworm, silkworm, what have you). Often that first item "gets their juices going" into predator mode, and many will immediately take the nest offered prey item, no matter what it is. Then, we follow it up with another of their favourite prey items. Rinse, repeat. If they refuse to take the new food, they get nothing else and we try again once more a bit later in the day. Basically, we are "training" them to like the new food by pairing it with their old food. After three or four times of them happily taking the new food, we start offering two or three of the new food together, still sandwiched between their favourite. Once they get that down, we start offering the new food before any of their favourite food appears, and then give then their favourite afterwards only. Sometimes this happens very quickly- I've had chams switch over in as little as two days- or sometimes it takes a long time; another cham took nearly two months to get solidly eating silkworms. Of course, we reweigh every week and if anyone is getting appreciably thinner they get a meal or two of their favourite food to help them on their way.

I don't think I'd go to this effort for an occasional feeder, like butterworms or waxworms, but to get a cham onto a second or tertiary healthy staple like silkworms, hornworms, crickets or dubia I think It's worth the effort.

 

[MissLissa]

I also forgot to add; if you can pupate silkworms successfully, I have never had a cham refuse a silkworm moth unless they are direly ill. Pupating phoenix worms to their adult form can also be an alternative feeder: mine go nuts for fluttering adult black soldier flies, and they are dead easy to pupate.

 

[Twitchet]

Wow, sorry mate, didn't know after all these years that you guys can't get locusts, obvious really but didn't know. in u.k ithey are staple food, I can't imagine a life without them, certainly does make things difficult. Knowing that now I REALLY wish you the best of luck! I tried mine on stick insects, they took ages to grow and when they were big enough he wouldn't touch them either. Cheers