Advice Needed!!

[cbeal1]

ok so i got a bunch of silkworms, butterworms, and hornworms. But my chameleon is not interested in them at all. i figured if i stopped feeding him crickets for a couple of days he would be hungry enough to at least try one of them, but i was wrong. he was not interested. 3 days went by and he still didnt want anything to do with them. he started to shed so i figured that he was just on a hunger strike due to him shedding. it took 1 day for him to shed. i offered some of the worms and he did not want them. i let the worms loose on some of the vines in his cage and i also put 1 or 2 in the cup i try to get him to eat out of. but still the same number of worms. i figured he would be overwhelmed with joy at the plethora of different foods but not so much. Finally i broke down and bought some crickets and he ate a couple but not many.so my question is what can i do to get my chameleon to eat these worms before there all to big for him to eat? sorry for the long story! lol!

And thanks for the suggestions and any comments i receive in the future! this forum has been very helpful and i love it a lot!

 

[Hoj]

my cham loves kiwii and whenevr i want him to eat something he wont i just put a little kiwii juice on it and the smell gets him going.

 

[cbeal1]

my cham loves kiwii and whenevr i want him to eat something he wont i just put a little kiwii juice on it and the smell gets him going.

i dont know if that will work for a panthers chamelon. lol. i forgot to mention what chameleon i had. i have an ambanja panthers chamelon. he is i think 5 to 6 months.

 

[jojackson]

Re-examine the lizards environmental variables first. Reasons for disinclination to eat can be many.

 

[Lingling]

My little panther is a slow and picky eater when it comes to new foods as well. When I started feeding him worms he wasn't interested, but he finally tried a couple after I twirled them in my fingers a bit. How he's hooked! He loves his hornworms. Does your cham handfeed? The problem with worms can sometimes be that they don't move around as much as other feeders, like crickets. The movement is what attracted my panther, so as soon as I get the worms moving a little in my hand, he went ahead and tried them.

Just a thought. Maybe your worms aren't as lazy as mine are. Hornworms grow extremely fast compared to other worms, so try to get him eating those first, otherwise they'll outgrow him.

 

[carol5208]

There is really not much you can do, if they don't care for a particular food. Mine refuses crickets and will only eat worms. Just the opposite of yours. You can periodically keep trying to offer there are some foods they just don't like and there is not much you can change about it.

 

[jandie]

can you tell us more about how you're introducing them and how long they're exposed to them?

 

[cbeal1]

like i said above i put some on vines in the cage and i put 1 or 2 in a cup that he sometimes eats out of. i also do try to feed them to him from my hand. he eats crickets from my hand sometimes. he eats superworms and wax worms from time to time. he just wont try the new ones. iv been trying to get him to eat these since last monday. little over a week. hes just stubborn. he doesn't eat much in general though. but he seems healthy and active.

 

[jandie]

mine don't seem to care much for wax worms or silk worms....

i put the hornworms on the screen in the cage, toward the top, where they can see them and it seems to help...cause they will somewhat crawl around, at least a little... butterworms are harder, though some of mine will eat them if i put them on branches....

seems like most of the ones in the feeder cups though, don't get eaten....my female veiled would go for the cup and try to shoot "through" it, because it was clear, so i had to fix that problem....but they are mainly all only interested in ones that move around a lot in my hand...so phoenix worms, butterworms....sometimes hornworms...but like i said, i mainly put the hornworms on the screens toward the tops of the cages...

(just what works with ours...)

 

[cbeal1]

Thank you all for your responses! keep them coming! lol.

 

[melric]

Sometimes when my cham hisses at me with his full mouth open I stick a worm near his mouth and when he tries to bite me he bites the worm and eats it.

I guess it would only work if your cham is a jerk.

 

[PrettyInInk87]

Have you tried tong feeding? My little dude will cup feed, hand feed, free range feed, and also tong feed. Sometimes he prefers one method over the other, he's weird. I have to try each one of the methods until I find which interests him the most.

 

[cbeal1]

My chameleon doesn't hiss or gape at me at all. unless i bump him while he is sleeping! lol. he doesn't like to be disturbed! i will try the tongs again but i have tried them with the new worms once and he wasn't having it. ill just keep trying i guess.

 

[mojo chameleon]

you should try eating one in front of your cham so he sees how good they are!

 

[Lingling]

you should try eating one in front of your cham so he sees how good they are!

I agree. With lots of yummy noises. Hey, you might like them.