Anyone with experience with preference for small food?

[DocFox]

I have a male veiled, Josh, who is close to 8 months old.

Until his 3rd shed (when he got his colors) he had a very robust appetite, and would readily take food from my hand. Then he went though that juvenile hormonal 'get the hell away from me' stage. Since then, his appetite has been diminished, and he hasn't grown much. This has been like 3 months now. I regularly offer him crickets, grasshoppers, meal worms, super worms, and hornworms. The grasshoppers and crickets are free-roaming, the worms I put in a food cup. He will very, very rarely eat in front of me (my desk is about 4 feet from his cage- I don't hang out right at his cage), but I know he is eating something, because he has regular and healthy poops.

I have been concerned though, because I don't think he's eating nearly enough- for example, I can put in two crickets, and they'll be there for 3 or 4 days.

Every morning, he is quite active around his cage, and today, just on a fluke, I decided to put in some baby grasshoppers instead of adults. Within 2 minutes he had eaten 2 of them, even with me being there. I put in more, and he's still eating them as I type.

The adult grasshoppers and adult crickets could in no way be construed as being too big for him... these babies would be about like a human and piece of popcorn...

Has anyone run into a situation where their veilds don't like big food?

 

[jojackson]

Absolutely, my male homer went through a stage where he would freak at an adult hopper, literally fireup and then run away! He does eat them like popcorn now.
The drop in appetite is probably mostly about maturity, yours has pretty much reached that and this is a time where most growth has occurred and eating slows.
Preference for smaller food might simply be a case of preference for certain types/variety.
They definitely have an incredible penchant for green bugs of any kind.
Took mine a long time to go for larger hoppers, I simply gradually increased the sizes I offered 'Got him used to them'. Dont forget, larger hoppers do jump really far if not succesfully ...'tongued', losses can be frustrating, why try that when smaller stuff is easier.
If the lizard is still smallish it might be hard to draw a large (long) hopper into the mouth without it escaping.
Larger ones might be intimidating. Ill bet its prefrence for green bugs over bland crickets and superworms.
Color plays a big part in a chameleons world , green bugs may provide visual stimuli.