Chameleon only eats mealworm

thiago1311

Member
Chameleon Info:
My Chameleon - Vailed Chameleon, 12 months to 14 months i think, the guy from the pet shop where I bought was not sure. I have him since february.

Handling - Every day, he is not aggressive or ever tried to bite, he always comes to me, i never needed force him to come out. He eats in my hand, asks for help when something in his eyes is boring him, he starts scratching his eyes on my fingers, so lovely.

Feeding - He eats something like 7 to 10 mealworms per day.
Sometimes he eats 2 or 3 crickets, he usually doesn't want these crickets, he rarely eats crickets.
He realy hates Cockroach, always runs from it. I don't know what i have to do to he eats more.



Supplements - Calcium + D3, Exoterra.
3 times per week


Watering - I'm watering 2 or 3 times per day, with warm water with 3 or 5 minutes each time. I don't have a mist system. There is a fountain water, I never see him drinking, but i think he drink.



Fecal Description - Seems nice to me, but it was never tested for parasites.

History - He really love to eat a leaf from a Portulacaria afra or jade plant as is known, I think it's because this leaf has a lot of stored water. Every day he is on this tree and takes 3 or 4 hours of sun.


Cage Info:
Cage Type - Glass, 60x50x80.


Lighting - Exo terra, Ceramic heat emitter, is a black lamp that don't emit light.
Exo terra, repto glo torpical terrarium lamp with 30% uva and 5% uvb, it's a tube and a Exo terra heat wave.
It's start at 9am or 10am and ends at 9pm or 10pm.

Temperature - Day is 28 - 30 degrees and at night is something like 20-22 degrees. I just have a exo terra thermometer, a standard one not digital.

Humidity - I don't know which levels, i don't have a thermometer for humidity yet. I'm watering the cage 2 or 3 times per day

Plants - The Live plants are maidenhair, a ficus tree and a vine, but i have some fakes too.



Placement - The cage is on the floor, have 5 air vents in the cage.


Location - Lisbon, Portugal.


-

What I need to do for him to eat more crickets and cockroaches?
I've left him without food for two days, but he does not eat cockroaches, but the crickets he eats 2 or 2 mealworm giants.

He also does not eat the mealworm beetles.
 
Yeah, this calls for some tough love. Completely stop the mealworms. A healthy Cham won't starve itself to death. It will eat what ever's available when it gets hungry enough, just like it does in the wild.

I've seen a Cham go 2 weeks without food.
 
Yeah, this calls for some tough love. Completely stop the mealworms. A healthy Cham won't starve itself to death. It will eat what ever's available when it gets hungry enough, just like it does in the wild.

I've seen a Cham go 2 weeks without food.


What?
2 weeks?
That's a good question, because in nature they do not find crickets and cockroaches in abundance
 
I had the exact problem with my Veiled. He acted like he hated crickets and would only eat worms, veggies, and fruit. Once I stopped feeding him the worms, he started to eat more crickets. Mealworms are addicting and don't offer enough nutrition. Stop feeding the mealworms. Hornworms, Phoenix worms, and silk worms would be a better choice and my veiled LOVES them.
 
What?
2 weeks?
That's a good question, because in nature they do not find crickets and cockroaches in abundance

Food is seasonal in the wild, so for a few weeks the cham may gorge on a certain food, then that food item may disappear and the cham will have to start eating other things.It may not taste as good as his favorite food, but he has to stay alive, so he adjusts. Then, un-like in captivity, they don't find food every single day. They may go several days and longer without finding something depending on weather, location, etc...as far as food frequency is concerned, in captivity they get spoiled.
 
A week?
This is a lot, i don't know if i can do this =\

Its in the best interests of your chameleons health to move it back to eating healthy assortment of prey. Mealworms should form no more than 10-20% of your chameleons diet. You need a wide variety of prey, all well gutloaded.

I suggest you remove the waterfall.
I suggest you get a quality temp guage and carefully watch the temperature. And one to monitor humidity. these are very important, especially in a glass enclosure.
I suggest you review your supplementing practise- it doesn't sound ideal. Can you tell us what you feed the crickets and mealworms and other prey you offer? How you gutload is important too.

Here are some links you might find informative:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/659-green-leafy-goodness-gutloading.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/697-dry-gutload-mix-august-2012.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/174-whats-supplements-brand.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/213-use-wild-caught-insects.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/662-temperature.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/92-hydration-importance-water.html

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
 
Last edited:
I had the exact problem with my Veiled. He acted like he hated crickets and would only eat worms, veggies, and fruit. Once I stopped feeding him the worms, he started to eat more crickets. Mealworms are addicting and don't offer enough nutrition. Stop feeding the mealworms. Hornworms, Phoenix worms, and silk worms would be a better choice and my veiled LOVES them.

Today he ate two silkworm, yesterday he ate nothing, and today was the first time he eats silkworms = D
 
Food is seasonal in the wild, so for a few weeks the cham may gorge on a certain food, then that food item may disappear and the cham will have to start eating other things.It may not taste as good as his favorite food, but he has to stay alive, so he adjusts. Then, un-like in captivity, they don't find food every single day. They may go several days and longer without finding something depending on weather, location, etc...as far as food frequency is concerned, in captivity they get spoiled.


I will not let him eat until he accepts the crickets and roaches more often
Today I could not resist, I gave two silkworm him =/
 
Its in the best interests of your chameleons health to move it back to eating healthy assortment of prey. Mealworms should form no more than 10-20% of your chameleons diet. You need a wide variety of prey, all well gutloaded.

I suggest you remove the waterfall.
I suggest you get a quality temp guage and carefully watch the temperature. And one to monitor humidity. these are very important, especially in a glass enclosure.
I suggest you review your supplementing practise- it doesn't sound ideal. Can you tell us what you feed the crickets and mealworms and other prey you offer? How you gutload is important too.

Here are some links you might find informative:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/659-green-leafy-goodness-gutloading.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/697-dry-gutload-mix-august-2012.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/174-whats-supplements-brand.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/213-use-wild-caught-insects.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/662-temperature.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/92-hydration-importance-water.html

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

Thank you so much.
Here in Portugal is not easy to find some kind of food unless they are mealworm, zaphobas, crickets and cockroaches (even cockroaches are difficult).
Today i bought on internet silkworm, and it was not easy, because usually they do not send to Portugal any other type of food.

About the waterfall, I change the water every week, and I have a dripper inside the cage, the problem is that my cage is glass, the cage is fulled of water after, I'll have to find a solution for this.
 
Silkworms are great to feed.

Some owners use them as their staple feeder.

But as Sandra said, they need an assortment of food.

so don't just let him eat silks.
 
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