Dubia roach colony

How can you tell if your roach colony is healthy? I’ve started a roach colony just under a year ago and my panther chameleon has had parasites pretty bad recently and we can’t figure out why. We keep treating him for them but he still seems to have them. He just started to get better and I’m afraid to feed him the roaches. I don’t want to get him sick all over again. I feed the roaches apples every day to every other day and I find some roaches half eaten... idk how to stop this. I only find adults half eaten.
 
How can you tell if your roach colony is healthy? I’ve started a roach colony just under a year ago and my panther chameleon has had parasites pretty bad recently and we can’t figure out why. We keep treating him for them but he still seems to have them. He just started to get better and I’m afraid to feed him the roaches. I don’t want to get him sick all over again. I feed the roaches apples every day to every other day and I find some roaches half eaten... idk how to stop this. I only find adults half eaten.
Dubia do not typically carry pinworms or parasites. But Crickets do. What other feeders are you using?
 
How can you tell if your roach colony is healthy? I’ve started a roach colony just under a year ago and my panther chameleon has had parasites pretty bad recently and we can’t figure out why. We keep treating him for them but he still seems to have them. He just started to get better and I’m afraid to feed him the roaches. I don’t want to get him sick all over again. I feed the roaches apples every day to every other day and I find some roaches half eaten... idk how to stop this. I only find adults half eaten.

Not really sure how to assess the health of dubia, but I assume if they aren't dying off and are breeding, they are probably not too bad off. If you're worried about your colony being contaminated, then you can always start over.

Are apples the only thing you gutload them with? Apples are very low on the list of good items to gutload with. They are not nearly nutritious enough to be the sole gutload item
 
Dubia do not typically carry pinworms or parasites. But Crickets do. What other feeders are you using?
I was feeding him crickets, dubia roaches, super worms, and horn worms. He stopped eating crickets when he got sick then followed by was dubia roaches so now all I can get him to eat is super worms and horn worms. My vet said the horn worms were okay just because since he’s being picky then the calcium was okay. Since I’ve been feeding him the two types of worms he’s seems to be doing a bit better.
 
Not really sure how to assess the health of dubia, but I assume if they aren't dying off and are breeding, they are probably not too bad off. If you're worried about your colony being contaminated, then you can always start over.

Are apples the only thing you gutload them with? Apples are very low on the list of good items to gutload with. They are not nearly nutritious enough to be the sole gutload item
I also use carrots. What else would be a good thing to use?
 
Define parasites, and your cleaning routine. "most" bug parasites are not transferable to animals. You see those dredded horse hair worm videos wiggling out of crickets, yet they can not infect a cham/human.

What may happen is the cham can re infect itself if you worm, but dont clean up all the old poo.

But till you tell us what the cham is infected with, we cant list sources or eliminate sources.
 
I was feeding him crickets, dubia roaches, super worms, and horn worms. He stopped eating crickets when he got sick then followed by was dubia roaches so now all I can get him to eat is super worms and horn worms. My vet said the horn worms were okay just because since he’s being picky then the calcium was okay. Since I’ve been feeding him the two types of worms he’s seems to be doing a bit better.

He's going to be in big trouble if you don't get him back on dubias or crickets soon (silkworms would be fine, too). Superworms are nothing more than candy to chameleons, and hornworms are basically just water balloons. Neither of those have the nutrition your chameleon requires, so I would get to working on getting him to eat healthier feeders again
 
He's going to be in big trouble if you don't get him back on dubias or crickets soon (silkworms would be fine, too). Superworms are nothing more than candy to chameleons, and hornworms are basically just water balloons. Neither of those have the nutrition your chameleon requires, so I would get to working on getting him to eat healthier feeders again
Where could I get silk worms? I can’t find them anywhere and Idk where I can get them online
 
I also use carrots. What else would be a good thing to use?

Carrots are not great, either. You really ought to read through the care sheets here very very thoroughly. This represents a pretty significant gap in knowledge that will affect the well-being of your chameleon massively. Better options include: collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, papaya, alfalfa, etc. The feeding and gutloading guidelines on this site will be very useful to you!
 
Where could I get silk worms? I can’t find them anywhere and Idk where I can get them online

Google it - there are lots of options. Silkworms go out of stock relatively often, though, and are more expensive. They will also not eat anything other than mulberry
 
Google it - there are lots of options. Silkworms go out of stock relatively often, though, and are more expensive. They will also not eat anything other than mulberry
If he won’t eat roaches and won’t eat crickets then how do I get him to eat that again?
 
If he won’t eat roaches and won’t eat crickets then how do I get him to eat that again?

We call this behavior a "food strike". Chameleons will sometimes get obstinate and bored with certain foods, causing them to starve themselves in favor of treats like supers and hornworms. The trick is to not give in. Remember: you know better than your chameleon does ;) The most successful remedy is to stop feeding him for several days. Then, after he has fasted, reintroduce crickets or roaches. Eventually they will be hungry enough to relent and this can sometimes cure the cycle
 
Roaches strong immune systems resist a lot of nasty crap, definitely one of the cleanest things a cham will eat. Have you tried BSFL? Nutritious alternates to supers and hornworms
 
We call this behavior a "food strike". Chameleons will sometimes get obstinate and bored with certain foods, causing them to starve themselves in favor of treats like supers and hornworms. The trick is to not give in. Remember: you know better than your chameleon does ;) The most successful remedy is to stop feeding him for several days. Then, after he has fasted, reintroduce crickets or roaches. Eventually they will be hungry enough to relent and this can sometimes cure the cycle
Good idea. I’d have to give that a try. At one point he wouldn’t eat for a week and that’s why I gave in to the worms. I was worried a week was to long for him not to eat for.
 
Good idea. I’d have to give that a try. At one point he wouldn’t eat for a week and that’s why I gave in to the worms. I was worried a week was to long for him not to eat for.

They can go for longer than that without food, not to worry! I know it feels counterintuitive, but it's ultimately for their own good (y)
 
Roaches strong immune systems resist a lot of nasty crap, definitely one of the cleanest things a cham will eat. Have you tried BSFL? Nutritious alternates to supers and hornworms
What is BSFL? I tried but he won’t eat it. I’m looking up to order silk worms but I have yet to find a site with them in stock.
 
We call this behavior a "food strike". Chameleons will sometimes get obstinate and bored with certain foods, causing them to starve themselves in favor of treats like supers and hornworms. The trick is to not give in. Remember: you know better than your chameleon does ;) The most successful remedy is to stop feeding him for several days. Then, after he has fasted, reintroduce crickets or roaches. Eventually they will be hungry enough to relent and this can sometimes cure the cycle
My daughter tries this one with me too HAHA. Yes, you will eat your vegetables and proteins... And no you will not eat the cookie! :p Gotta hold out lol
 
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