food imprinting Question

[jojackson]

Have A question regards veiled Male 5 weeks old. Began on pinhead crickets and then slightly grown pinheads. a week ago a freind suggested houseflys.
(raised). Homer took to them right off the bat and cant get enough, which I suppose is great BUT..
he now seems to favour flys and ignore the crickets. Will this be a problem?
will accept crickets (and other feeders) again when flys are not avail?

I intend to try handfeeding small freshly moulted mealworms soon, how many should I allow, and how often?

p.s how do you guys who feed smll roaches stop them hiding or running out of the feeder cup?

 

[desultadox]

Summary of the rest of the thread:

Don't feed mealworms.
Your cham will not starve himself. He will eat crickets again when he is hungry enough.
Use non-climbing roaches like Dubia, or spray Bug Stop.

Enjoy your new chameleon.

 

[MutantHybrid]

For roaches I would keep some bits of fruit on a leaf or in the feeder cup so they will collect near the food when hungry. That way if a few run off and hide they will come back out to get food when hungry and become chameleon bait.

I have found that chameleons seem to like mealworms, but only feed a couple at a time as they really are chitinous and do not hold much in the way of nutrients as compared to crickets and roaches. I have yet to try houseflies. I understand that chameleons can become addicted to certain types of food, mostly waxworms, and that flies are a favorite food. Mine has not turned her nose up at anything yet. She is an equal opportunist snatcher. If it moves it is going in her mouth and she is going to swallow it regardless of what it is. She does seem to really have fun snaring jumping spiders. They never know what hits them.

 

[Sang]

superworms are prefered over meal worms.

as for the roaches, as he mentioned dubia are the prefered roach, i myself use hissing, orange head, a off shoot of dubia, dubia and lobster roaches, they all climb the mesh regaurdless...

can't help it if they get outta the cup. just what you put in watch what he eats, take out what he doesn't.

he will eventually get bored of flys, and move back to crickets.