How do you guys feed roaches???

[ChameleonTide]

I have this problem too. Maybe i will just try starving him out to get him to eat them. I know he can see them. I shake the cup and the roaches fall on their back and wiggle around. Then they run around the cup and i have the cup inches from him and hes looking at it. Then he looks away uninterested. Pull out a hornworm and the Cham is doing acrobats to get him as quickly as possible. Would hate to see all these dubias go to waste i bought.

 

[Andee]

A hungry chameleon will eat any prey, wild chams do

 

[OrangeJuice]

I tie a shot glass near Yoyos basking spot. They try to get out by climbing up the sides and he notices it, not to mention his lazy butt doesn't wanna leave the basking spot to get food

 

[OrangeJuice]

Also, Yoyo doesn't really like to eat in front of people. The only time he does is if it's a juicy hornworm. I tend to either not make eye contact or stay very still for about a half hour (doing homework, watching a show outside, photoshopping whatever) and eventually I'll hear the CLINK of his tongue on the glass.

 

[JoeDigiorgio]

I would really like to regularly feed roaches as a staple, but it just doesn't seem possible. Going on 3 days leaving them in the feeder cups without being touched... does anyone here successfully feed roaches all the time from a cup? Should I keep playing the waiting game with my chams?

In my experience, it's better to remove the prey they're refusing to eat and reintroduce it every day or every couple of days instead of leaving it there. It is harder to refuse something moving when they haven't seen anything all day and it becomes easier and easier to continue refusing something when it's been in front of them for a long time.

 

[JacksJill]

Hand feeder here, but it only takes a minute to get three or four into him. Roaches in the feeder are dead to him. He will occasionally eat them from the feeder when other bugs in with them get them moving.

 

[jamest0o0]

Mine refuse to eat them from my hand too... I wish I could just ditch crickets.

 

[RedMountainHome]

I have the same issue, and had to cup feed BOC (great phrase) for the longest time. Those were basically just super worms and crickets, but at least the supers are really easy to breed. I can now semi-reliably hand/tong feed dubias, especially if I can get the males to flap their wings.

I just went away for about 5 days and made a couple of "feeder bowls", with drainage in the bottom and sticks glued into the top for the roaches to climb up. I also threw in a couple super worms to keep things moving. I didn't notice any real change in the amount of feeders after I got back =\

 

[JoeDigiorgio]

Some chameleons will take anything moving up the wall of the cage. If you place the roach within strike range, heading up a mesh/screen wall, it's pretty likely to get hit as long as the chameleon will eat in front of you like that.

 

[jamest0o0]

I've noticed that, the thing is I'll have to do that one by one or they'll all get sway and hide. Trying to think of an efficient way to feed roaches without it taking up my entire morning :/

 

[JoeDigiorgio]

I've noticed that, the thing is I'll have to do that one by one or they'll all get sway and hide. Trying to think of an efficient way to feed roaches without it taking up my entire morning :/

You could probably get a few to stop in a top corner and get picked off throughout the day?

 

[jamest0o0]

Also 2 of my 3 Chams are free ranged ugh. I think I might break and put them in cages.

 

[JoeDigiorgio]

Also 2 of my 3 Chams are free ranged ugh. I think I might break and put them in cages.

Create a "feeder wall" or walls in the free range. Think feeder cup with a climb wall but bigger and usable from both sides. Takes some creativity but maybe effective?

For reference I got the idea from my free range. It's a screen patio in my back yard. Essentially I toss a cup of dusted crickets at the screen near where a chameleon is perched and almost all always stick. They tend to crawl to the top of that screen panel and stop. They get picked off from there.

 

[jamest0o0]

That's a good idea actually. One thing with crickets, do you use banded? They are some unpredictable things. I've noticed the regulars crawl around the top more. Bandeds do what they want IME

 

[JoeDigiorgio]

That's a good idea actually. One thing with crickets, do you use banded? They are some unpredictable things. I've noticed the regulars crawl around the top more. Bandeds do what they want IME

Yes I use bandeds and yes they do tend to be particularly non compliant with my wishes at times but I have decided I prefer them over Acheta and I'm sticking to that lol the convenient truth for me is it's an outdoor patio and independent crickets aren't a problem between the anoles that find their way in and the fact that they can eventually either die or make their way outside the patio.

With roaches a place them in the strike zone, steer them in the right direction and let nature take its course.

 

[jamest0o0]

Okay well I'll give it a try, thank You! As for the bandeds, I agree, they tend to survive and gutload better for me. I also find them to be cleaner. places that sell them seem to be a bit more on top of their care than the regulars.

 

[Ceycham]

I'm actually feeding my first batch of dubias at the moment. Norman ate one in a cup right off the bat then seemed to lose interesting them, since they don't move around a whole lot in there. Since they seemed so inactive on their little egg crates, and I was too lazy to fish them out one at a time for a less than enthusiastic chameleon, today I just grabbed a small bit of egg carton (about 5 eggs worth) with maybe 20 or so nymph on it and stuck it amongst the leaves. Not one roach attempted to leave the egg carton either on the way to the cage nor once in the cage, but they did scurry from the top of the carton to the underside once they felt the cage light shining on them. All that sudden activity brought Norman, who happily picked them off one by one until the survivors made it to the underside, at which time I flipped it and the process continued. Once he was full I was able to simply retrieve the carton with its remaining roaches and put it back with the rest. I couldn't have been happier with the simplicity of the whole thing! Norman agrees!

 

[jamest0o0]

@Ceycham I mean no offense by this, but if your Cham isn't an adult it makes a huge difference. Juveniles are far less picky.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

All my adult chameleons (Parsons and panthers alike) hand feed. I hold the bug between my fingers and it dissappears! Haha, magic!!!!

I do make sure that all my chameleons are used to hand feeding, cup feeding and hunting for food!

 

[Ceycham]

@Ceycham I mean no offense by this, but if your Cham isn't an adult it makes a huge difference. Juveniles are far less picky.

Its true, he's no adult. and I just realized today this method will make it hard to dust. I didn't dust yesterday as we were still trying out for taste, lol.