Is my chameleon scared of bugs?

[LightningChameleon]

Hello this is my first post,
I recently bought a chameleon and had him shipped to me. He is about 5 months old and I’ve had him for exactly two weeks now. The first week I had him only eating dusted crickets. This is all my pet store carries. I want to switch away from crickets and use Dubia roaches as my staple feeder. So I ordered Phenix worms, Dubia roaches, super worms, and horn worms for my chameleon. The first day I got them I placed the dubia roaches, phenix worms, and super worms in his feeding container and waiting for him to eat. I saw that he would stare at them, then slowly back away and go somewhere else in his enclosure, he did this a few times. It has been two days now and he still hasn’t touched the Dubias or the super worms. I have only been able to feed him Phenix worms which isn’t a really good staple feeder. This morning I decided to bust out the horn worms thinking that he couldn’t resist that. But after setting it on a branch he looked at it and got all defensive. I’ll try to include a photo of what he looked like. But it seems as if he’s scared of his new food. Should I go back to crickets? Should I try to wait out his hunger strike?

Note: He hasn’t shed yet and I’m not sure when he’s going to but I read online elsewhere that shedding could affect hunger.
Note2x: I made sure the size of the bugs are not more than the space between his eyes. All of the bugs are fairly small, he was definitely eating bigger crickets than these dubia roaches.

 

[Beman]

Welcome to the forum. So that hornworm is actually on the larger side. Also not the best idea to branch feed those. They stick to everything and can damage a tongue when they do not let go of the surface. Also keep in mind hornworms as they get bigger have a nasty bite ability which can cause mouth rot if the cham is bitten.

The issue here is your guy was raised on crickets. It is probably the first time he has seen other feeder options. At this age you can not just do away with the crickets. You have to use those and add new feeders into the feeding dish or run. This way he picks off the new ones when he goes for the crickets he knows. He learns that they are food too.

At this age having them off food is dangerous. They need to be eating quite a bit. You can do away with crickets later on but once he has transitioned to the new feeders. Per hunger strike... You can not wait it out at this age. When they start hitting maturity 10-12 months is when you can practice tough love and pull totally off crickets. At that point even if he goes on strike it is not the same risk involved with not eating.

 

[LightningChameleon]

Thank you for the helpful feedback. I didn't consider that maybe he has only been fed crickets his entire life . Today I got some more crickets and put them in his feeder cup and he immediately ate them. I will continue to feed him crickets with some extra bugs added in so he can get used to them. As with the hornworms I just removed it from his cage, I will just wait until he is older to try them so it's not as risky given his size.
Thanks again for your help!

 

[Chameleoking]

You said you think your cham is 5 months. So if your cham is 6 or seven months old instead of five just feed him every other day. It still should be a lot like 12 crickets unless your mixing it up.

 

[Beman]

Thank you for the helpful feedback. I didn't consider that maybe he has only been fed crickets his entire life . Today I got some more crickets and put them in his feeder cup and he immediately ate them. I will continue to feed him crickets with some extra bugs added in so he can get used to them. As with the hornworms I just removed it from his cage, I will just wait until he is older to try them so it's not as risky given his size.
Thanks again for your help!

Your welcome. Let us know if you have any other questions. I do feed hornworms. But I literally only feed small ones no larger than an inch. And I hand feed them. By feeding smaller you lower the bite risk because the cham is able to easily take them down and the mandibles on the hornworm are so much smaller. Your lil guy is a handsome boy!

 

[Lindasjackson]

Your Cham is beautiful!! Welcome to the forum! We’re glad to have you here!

 

[RikkiL]

I did not read the comments so I am not sure if this has been said. Wall-e our panther cham will only eat his worms from our fingers he does not enjoy the cup method at all. It's been that way since we got him in October he also was about 5 months when we got him. As for the roaches we had to make a feeder run in order for him to eat as they do not much in a cup. Also new foods can take time from my little experience. We followed Bill Stands method to make our feeder run. It was very simple and cheap. It works wonderful for our Cham.

 

[RikkiL]

I did not read the comments so I am not sure if this has been said. Wall-e our panther cham will only eat his worms from our fingers he does not enjoy the cup method at all. It's been that way since we got him in October he also was about 5 months when we got him. As for the roaches we had to make a feeder run in order for him to eat as they do not much in a cup. Also new foods can take time from my little experience. We followed Bill Stands method to make our feeder run. It was very simple and cheap. It works wonderful for our Cham.
We do all his wiggle worms by hand

 

[DonKeesh]

Beautiful Nosy Be! (I assume) where did you get him?