Jackson chameleon doesnt like crickets?

[Ariangilbert]

Hi. I've had my juvinile jackson chameleon for almost three months, and I'm a newbie to all of this. He's probably about 6-7 months old. He's growing nicely and has adapted to his enclosure. He seems happy and he's always a pretty green color. But it's always a hassle to feed him crickets.
I keep him on a diet of manly crickets but also mealworms and butterworms. He seems to absolutely love mealworms and butterworms becuase as soon as I drop them in he devours them in seconds. Whenever I drop crickets in he kind of just ignores them. He eats them, sometimes. But not as much as I'd like him to.
He drinks a lot of water and his poop is healthy looking. I cover most of my crickets in calcium before feeding them to him.
I try to feed him around two medium sized crickets a day. He doesn't really seem to like them very much. He ate one yesterday but it was small. Today, I dropped in a good sized cricket and two butterworms and he devoured the worms and left the cricket.
Do chameleons have preferences on what they like to eat?

 

[AnamCara]

Hello!

First off -- It sounds like you have had a few threads about your Jackson's eating. I do want to reiterate (it was said on another of your threads) that mealworms and Butterworms are not great feeders as they are not nutritious. Mealworms can be hard to digest as well.

To answer your question -- yes. Chameleons are notoriously preferential with lots of aspects of their life. I would suggest you try to get your chameleon to each roaches. Dubias, discoids or red runners are what most keepers around here seem to like.

Also -- if your husbandry is off your chameleon may not have as much of an appetite. Look through some of your past threads -- I think Jacksjill gave you some great advise!

Have you ever had your chameleons' fecal done? Sometimes parasites / other illnesses can prevent a chameleon from wanting to eat.

It may be a challenge to get your cham to eat roaches. Lots of threads on this forum with advise on how to get them to start!

Good luck!