Lobster roaches as staple?

[chameleonneeds]

Hey all

I have been feeding all my chameleons on a staple of crickets and occasionaly getting some wax worms, silkworms and other bugs I find around.

I have started a lobster roach colony and it is going well, I wont start feeding them off yet but I offered my female panther a roach the other day and she wasnt too keen on it.

So my question is, how do I get my chameleons on a lobster roach staple, I dont want to pay so much for crickets anymore! I plan on getting some new bigger species so yeah any help or advise will be appreciated

Cheers

 

[jamncristian]

they can be but I recommend giving your cham a variety so
I would recommend you to keep getting crickets once in a while

 

[Texas Panther Man]

If your cham is around 1yr of age or older. Try skipping a day of feeding then try introducing the lobster roaches. If he/she is hungry they will eat the roach. Often after trying a new food item they will take it from then on. Although some chams are picky and its hard to get them to try new food items. It took quite some time before my male faly would eat duabia roaches. Now he takes them no problem. So just dont give up. If they are hungry enough they will eat it.

 

[fluxlizard]

Lobster roaches are the staple for my chameleons (and other lizards) that variety is added to.

I've never had a problem with chameleons accepting them.

One thing you can try with chameleons at first is putting the roach on the side of the enclosure or on a branch (not same branch as chameleon). The movement of the roach fleeing the scene should get the chams attention.

The other thing you can try is what I have had great success at- offer lobster roaches for a while (a few weeks) until the lizard eats lobster roaches without hesitation, then go back to a varied diet and it will still eat lobster roaches when offered. Seriously- a little hunger goes a long way to learning to eat good food. The short term hunger is greatly outweighed by the benefits of accepting a good well rounded diet. I have never had a picky chameleon in nearly 20 years of chameleon keeping, and somehow there are picky chameleon owners all the time here on the forums!

 

[chameleonneeds]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I will try the short period of hunger thing to get them on them. And I will keep the diet varied. I love how easy it is to breed and they grow fast! Much better than crickets. Thanks again guys.