My Chameleon Refuses to eat anything but pheonix worms

[zlew]

So as the title states, he is very very picky. Right now his feeder cup has 5 silkworms and 2 butterworms. Yesterday I tried hornworms. Both went uneaten. He has about 30 minutes until lights out, and his cup has been in for about two hours. I know we're not supposed to only feed him one thing, but he wont eat anything else.

 

[jannb]

How big are the butters, silks and horns? Maybe they are to big???? He will never get to be a big boy if he's only eating Phoenix worms. Have you tried house flies? Most like things that fly. You can buy house flies real cheap at themantisplace.com

 

[zlew]

the butters are probably too big, but the silks and horns are pretty small, barely half an inch.

 

[zlew]

are house fly larvae good to try as well? nobody sells them as just flies.

 

[jannb]

Yes, the larvae turns in to the flies. Don't try to feed the larvae though, just warm up a few at the time and when the flies hatch you can gut load them and feed them to your baby.

 

[zlew]

what should I gut load them with? (i know how to gut load, I just mean specifically for the flies)

 

[jannb]

I mix up some honey, powdered milk and boiled egg to gut load flies.

 

[Lazy Boy]

I'm guessing Jannb is talking about mantisplace.com they sell a house/blue fly gut load also. I like it as it has bee pollen, brewers yeast and a bunch of other good gut load stuff.

 

[zlew]

hard boiled egg?

 

[Psychobunny]

You can also buy the blue bottle flies (bigger then house flies) from Grubco.com in bulk.
The maggots (spikes) turn into little black things, which turn into flies when in room temp for a few weeks.
The spikes can be stored in the fridge, but after a week or so, the hatch rate drops considerably.

I feed them honey mixed with Repashy's Superload powder and brewers yeast powder after they hatch into flies.

I never met a cham that didn't love flies
They are the perfect cham food, and gives your cham some exercise and fun catching them.

I think Jann means hard boiled egg, smashed up with a fork, or chopped up in a food processor. Then mixed with the other stuff.

 

[zlew]

new info. He will eat two feeders from my hand in the morning. Today those two were silkworms, but he won't eat silks/horns/butters from the feeder cup. So, at the Reptile Expo, I bought dubias, and he gobbled them down. I have house flies coming soon, is that enough variety for now? I will try to switch up the two morning feeders, and maybe he'll get comfortable that he'll eat entire meals from my hand so that I can add even more variety. How does that sound to you guys?

 

[Bush baby]

Sounds good. Some Chams will refuse to eat out of a feeder cup. If he's eating out of your hand, that's fine. You could also place the feeders on a nearby leaf or branch as well.

 

[zlew]

actually, he wouldn't eat from a feeder cup for a while. I had to paint it green and glue leaves onto it to get him to eat from it.