My veiled won't touch crickets...

[Big Gulp]

Hi guys/gals. So, my two year old boy, Milo, will not eat crickets. As a matter of fact, the only thing he'll eat is super worms. It's been this way for months now, and I'm pretty sure a staple diet of super worms isn't ideal.

I'll put crickets in his feeding dish...he won't even bat an eye. I'll let them run around his cage, and still nothing.

I've tried dubias as well as horned worms. Again, he has no interest what so ever.

Any tips?

 

[MoyaChan]

Can he use his tongue properly? Because I've had the same problem recently and it was because of a calcium deficiency. My cham couldn't shoot her tongue out and so she completely lost interest in anything that was too far or too hard to get. I'd try to go to a vet so they can check his tongue if that is the problem.

 

[Big Gulp]

He eats super worms, so his tongue doesn't seem to be an issue.

 

[jpowell86]

Hi guys/gals. So, my two year old boy, Milo, will not eat crickets. As a matter of fact, the only thing he'll eat is super worms. It's been this way for months now, and I'm pretty sure a staple diet of super worms isn't ideal.

I'll put crickets in his feeding dish...he won't even bat an eye. I'll let them run around his cage, and still nothing.

I've tried dubias as well as horned worms. Again, he has no interest what so ever.

Any tips?

Chameleons are finicky eaters. They will literally taste something they like and turn their noses up at everything else. The only way to break him of this, is to not feed him for a couple of days. He is able to be so picky simply because he can. If he were in the wild, this would not happen. This is a habit/behavior that exists in captivity alone. We end up spoiling them when that is not our intent. So, we have to rectify this mistake and fix the behavior. If you will not feed him for a couple of days, he will accept other feeders. It may not be crickets, but he will eat. My Melleri have done this with Hawkmoths. I'll go through a week period of having a lot emerge, so they get to eat a lot. Once that week is over, they do not want to touch a cricket or dubia or anything else for that matter. So I have to play them out, lol. He may genuinely not like crickets, but I doubt it. He is probably being a fusspot.

 

[Big Gulp]

I actually went a week only offering him crickets. He wouldn't touch them. I don't know what else to do.

 

[Big Gulp]

Anybody else have any tips please?

 

[Nicholasdeaan]

Anybody else have any tips please?

As mentioned above, you should try offering him zero food. No crickets, no Dubia, no worms. For about 3 days. Don't put any food in his enclosure. After three days then try putting some feeders in there with him. If you keep putting food in there it's allowing him to think there's a steady food source. If you wait a few days, he'll get hungry and figure he better eat.