refusing to eat dubia

[poppototamus]

in order to give him more variety, i recently purchased dubia roaches for my ~6 month old veiled chameleon. previously, he was getting crickets and superworms and i have also tried offering waxworms but he doesn't seem interested in those. i have tried dubias of all sizes, alone and mixed with other feeder types but he seems unwilling to even sample them. if i put superworms and roaches together, he will pick out the superworms and leave the roaches untouched. is there anything i can do to make them look, i don't know, more appetizing?

 

[reptilover]

Welcome to the club..
It's not bad he won't eat wax worms.. there like cream filled doughnuts..
Try hornworms and silkworms.
Mine wont try dubias either. U can try only offering dubias for 3-5 days. But may not work.. from wat i hear a lot. If there raised on crickets they will stay with crickets and the same works with dubias. Some can get em to switch but others like u and me may never make it happen.. I'm lucky enough to have others such as leopard geckos and aquatic turtles that love them as a treat. Which cuts down majorly on my cricket consumption..
Moral of the story. If he doesn't take to em. Buy animals that will and enjoy

 

[poppototamus]

yeah, i was afraid that was going to be the answer! my leopard gecko will each just about anything that moves, so maybe she'll be willing to switch over to roaches, we'll see. thanks!

 

[nightanole]

Its amazing they can pick out the 3-4 crickets out of the 2 dozen feeders i place out

Mine will only dubia if its tong or hand fed, unless hes really hungry and the dubia is upside down break dancing.

Have you tried releasing them one at a time and have them crawl on the screen?

 

[Psychobunny]

My veiled cham will eat anything, it's my jacksons I have the problem with. He wont touch silkies or any worm!!
I guess they dont move around enough to get his attention

Sometimes, if you skip a day's feeding and give them something they would not eat before, they will have a change of mind.
Doesnt always work though, and no need starving your cham just to get it to eat something, esp if its still a juvie and needs its food

 

[poppototamus]

thanks for the ideas guys! I haven't tried putting the dubias on the screen, Creature definitely likes eating crickets that way, I'll give it a shot. He's between 6 and 7 months at this point, so I could probably try feeding every other day for a week or so and see if his feelings about the roaches improves without worrying I'm starving him to death.