Cham only eats when someone’s watching

[Milch]

I have a webcam in my 6 month old chameleon’s enclosure and I’ve noticed that he’ll stare at a locust for hours, but only goes to eat it when someone enters the room.

I was away for nearly a week over Christmas and loaded an automatic cat food dispenser with locusts. He just left them, and only occasionally picked one off when it either wandered close to him, or when his mister was activated.

It’s almost like he’ll only eat if there is external movement - like he wants to hide his motion amongst a moving environment. I guess in the wild they can hide their movement among swaying leaves etc, but in his enclosure (in a static room) the only thing moving is him!

Has anyone else encountered this phenomenon? Is it something to worry about? Could he starve himself next Christmas?

 

[nightanole]

Yea ive had a few that didnt do much unless they felt vibration on the floor. Just sit all day, then the vacuum cleaner comes out, and they run TOWARDS it.

Or your locusts dont move till humans are clogging around. The cham might even figured out that the "fresh" locusts only move when the human puts them in, so they are associating peoples with fresh food.

 

[Beman]

How exposed is the cage? Can you post a picture of the entire enclosure including the lighting on top? What type of regular feeder run or cup are you using?

 

[Milch]

How exposed is the cage? Can you post a picture of the entire enclosure including the lighting on top? What type of regular feeder run or cup are you using?

Here’s a photo of his enclosure.

I don’t use any kind of feeder cup, I only hand feed, or if I’m away I use this automatic cat food dispenser (loaded with calcium dusted locusts): https://amzn.eu/d/gIRJEQE

Thanks

 

[Beman]

Here’s a photo of his enclosure.

I don’t use any kind of feeder cup, I only hand feed, or if I’m away I use this automatic cat food dispenser (loaded with calcium dusted locusts): https://amzn.eu/d/gIRJEQE

Thanks

So I hate to tell you this but you have taught him that he eats in your presence by hand feeding. I strongly recommend since he is still young to train him out of this and get a good feeder run to put in the cage. I use the full throttle feeder and really like it. Position it near a branch higher up in the cage. They learn to eat out of it. It may mean you sit and pour the insects in a few at a time so he understands. But the issue with him not wanting to eat without you means you will never take a vacation unless you can get someone to come in and pet sit and feed him the same way you do. If you work him into the feeder run then you just pour the insects in and he will learn to eat on his own.
I personally do not use auto feeders. For the simple fact that the insects clean the supplements off their bodies and you can not guarantee they will be gutloaded properly or even still be alive after a few days.