Dubia help

[KClark]

So ill start by saying i have a male veiled cham.. about 9 months old. i change feeders everytime i run out of my colony. i just had 1000 crickets and finished them all.. so now i have 130 dubias. he has had them before and ate them up. but i think now that he is in a biggger cage, he doesnt know what to do with the roaches. i put them in a tupper wear thing without the lid..under his fav basking spot. no touch yesterday or today. i dont want him to go hungry . so i added another tupper wear with more roaches ( about 2 or 3 in each thing) . and the other is tied up midway cage but in a visible spot... he just wont take any suggestions????

 

[ghettomike]

I have a suggestion that just recently worked for me. My cham always used to hand feed or eat off of a lid, well all of a sudden she decided that she didn't want to do that anymore, she went a few days without eating while I offered it to her the same way as usual so I tried just putting a roach/super/crick on a branch near her and she started eating again. That is not the first time she has changed the way she liked to eat. I think sometimes she just likes to hunt for her food. (I only do one roach at a time this way and make sure she eats it)

 

[ChamOh]

if he's hungry he will eat them. i don't think many animals will let themselves starve to death when there is a perfectly good food source in easy access. sometimes they go on strikes though and you can try a new type of feeder. I'd remove the feeders and continue to gut load them and offer the dubia again in a few days.

 

[KClark]

thanks guys! i know one dubia got out when i droped the thing but now i cant find it so i think he ate it.. but i switched out the dubias from yesterday with gutloaded ones for today.. and fliped them over so they were moving alot. i hope he'll go to em when hes hungry

 

[Jamelon]

He will definetly eat when he is hungry. how long ago did he move into a bigger cage?

 

[KClark]

bout 3 weeks now.. but he has been eating crickets since so its the change from free roaming crickets to dubias in a tupperwear

 

[KClark]

My cham has still not eaten any dubias!! should i give in and buy crickets again??

 

[Jamelon]

you should probably buy some just in case but not feed them yet, keep them ready if he still doesnt eat them

 

[Ace]

i'd just place a couple dubias on the screen near your cham....

 

[KClark]

okay.. and ACE ill be sure to try that in the morning! thanks

 

[pssh]

Are you sure they are moving enough? If he doesn't see them as food, obviously he won't eat them. A lot of chameleons won't eat 'flat brown things!' try flipping one over onto it's back so it kicks it's legs, or better yet, use a big tub instead of a small one. Let the bugs run around and let him hunt!

 

[KClark]

ive tried flipping them and putting them near him a ton of times. i have two medium sized tupper wear.. and ive tried different sized dubias. still nothing!! im going to buy some crickets tommrow if he doesnt take because we are going on vaca wednesday and i wont be able to get any when im away ughhh last time we had roaches he ate em all! ayyeyeye

 

[pssh]

Have you offered freshly molted ones? That's how I get mine to start eating them. An upside down white dubia kicking it's legs is almost irresistible for chameleons.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Its better to offer a variety of insects all the time, rather than doing a month of one bug then a month of another. Not only does this allow for better nutritional variety all the time, but the chameleon will not get "stuck" on one feeder type. Try putting one roach (a type of roach that likes to MOVE) in a feeding cup along with a couple crickets. This way the chameleon will hopefully associate the cup and all that is in it with prey. Eventually you can add roaches that dont move much, like dubia, but the chameleon will know that its food anyway. Alternatively, put the dubia on a narrow exposed branch so that it is likely to move and thus be noticed by the chameleon.