feeding - reasurrance needed

[lysinlight87]

Hi,

I've asked a few times about my veiled's eating...he's become increasing fussy over the past 2 months. At the moment, he will eat 1 super worm per day, 2 if I'm lucky.
If I try feeding on alternate days, he will still only eat one. Before supers, he was hooked on silks. His favourite used to be locusts but he acts like he's scared on them now & he did like butter worms but now refuses them.

People have told me that the way to bring him round is to starve him, & that could take up to 3 weeks... so I tried that, but he lost 5-6g in 1 week so I gave him his supers again. He's not fully grown, only 9 months old. He's maintained his weight at 119g this week.

I've read articles saying how winter could be slowing him down, that male veileds go through a fussy stage, that I should give him his supers & just make sure they're well gutloaded. I've been told he could be bored with his food, so I've offered him loads of different foods, with no luck.

Will he be ok on 1 or 2 super worms per day? Do I actually need to starve him & get him to eat other things? I don't want to force him to eat things & I'm cautious of starvign him when he's still a youngster

He has produced very few droppings recently & occasionally urates without dropping, which make me think he's not getting enough

 

[lysinlight87]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled, male, 8 months. Owned him for 6 months.
Handling - Infrequent. once/twice per week
Feeding - Currently refusing food except supers.
Supplements - Plain calcium every feed, reptivite with D3 twice monthly
Watering - Misting system runs 3 times per day for 1 minute, dripper runs throughout the day. I occasionally see him drink under the dripper.
Fecal Description -His dropping are now small & infrequent because he's not eating much but normal in colour/constistency. Urates are white & watery
History - Purchased from a reptile centre, origin unknown
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Flexarium, 4 ft tall.
Lighting - Reptiglo 5.0 uvb, 8am to 7pm
Temperature - Basking temp is 34C/93F.
Humidity - Humidity between 40-50 %. Measured with hygrometer
Plants - 2 live ficus, various fake plants.
Placement - In living room, raised 1ft off ground.
Location - UK

 

[Moosma]

I'm watching because mine is now doing the same thing, except that Phi's 6 months old....

 

[Corallee]

I have a male and a Female, and my female eats like a PIG! eats everything, worms beetles, crickets. Where my male would ONLY eat crickets. and only a few at a time. For me, knowing that he loved crickets, I would feed him a handful of them on day one and offer some worms or beetles. If by day two he didnt eat the worms or beetles i'd leave them in with him, but not offer any crickets. Usually he wouldn't have a go at them, or i'd leave them in there for day three, but throw in a few less crickets. On day four i replaced the worms/beetles with new wiggling ones and did not offer crickets. On day 5(if still not eaten worms/beetles) i'd have even few crickets (2-3). I didnt this for several weeks. he started to get a tasted for the other critters in his cage. However i noticed that he wasn't interested in things with little or no movement(obviously hes a chameleon) But when adding in fresh worms/beetles that where very move-y he was more interested in them.

 

[ChameleonMom]

It sounds to me like your cham is holding you hostage for tastier, yummier food! Don't give in, if you do then he's got you hook, line and sinker! A chameleon can go a few days or even a week without food without any severe reprecussions, as long as water is still available and he's remaining hydrated, I wouldn't worry about it.

Your chameleon won't starve himself, just remember that!

 

[ataraxia]

Another thread to contribute to why super worms should NOT be on the safe feeders list.

It is a frustrating time and i dont envy you one bit right now. Learn from this though.

I would stop now and get it over with.

A technique i found that works. Sounds harsh but in reality its really not. They will survive believe me. When taking feeders from him your end result is to make him feel like feeders are scarce so you better eat when you can. Stop all feedings for the next 5-7 days. Dont offer a single bug, just keep him hydrated. When you do offer a bug in 5-7 days make it something you want him to continue eating as a staple. In my opinion, there is no other insect available including roaches that is as good as crickets. When you do offer a insect, only offer one or two. If the animal does not take it right off the bat. Lleave it in the cage for just 30 minutes or so, not all day...Take the feeder out and go another 5-7 days and do the same thing. Its tough love but dont humanize with compassion. You know whats good for your kid and supers are not that

Hope this helps.

 

[lysinlight87]

Another thread to contribute to why super worms should NOT be on the safe feeders list.

It is a frustrating time and i dont envy you one bit right now. Learn from this though.

I would stop now and get it over with.

A technique i found that works. Sounds harsh but in reality its really not. They will survive believe me. When taking feeders from him your end result is to make him feel like feeders are scarce so you better eat when you can. Stop all feedings for the next 5-7 days. Dont offer a single bug, just keep him hydrated. When you do offer a bug in 5-7 days make it something you want him to continue eating as a staple. In my opinion, there is no other insect available including roaches that is as good as crickets. When you do offer a insect, only offer one or two. If the animal does not take it right off the bat. Lleave it in the cage for just 30 minutes or so, not all day...Take the feeder out and go another 5-7 days and do the same thing. Its tough love but dont humanize with compassion. You know whats good for your kid and supers are not that

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the tips. People keep telling me this is the only way to go but I'm too soft on him. I will try it you method (I keep saying this, but I'm gonna just have to do it.) The advantage is that supers are mostly out of stock at the moment. I was talking to a lady at the pet shop about when supers would come back in & she said that she'd had loads of people worried cos that's all their animal will eat.

My only concern with starving him is weight loss- will he be ok? I read that I shouldn't let him lose more than 5% of his body weight.

 

[ataraxia]

I wouldnt worry to much on body weight. Hes going to lose some no matter what from defecation. At weekly weighings, your first couple weighing he is not losing much body mass he is just losing waste. 5% imo would be playing your cards safe. If he is a healthy animal as we speak and it sounds like he is at over 100 grams. At that weight 15-20 grams is a lot to make back up but he will be able to handle. Just be sure to keep him hydrated during this time.

 

[pssh]

I cant remember if you have done a fecal? If you havent, definitely get one done and see what comes back.

 

[lysinlight87]

I planned to have a fecal done & was even collecting samples, but then changed my mind when his weird poops went back to normal (it coincided with stopping giving him silkies, so I thought it was the silkies that caused it). My local vets have a reptile specialist & if he needs a vet, we'll take him.