Getting Cham to eat silkworms...

[DanielleB]

Hello,
I just purchased a male veiled 14 weeks old. I am a first time cham. owner. I own a snake and have owned other lizards in the past. I would like to get my guy to eat silkworms, any suggestions? I put some in there (they are about 1 inch long now) and he just watched them move. I actually picked one off that he was carrying around on his back. I am not sure how to get him to eat them. He will eat crickets like crazy though, so I know it isn't because he doesn't want to eat. Do you think it will be better when the silkworms are bigger? Or how did you introduce them. The breeder I bought him from only fed him crickets and roaches.
One other question: How do you tell if your cham is a good weight? I can see his ribs, (I just bought him yesterday) but I do not know if it because he is growing, if chams are usually thin, or if he didn't feed him enough. Is it ok for me to just feed him as much as he wants?
I am really glad I decided to buy this guy. He is very personable and will walk out on to my hand when I put it in the cage.
Thanks in advance for any help, Danielle

 

[Brad]

I have read that chameleons who are not raised on silkworms sometimes are not very attracted to them. I assume the reason is because they are used to more active insects (crickets, roaches). My experience with silkworms is lacking, so I do not really have any good advice. I would continue to introduce them for a while and see if he becomes interested.

If you just bought the chameleon from a pet store, I would feed him as much well dusted food as he can eat for atleast a few days. The tail is sometimes a better location to look for signs of health. The reason I say that is because chameleons stretch and change their body shape a lot. That being said, a profound showing of the ribs is probably not a good thing.

 

[slr]

Gettin' your lil guy to eat!

Hey Danielle,

I have been there and done that!!!!! I am actually still there! If you read the thread titled "First timer ... " you will get my story. I also got a lil veiled from a pet store. She was half starved and in poor condition. I have had her for two weeks today, and she's made a complete turn around, more then once.

We did good the first night. I (bad mommy, bad mommy ... I know, but I wanted to save her that day) put her in a 10 gallon tank until I could get to WalMart, Menards and Home Depot for her new cage supplies. (I did at least get some vines, a fogger and spray bottle to mist her down with ... and food, duh!) Anyways, the next morning (Friday) I got the items and went to work on the new home. I finished up on Saturday (now two days after I brought her home) and I introduced Shelby to her new home ... to my dismay, it was the worst thing I could have done. I made it 2x4x7 ft and it was WAY too big for her. How would I know this? I know, research ... but everyone I talked to said bigger is better, etc etc. Anyways, she did ok in the new cage for about three days and then - out of the blue - went down, and went down fast. I almost lost her. She got thinner then when I bought her, etc etc.

Anyways ... I put her back in her new tank this past weekend and have ordered a 38 gallon reptarium to be her new home, until she is old enough to be put back in the HUGE one I made. She went off food, I found her on the bottom of her cage one morning, etc...all within three days. POOR GIRL. She is not eating like a horse and her color and weight is getting healthier every day! She's active, friendly and just the greatest. She ate out of my hand for the first time this morning!!!

If you want to talk with me more about this, email me please ... ([email protected]) I will share my story, my trials and errors, and give you all the places and people I have met who have been GREAT and helped me save lil Shelby. I posted a few pics (in my thread mentioned before) ... how close does she look to your lil guy? These are from when I got her, I am going to take new ones to show her progress over this weekend!

Hope this helps!

 

[Mr Green]

I have read that chameleons who are not raised on silkworms sometimes are not very attracted to them.

Could be true I gave my cham some recently and he only ate a few. He would still eat crickets though.

 

[ChamFreak]

Cham's need to be intrested and attracted to there food, I really think just feed em lots of crickets until he is good weight and then try and re-introduce the worms and see if that works. Also remember you have had em 1 day ( at time ) and that he was very stressed from move. Sometimes it can take 2 weeks to 4 weeks until there not stressed from move and new enviroment.

Little tip for ya, I had same issues introducing superworms to my cham then I looked for ways to keep em in a controlled place where the cham can see them and reach them, I first put the worms in the dirt in my plant and one took to it and other did'nt. Then I went and found small lid that the worms could'nt crawl out of and set it in ficus tree branch and the other cham spotted them and ate them right away.

Hope this helps.

 

[desultadox]

Since I cup-feed almost exclusively, I guess my chameleons have always assumed whatever is in the cup must be edible! If you were to hand-feed, you could try manually wriggling the worm around to entice him. Once he tries it, you shouldn't have to do that any more. But I'd let him settle in first before trying that.

 

[dave101]

yeah my cham is only 9 weeks old and he munches on crickets all day. I have a few questions if anyone can help me out, how much should i feed a baby cham a day? What do i dust the crickets with and how do i dust them?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Dave101 please regard:

http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

People please be mindful of the age of a thread.

-Brad

 

[Lille]

I got mine eating and loving them. My little guy doesn't mind me hand feeding him. So I started him out with it on the tip of my finger, the silkie would raise it's head and start spinning keeping the worm in the focus of one of his eyes got him to try it. If your little one isn't too afraid of hands, you could try it atleast. Now that mine got a taste, he's hooked for life!

...Now if I could figure out how I'm killing them...