Hard to vary his diet

[NerveDamage]

Hello everyone, I have had my cham, for about 5-6months now and he is doing well, very hearty but the my problem is he only eats crickets and stick bugs.

When I purchased him from site sponsor Epic Chameleons, he told he had been on crickets and stick bugs when he had him to roughly 3 months before I bought him. My plan was to use silks, crickets as a mainstay and throw in other things as I found them available.

My plan however is foiled as he will eat 1-2 silks max, doesn't touch meal or super worms nor dubias, but with crickets he eats them like its his last meal.

Does anyone have advice or have any chameleons in this situation, to try and compensate I have been rotating gut loads for the crickets.

 

[kplatvoet]

I think your doing the smart thing in the gutload rotation - I find my panther's tastes changed as he got older (and by his moods) so I would keep trying other feeders when you can - the problem of left over feeders can be solved easily buy getting another chameleons . (worked for me)

 

[NerveDamage]

I will continue you to try new feeders, I was thinking green banana roaches but I don't know where to buy them as feeders and not just a colony starter kit.

And I would love to get another panther (really want a Tamatave or a Mitsio) but unfortunately I live at my parents house, and only have the space for one here in my room.

 

[NerveDamage]

Hello? Anyone else have any suggestions, I am finding some of the more rare feeders are very expensive. I have easy access to things like silks, dubias and mealworms but he does not show interest.

 

[kplatvoet]

I like blue bottle flies but they are hard to dust - they are low priced but I usually hatch out way too many at a time and escapees are a bit of a problem- I like watching my husband turn colors and chase them down- his eyes spin just like my panther's -
I get them from mantisplace.com- split up the pupea into smaller cups and try to hatch a small amount at a time - with some "fly food" I also get from the same source and water crystals - the hatch time is variable so I usually end up having a bunch but they stay alive with food and water for while and she has better hatching instructions on the site -
They are great fun in the summer - I made up a zippered pop up laundry basket with fake vines and leaves let a bunch loose with my panther and hung it outside - half in the sun half in shade and had a dripper going- he loved it - the flies make a bit of a mess with it so you have to use tough plants so you can hose it down really good -

 

[Ferrah88]

I like blue bottle flies but they are hard to dust - they are low priced but I usually hatch out way too many at a time and escapees are a bit of a problem- I like watching my husband turn colors and chase them down- his eyes spin just like my panther's -
I get them from mantisplace.com- split up the pupea into smaller cups and try to hatch a small amount at a time - with some "fly food" I also get from the same source and water crystals - the hatch time is variable so I usually end up having a bunch but they stay alive with food and water for while and she has better hatching instructions on the site -
They are great fun in the summer - I made up a zippered pop up laundry basket with fake vines and leaves let a bunch loose with my panther and hung it outside - half in the sun half in shade and had a dripper going- he loved it - the flies make a bit of a mess with it so you have to use tough plants so you can hose it down really good -

Just wanted to mention (I use flies all the time and have no problems covering them in dust)....

When you have the containers of flies all sorted out, stick them in the fridge. This slows them down a LOT and they take longer to do everything. This also slows them down for 1-3 minutes when you take them out which is plenty of time to dump some into the cup you use for dusting, shake em up and them toss them into the vivarium. You'll have some nice white flies then!

To the OP directly: Do you have access to phoenix worms? They're a lovely source of food for chameleons!