Help! He wont eat!

[Lolcakes]

I have a ten month old red bar chameleon who is very skinny and just wont eat! We took him to the vet about a week ago and they said hes skinny and dehydrate (we already knew which is why we brought him to the vet in the 1st place) we have alot of variety i.e crickets, red runners, wax worms, superworms, mealworms, etc. It seems like he will only eat the worms. When we got the roaches the 1st day he chowed down on them, now he is not interested at all. I've been thinking about ordering some silkworms and seeing if adding those to his diet will help. Does anyone have any suggestions of something else he could eat a "staple" diet of? I'm out of ideas other than silkworms and i feel like im running out of time I'll attach some pictures of the little guy.

 

[Lolcakes]

hes also just been like brown for a couple months as well D:

 

[pigglett79]

I feel your pain. My new Jackson wont eat. For the past 3 weeks he has eaten maybe 1-3 bugs every few days. The vet trip ws useless and I have tried feeding several different feeders and in various sizes. Its now been several days since he has eaten anything at all. I hope you find a solution as I am stressed over the same issue.

 

[carol5208]

have you tried moths or anything flying? His eyes do not look that bad and yes they could be fuller. His fat pads look a little sunken but overall he does not look bad at all. Is he drinking water?

 

[Lolcakes]

yeah from what i can tell, this morning he was drinking water like he was hunting. just shooting his tongue out at it from like 8 inches away. the vet says i need to fatten him up, im thinking about getting silkworms and the horned worms that turn into the moths. i have a good bit of variety but hes just so picky and small also you know any good sites to get silkworms or other good "staple" foods for him?

 

[Rango05]

i dont know if your spose to do this but i was looking into it b4 we got our lil guy just in case . im assuming this is a last resort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOzJk-Vq4Xo

 

[Lolcakes]

for your jackson have you tried worms yet?

 

[xeonic]

What do you have for his water source? What are you using for UVB lighting? What are his basking temps? What is his humidity? What do you use for vitamin supplements? Are you gutloading? Did the vet take a fecal sample to test for parisites?

 

[SSimsswiSS]

What you feed your crickets can and will have a effect on your chameleons feeding response.

 

[reptilover]

Have u tried dubias? Hornworms? Dubias make a decent staple diet. Is it a male?
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/
You should copy and paste the form in a reply and fill it out for us if u woulf please.
Something in his setup or husbandry could be making hin not want to eat

 

[birdlover71]

Worms...

I would try the hornworms for the hydration and silkworms for the nutritional value. I personally would definitely try it. If he is underweight I don't think the wax worms or butterworms would be such a bad idea either to help put some much needed wegiht back on him.

 

[carol5208]

Coastal Silkworms and Mulberry farms for horns and silks.

 

[pigglett79]

for your jackson have you tried worms yet?

I was able to hand feed my Jackson 1 meal worm yesterday. I have only tried meal worms and wax worms. I saw a post on this thread suggesting something flying, maybe I will look in to that as well. I have tried dubia roaches and crickets as well. If you figure something out post an update and maybe it will work for me as well.

 

[Lolcakes]

For his water source i have a dripper that runs on a very slow drip all day turn it off at night, i mist the cage anywhere from 3 to 8 times a day. I have a reptisun 5.0 uvb light on the top of his cage. His basking temp is usually right around 85-90 he does have a lower basking spot that he likes as well thats around 75-80. Humidity is low at the moment do to the fact that i don't have a live plant in there, i have a weeping fig on the way which should be here on tues so that should help. I had an umbrella in there but it didnt do well at all, and he didnt like it very much. So as of now the humidity is around like 35% after we spray it spikes in the high 60's for a little while. Again that live plant should help when it gets here. Vitamin supplements as of now are repashy superfoods calcium plus, and 1 cc (mL) of mineral oil like every other week to help him poop. No the vet did not take any fecal samples we didnt have any available at the time because he didnt poop which was one of our main concerns(although in the car about 2 minutes from our house he pooped in my girlfriends hand because she wanted to play with him for a little bit!! haha unfortunately the vet was to far of a car ride to turn around and take the sample back). As far as food goes we have tried red runnner roaches, he ate those for 1 day(about 10 of them) and is no longer interested in them. I haven't tried dubias from what i can tell he doesnt want anything with legs.... odd i know. I have some silkworms on the way should be here tues as well im hoping, hornworms arent available anywhere right now >.< but from what i've read they make a decent "staple" diet and have an added benefit of extra hydration. For options for him to eat as of this moment i have crickets, red runners, superworms, waxworms, and mealworms. Also i forgot to add i have been gutloading the crickets and roaches with bug burger and also fruits and vegges, mainly dark greens and bright colored fruits. Also for the roaches i give them a high protein dog food. I had one other idea of catching a few moths for him to try tonight i dont know if that would be a good idea or not so any input on that would also be helpful, i was thinking of just letting like 1 or 2 go in his cage. I'm hoping these silkworms work out i will keep everyone posted, any other thoughts would be helpful!!! Good luck with your jackson pigglett let me know how he is doing! You may want to try the video rango posted ive been thinking about trying that, but as of now i can "trick" mine into eating a few crickets a day, i just hold out a wax worm and right before he shoots for it i put i cricket out and he gets that instead, sometimes. but he still only wants the worms... picky little guy.

 

[Lolcakes]

Also since hes really not eating anything but worms, until i get the silkworms is it bad for him to be eating like 5-6 wax worms a day? he'd eat 20 if i let him, i just dont know if thats bad for him. also he'll eat superworms but i know those can be hard for him to digest so i try to only give him like 2-3 of those a week.

 

[carol5208]

the problem with supers and waxworms is they are very fatty as opposed to silkworms which are not. So no, you don't want to feed just them as that would be like us eating McDonalds everyday! lol As far as the digestion thing with supers, I have never had one single problem with digestion. If you fed only those than maybe, but if you mix in some soft bodied feeders you should be ok.

 

[Branman]

I would definitely try giving your Cham some silkworms. I breed silkworms, and my chams love them to death. I cup feed them silkworms and as soon as they see them, they run right over to the cup and eat them.

 

[Lolcakes]

im def going to feed him silkworms i think he'll love them, do you think like 5 or 6 wax worms for a few days would hurt tho? he is really thin, very underweight for a cham his age, hes just over 10 months old and only 200 grams or less D:

 

[Lolcakes]

Mainly because we wont eat ANY crickets or roaches, he will only eat worms and the only worms i have immediate access to is supers and waxworms, the silkworms wont be here till tues or weds D:

 

[Lolcakes]

1 more thing, if i got out and catch a moth or 2 tonight you think that would be ok to give to him?