How to indroduce new feeders to chameleon?
- Thread starter Karaboo
- Start date
. But he will only eat crickets. How do I get him to try fruit and veggies. And what other insects are good to feed?
Olimpia
Biologist & Ecologist
Veggies are a bit of an aquired taste for most veileds, they don't always recognize it immediately as food. Hand feeding crickets is usually a great step if you can manage it. That way they become used to assuming that you're holding something good to eat, so the next time you try it and you're wiggling a piece of collard green or strawberry, they assume that you're holding something edible, even if they don't recognize it as such at first sight. You could even hold both, a piece of fruit with a cricket, and when they shoot and get both, they get the taste for the fruit at the same time. And so on, you have to be a little sneaky and creative with some veileds.
Other great insects could be anything like roaches, superworms, silkworms, hornworms, pheonix worms, mantis, grasshoppers, etc.
As an added thought, hibiscus seems to be like catnip for veileds, they love eating the leaves and flowers. Adding a plant to the cage usually gets them used to eating greens a little bit.
Other great insects could be anything like roaches, superworms, silkworms, hornworms, pheonix worms, mantis, grasshoppers, etc.
As an added thought, hibiscus seems to be like catnip for veileds, they love eating the leaves and flowers. Adding a plant to the cage usually gets them used to eating greens a little bit.
Karaboo
New Member
Yeh the problem is I have let the crickets loose in the cage for when it's time to eat. And he absolutely loves to hunt. So maybe that's why. But I have tried some diff kinds of worms for a treat but he just looked at me like I was crazy. But I will try and hold a cricket and fruit and see what he does. He I'd try a carrot once but didn't like it. Also how do you know when he's ready to get larger crickets. I feed him small ones but he eats a lot of them. He's a pig lol
Olimpia
Biologist & Ecologist
A good rule of thumb when determining what size to buy in insects is that you want the WIDTH of the insect to be no wider than the space between the eyes. So use that as a guide, if the crickets are much smaller than that then you can probably size up.
You could also try putting crickets and whatever insect (like worms) in a bowl, and as he's eating crickets he may be inspired to shoot for a worm too.
You could also try putting crickets and whatever insect (like worms) in a bowl, and as he's eating crickets he may be inspired to shoot for a worm too.
