Hunger striking please help

[luckyy15]

Hi my Cham has recently finished shedding beginning of this week prior to his shed about 1-2 weeks he lost his appetite and did not eat during his shed either. He hasnt really eaten alot at all for about 3-4 weeks. He also goes to the branch where he sleeps earlier a hour or so before his lights go out could this be due to the time of year do they slow down in winter ? His basking temp is between 85-88 and I feed him a variety of crickets locusts supers all gutloaded with veggies fruit and dust his feeds with calcium w/o d3 every feeding and multivitamin and calcium with d3 twice a month. He has a dripper running in the day and I mist him twice a day. He has a 5.0 linear uv bulb and 60watt heat bulb. Should I keep offering him the food til he gets hungry enough ? He has been fussy before going off crickets and only eating supers but I stopped offering the supers for a while and he eventually started eating the crickets again. He is still alert and drinking well.

Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks

 

[ghettomike]

my female veiled plays food games with me all the time. she will love one thing one day and not eat it for another month. One thing that usually snaps her out of it is a few juicy hornworms or any kind of flying insect if you can get your hands any. I have also observed that my cham seems lazier and eats less now that its winter out but that could just because she is not a juvi anymore.

 

[beeze]

Try some different feeders and it wouldn't hurt to fill out the ask for help form and post a few pictures just to make sure he's not sick.

 

[ghettomike]

as for your cham finding its 'bed' about an hour before lights out, it is completely normal, my cham does it and Ive read about lots of peoples chams doing that.

 

[BOBO]

I will go with ghettomick try another type of food source. During the winter times chameleons tend to be very finicky.

 

[pssh]

Don't worry about the bed thing. If I forget to change my timers in the winter, they all go to sleep with the lights on as soon as the real sun goes down regardless of how much light is in the room.

Flies!!!! Or you can buy some wax worms and let the worms pupate into moths (that takes a few weeks though.) Those soldier fly maggots turn into flies as well.

 

[luckyy15]

Thank you all for your help I'm Really grateful. I do tend to worry about him my partner always says I worry too much about him and as we know chams can be fussy at times and if he was really that hungry he would eat he wouldn't starve himself. I'm going try some different feeders see if that gets his attention. I'll post some pics tomorrow that I took tonight. I'm glad the sleep thing is normal. It gets dark here at the moment at about 4.30pm so I think he is following the daylight hours outside as when I get home at 5pm he is ready for bed but lights don't go out til about 6.30.

 

[luckyy15]

here are some recent pics from yesterday evening does he look healthy he is alert and drinking well.

 

[luckyy15]

could any one have a look at my recent pics does he look healthy ? he is alert and active and drinking well just being slow on the eating front at the moment.

Thanks

 

[AMGChams]

Flies!!!! Those soldier fly maggots turn into flies as well.

My picky eater LOVED the the soldier flys more than she did the actual maggots lol so I agree with pssh ... get some calci worms or what ever they are called in your area and let them grow into flys.

 

[kinyonga]

He looks quite healthy to me....good head pads too!

 

[fowlers]

Hi my Cham has recently finished shedding beginning of this week prior to his shed about 1-2 weeks he lost his appetite and did not eat during his shed either. He hasnt really eaten alot at all for about 3-4 weeks. He also goes to the branch where he sleeps earlier a hour or so before his lights go out could this be due to the time of year do they slow down in winter ? His basking temp is between 85-88 and I feed him a variety of crickets locusts supers all gutloaded with veggies fruit and dust his feeds with calcium w/o d3 every feeding and multivitamin and calcium with d3 twice a month. He has a dripper running in the day and I mist him twice a day. He has a 5.0 linear uv bulb and 60watt heat bulb. Should I keep offering him the food til he gets hungry enough ? He has been fussy before going off crickets and only eating supers but I stopped offering the supers for a while and he eventually started eating the crickets again. He is still alert and drinking well.

Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks

hi im from the uk too, i know there aro not any butterflies about now as its too cold but any flying insects should get his attention, there is a guy on reptileforums.co.uk selling blue bottle casters, use the search bar on the sire for blue bottle flies and you shoud find, their cheap too.

also try a waxy

rob

 

[djfishygillz]

maybe you should up the bulb wattage because its colder out now. check his basking spot temperature and make sure he can still get up to the right temperature and make sure he isnt getting chilled out at night.

 

[luckyy15]

Happy happy

hi thank you all for your replies and advice ive brought some calci worms which i put in a bowl in his cage and they had gone apart from one but im not sure if they escaped and hiding somewhere as the one left had almost climbed out the bowl. However i have just checked on him and found him eating a cricket so really happy think we may have broken his hunger strike. The temp at night dosent get below 60 and i changed his bulb the other day as it blew still 60w but checked his basking temp which is between 85-88.

Going to get some green banana roaches too to see if he likes them and help keep him interested. My rankin dragon woke up today aswell from brumation and was eating like a dust bin so im a happy bunny today