My cham doesn't 'recognize' dubia

[blastPHANT1337]

Hello,

I have a 6 month old panther who has graduated to being large enough to be 'free-range' in my sunroom. He grew up eating crickets and an occasional dubia roach, either hand fed from me or released into the cage.
Of course now that he is roaming freely and enjoying himself amongst all of my plants, there can be no more releasing of insects into his habitat! He still takes crickets from my hands but only once in a blue moon does he take dubia.

I have a lot of dubia roaches and while my other cham loves them, this little guy does not seem to recognize them as something to eat, even when they are squirming around. I would really like to eliminate having crickets around, and so I was wondering if anyone has had similar experiences? He will go for days without eating if I offer only dubia, and at his age especially I want to make sure he is well nourished.

many thanks!
anyone have any recommendations?

 

[camimom]

How old is he?
How long is days without eating?

 

[CLP]

I believe the OP said 6 months old. So, it would be OK for him to go a few days without eating occasionally, you certainly don't want that to happen often at that age. I have heard of some people's chameleons just not liking dubia. Mine all seem to eat them thankfully. Have you tried offering him different sizes (as long as they aren't too big for him to eat)? I have also noticed one of my guys doesn't particularly like the males which stinks since they're the ones I always try to feed off first. Luckily I have bearded dragons that eat anything that moves . Try to vary what he's getting in the way of dubia and see if you can find a "type" he likes.

 

[Mike Fisher]

Flip one over on its back in a container and see if that works.

 

[Dr O]

Pixel hates dubes so much that even if he takes one, he usually spits it out. never had an issue with any other chams like that.

 

[jannb]

Have you tried cup feeding? Allot of chameleons just don't like roaches. Most of my guys like crickets and I could never not buy crickets for them. It takes so little to make them happy. Why not make him happy? They are only with us for a short time.

 

[tkilgour]

Funny, I have some that will not so much as look at dubia. Then others that devour them.

 

[ridgebax1]

Neither my current cham nor his predecessor liked dubias. Partly because I don't think they are active enough. Someone posted a suggestion of gluing a stick in the center of a ceramic dish so the roaches climb up and down the stick and then the cham would see them moving and eat them.

 

[blastPHANT1337]

It's official! He hates dubia. He has started taking them, chewing and then holding on to it and eventually spitting it all out in disgust.

Like jannb said they are with us for a short time and it's all about making them happy, so I will go buy him lots of other tasty bugs today.

I would like to try some kind of larval fly perhaps - I heard they can be low maintenance as well - maybe blue bottle or the black soldier flies? But maggots creep me out to the max. Also any containers arriving at my complex labeled "live insects" might not be too well received by my neighbors

 

[kplatvoet]

they come in a usps box (fly larva) inside is a little mesh bag filled with the larva- not too gross- and your neighbors will never know - they don't actually wiggle at all ..

 

[junglefries]

?

I have veil, jax, blue bar and nosy be. No one would eat a roach. I tried all 4 varities they had. Mine all eat superworms, crickets, silkworms, hornedworms, butterworms, mealworms, mantis. Some have eaten butterflies and bumblebees. They just refuse to eat them and look at me like 'are you serious?'.

 

[hosh11]

I'm trying to teach my young veiled chameleon to cup feed And he will only eat crickets out of the container. I'll put tiny dubia, silks, and crickets in the bowl and he will only touch the crickets. If I put the dubia or the silk worm on a vine he's near he will walk right over and munch it down. I think it's because they barely move when they're in the cup. But I can live with it as long as I don't have crickets all over the cage.