Panther wont touch roaches

[Randers88]

Hey everyone,
I'm curious if anybody has any tricks to getting there cham's to eat roaches. I've offered various sized roaches to my nine month old male panther but he shows zero interest. He ate one on accident when mixed in with some crickets but hasn't touched any since. I've attempted hand feeding them as he has no problems eating this way with any other insect but he still refuses roaches. I'm left with crickets, bsfl, the occasional superworms / hornedworms. He'll rarely go after superworms as well but will devour a hornedworm when offered.
Does anybody have any tricks that they used to get their's to give roaches a chance? I don't mind keeping crickets as I have been breeding them for sometime, and keeping them around isn't an issue... I'm just trying to add some more variety to his diet.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[The Wild One]

Squish up the food he likes and cover them in it

 

[Beman]

Squish up the food he likes and cover them in it

nooooo....

 

[AnamCara]

Skip a feeding or two. I didn't offer anything but roaches for two feedings and she finally caved and ate them. Although I don't feed them much becuase I maybe the only person in the world less grossed out by Crickets.

When I first got Mona all she would eat was dirt and like 1 cricket. Once she hit a year I didn't offer food for a week and she hasn't eaten a speck of dirt since then.

 

[Beman]

Hey everyone,
I'm curious if anybody has any tricks to getting there cham's to eat roaches. I've offered various sized roaches to my nine month old male panther but he shows zero interest. He ate one on accident when mixed in with some crickets but hasn't touched any since. I've attempted hand feeding them as he has no problems eating this way with any other insect but he still refuses roaches. I'm left with crickets, bsfl, the occasional superworms / hornedworms. He'll rarely go after superworms as well but will devour a hornedworm when offered.
Does anybody have any tricks that they used to get their's to give roaches a chance? I don't mind keeping crickets as I have been breeding them for sometime, and keeping them around isn't an issue... I'm just trying to add some more variety to his diet.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I could not get my boy to eat them either. When he was 9 months old I had to go the tough love route and withhold other feeders by day 5 he gave in... He has been on Dubia ever since and I did away with crickets. But after a few weeks he got used to them. He sees them and goes for them. So I am able to add in other staple feeders and he eats everything.

 

[The Wild One]

Jk, Coda likes them but their not her favorites (Horn Worms) I just leave them in there and after about a day or two she’ll cave in and eat them.

 

[Decadancin]

So I don't have this problem with discoids, but the first time Raistlin saw one he did not know what to think. He waited a while and did finally strike, but then he sat with it in his mouth for a long time before chewing and swallowing. He did this for the first few days. Now they don't stand a chance! He gobbles them up faster than anything!

What type of roach are you using? The discoids are a bit faster than some other types and this could help trigger a strike response. Some chameleons just wont eat certain feeders though. My boy wont even look at superworms.

 

[Randers88]

I was originally trying with some random roaches my local shop breeds for their Chams but my boy was not interested. I’m trying the Green Banana Roaches next. I’m not too versed on roaches yet but I live in Florida so I know I’m somewhat limited to what’s available.

 

[Decadancin]

I was originally trying with some random roaches my local shop breeds for their Chams but my boy was not interested. I’m trying the Green Banana Roaches next. I’m not too versed on roaches yet but I live in Florida so I know I’m somewhat limited to what’s available.

Discoids are good here in Fla. You may want to wait a bit and try to re-introduce them after some time to see if you get different results.

 

[cham_urchin]

So I don't have this problem with discoids, but the first time Raistlin saw one he did not know what to think. He waited a while and did finally strike, but then he sat with it in his mouth for a long time before chewing and swallowing. He did this for the first few days. Now they don't stand a chance! He gobbles them up faster than anything!

What type of roach are you using? The discoids are a bit faster than some other types and this could help trigger a strike response. Some chameleons just wont eat certain feeders though. My boy wont even look at superworms.

Yup, the dubias don't move around enough for my little guy, dangit. (I think they move just the right amount, lol) I'll try discoids. Do you breed them, or order? If order, where?

 

[Decadancin]

Yup, the dubias don't move around enough for my little guy, dangit. (I think they move just the right amount, lol) I'll try discoids. Do you breed them, or order? If order, where?

So I haven't tried breeding them yet, but there are a few places that have them. I know @nick barta sells them and he is a site sponsor (Full Throttle Feeders), and I have gotten them from Linda's Gone Buggie a few times. Price wise they are about the same.

 

[CamoChameleonsHuman]

My Ambanja Panther won't touch dubias. Period. End of story. I'll try again when he's reaching adult age. BTW your boy is absolutely gorgeous!

 

[Randers88]

Thank you! We got him from Suncoast Chameleons back in February. We have a beautiful girl from Chromatic Chameleons as well and are eagerly waiting on our second girl to be sent to us from Kammerflage Creations in a few weeks. We’re planning to breed him with both once they reach the appropriate ages.

 

[RyanBRZ]

When mine was younger (3 months to 6 months) he would devour 15-20 a day, small ones), I eventually introduced him to superworms and then he stopped acknowledging dubia's. I switched to crickets and he eventually stopped liking those too. It seems like he now only likes non-bugs and sticks to worm-like insects...BSFL, superworm, hornworm, waxworm, butterworm.