Picky eaters?

[Umberlee168]

Spike has always been on the finicky side--I have never been able to get him to eat any fruit/veggies unless he accidentally eats it while getting a bug!

Anyway, I have a veiled chameleon with a guessed age of 4-5 years. Adopted him a year ago from pretty deplorable conditions and he has done very well up until recently. Suddenly he won't eat a cricket to save his life and I'm wondering literally would he starve himself to death rather than eat them? He won't touch them and has gone up to a week in hopes he will get hungry enough to eat them before I finally give in and give him mealworms which he eats without issue.

He hasn't had a shed in quite awhile and I don't know if that has anything to do with it?? When I searched the web for support I found people asking how long side a shed so I'm not sure how/if that correlates but he seems overdue. Drinking water okay, stool/urate is normal, color's bright and happy-looking, behavior is active and normal. Been having some issues with temp regulation inside his terrarium due to the change of seasons but nothing else has been going on. I worry that he's just nearing the end of his life considering that he probably spent a good deal of his early years highly stressed.

I have like 200+ crickets in credit at our pet store so I'm really hoping he gets over his food jag soon. Anyone else had this issue?

 

[Seiryu]

Suddenly he won't eat a cricket to save his life and I'm wondering literally would he starve himself to death rather than eat them?

I have like 200+ crickets in credit at our pet store so I'm really hoping he gets over his food jag soon. Anyone else had this issue?

Usually they won't starve themselves, but they can go a long while without food (especially if he has the fat stores to do it). I had a female panther chameleon who ate mostly dubia with phoenix worms/silks on the side. She ate like a champ for the first 8-9 months of her life.

One day she decided she didn't like ANY of those. I tried 10+ feeders and finally I gave in and gave her a superworm, and that's what she wanted. She didn't eat for almost 2 weeks. But she was drinking well, fat pads on her head were still plump.

She only wanted these for a couple of months, but now she is back to eating a diverse set of bugs.

He could just be slowing down a bit. That is pretty old! Have you tried superworms VS mealworms? Supers aren't great, but they are loads better than mealworms.