Picky eating - he no like Crickets.......

[SageZA]

My Veiled has also gone off crickets. Nothing i tried got him back on them

 

[Cainschams]

Thanks, I think maybe it's a sign that he was getting a little too much food. I put my female on a strict <a href="http://www.pixeltrack66.com/mt/w2b44384c4z203u274/" style="color:#006600;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:underline;background:none;padding:0;margin:0;">diet</a>, but I been letting him get away with it a bit......like I said, I just over thought it and needed to reassure myself I'm not making my boy go hungry unnecessarily, lol. He needs to get into line, I need to be strict with him, I know that
I am wondering how long is a long time for him to go without food though, and I know I'm not going to let his ribs show, but how long is he likely to be able to comfortably hold out do you reckon?

I think you can easily get away with no food for two weeks. Just watch his fat pads on his casque and his cheeks. If they start to indent then you will want to start feeding whatever he will eat again. As I said, if you think/feel he is getting proper nutrition through other feeders then no crickets isnt a big deal. Unless that is what you like to feed. If so then you better start cracking the whip to get him in line

 

[DavidBuchan]

I'll give him just over another week, then I'll invest in roaches (better for gutloading variety than locusts). If I'm breeding roaches as well, I might as well get another Cham, eh? One with horns? Well, only if I must.........

 

[cheylan10]

Haha our male ambilobe Larz is picky that way too he would only eat worms and roaches but didn't hardly touch the crickets, we just only offered him
Crickets until he eventually gave up and ate them. Now he happily accepts them most of the time.
Hope this helps

 

[HerbsForMyChameleon]

So, I've been trying to get my picky male Veiled to eat his crickets like a good boy.........I've offered black ones, brown ones, big ones, little ones........and he doesn't eat every day anyway (he's 11 months), It's been about 6 days since he ate anything and today I cracked and fed him a locust......which he happily snapped up, and I might have smoked too much Pineapple Express today but I swear he looked me in the eye and looked grateful.
Anyway, to all other keepers who have 'dealt' with picky eaters - how long should I keep this up? Is it even worth it if he'll happily eat locusts and worms up?

I smoke too much pineapple express every day

 

[carol5208]

I just answered in my other thread and I pretty much gave up on crickets! My cham is doing well, eating supers, moths, silks, horns and occasional anole (that he gets on his own on my patio or outdoor cage, not fed by me) and he seems to be doing fine. I gultoad my supers just like the crickets. I try the crickets every so often but I am NOT starving my chamelon. JMO! So he doesnt like crickets...so what!!!!!

 

[DavidBuchan]

I try the crickets every so often but I am NOT starving my chamelon. JMO! So he doesnt like crickets...so what!!!!!

That's what I thought, but my locusts just won't eat butternut sqaush, don't go as much for nuts and seeds, I never saw them going for any calcium flakes with bee pollen........So I want him eating crickets again, or it's time for roaches.........

 

[byrnesr]

Glad to see this thread, mine (5 1/2 to 6 months) has recently decided to stop eating crickets as well. It started about 2 to 2 1/2 weeks ago when his colors really started to come in. His mood and attitude have changed markedly and spends more time testing his enclosures boundries than anything else. I was feeding at least 3 different feeders a day trying to give him some variety hoping to avoid this type of situation.

As a matter of fact he's passing on hornworms, butterworms, and reptiworms. And ate 2 or 3 silkworms before he decided they weren't for him a month or so ago. But show him a jumbo mealworm or locust and he's all over it. Unfortunately, it's cooling off here and the locusts will be gone soon. I've had no luck at keeping them alive longer than two days. I cave pretty quickly though, 2 days without food and I'm offering him somthing. I guess I'll have to knuckle down and outlast my little guy.

Those following this thread, Is withholding food for 3 to 4 days a useful strategy? Or continue to offer food daily just only crickets?

P.S. I'm with you David...it's nice to here some support from the heavyweights on the forum.

 

[Cainschams]

I'll give him just over another week, then I'll invest in roaches (better for gutloading variety than locusts). If I'm breeding roaches as well, I might as well get another Cham, eh? One with horns? Well, only if I must.........

But of course!!!!!

 

[frankie-gush]

I'm in the same boat here, my little guy won't eat crickets either. Locusts & Morio Worms are no problem.

He's on day 6 I think of his Cricket only food. And still hasn't cracked :-(

Don't know how long I can keep it up anymore.

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk

 

[DavidBuchan]

I'm in the same boat here, my little guy won't eat crickets either. Locusts & Morio Worms are no problem.

He's on day 6 I think of his Cricket only food. And still hasn't cracked :-(

Don't know how long I can keep it up anymore.

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk

How old is he? Also a Veiled? They are such naughty little monsters, eh?

 

[frankie-gush]

He's just over 2 years old, yes, also a Veiled, never wanted to starve him before, but i'm the boss, not him lol

 

[DavidBuchan]

but i'm the boss, not him lol

So you say, but you also said you don't know how long you can keep it up I'm really about to get the roaches in.......that way we can both win......

 

[DavidBuchan]

Update - Yeterday I went to my local pet shop which often doesn't even have crickets in....they had Dubias! Got them home last night, left them with dandelion, butternut squash, green peppers and the calcium flakes that come as standard.....anyway to cut a long story short, everybody ate some roaches! (everybody reptililan, that is - I had half pound cheese burger and chips from Majestic Takeaway down the road.....). I'm hoping nobody turns against the roaches now, 'cos I'm going to put a big order in..........

 

[Miss Lily]

Apparently roaches are really easy to breed yourself. My old boy Tommy will only eat locusts, silkworms (when I can get them here alive) and waxworms. Also, my first female didn't eat for 10 days when she was gravid - then she went on to dig test holes for 3 days and still had the energy to dig a deep hole, lay the eggs and fill everything in again, even though she had not eaten for 10 days before that. Truly amazing creatures, chameleons!

 

[DavidBuchan]

Apparently roaches are really easy to breed yourself.

They will be.....but I'll be investing in them as a good feeder for all 3 lizards, so I'm counting on them a bit. It was annoying that my monitor wouldn't look at the calciworms, and then one of the chams too......monitor won't even eat mealworms, so they are in large part for her too. She eats a lot

 

[frankie-gush]

Well David, I caved in, 11 days was too much for me, he seemed fine, but i didn't want to push it. He's had crickets running round in his cage aswell as in his cup feed thing everyday, but just hasn't shown any interest.

Just offered him a locust, and he snapped it up straight away. Gonna have to secretly get some Dubais and see if he'll go for them too.

Looks like crickets are off the Menu for the time being. I'll try again in another 6 months maybe.

Francis

 

[DavidBuchan]

Further update. Two out of three isn't bad I suppose, but guess who hasn't eaten any Dubias since the second day I got them? He ate 5 decent sized ones, but nothing at all since. That's a week now, and he still isn't interested in crickets or dubias.......
I didn't actually place a big order, but I'm still not happy with him. He still has some fleshyness on his casque, so it's not killing him. He's just being a jerk, and now he'll be able to prolong his naughtyness even more.........

 

[byrnesr]

David, it seems we have chams from the same clutch. In addition to crickets I've offered butterworms, waxworms, reptiworms, and hornworms all of which he ate before this food strike. I visited a local reptile expo, made contact with a local dubia breeder and picked up a small cup of 25-40 of varying sizes. He ate three. Then nothing. So I only offered crickets for about 4 days. Still nothing. Then i caved and caught some wild "Cham Safe" butterflies (like vitamin snacks for chams). He snapped them up. As well as some locusts a few days later. Then I decided to try feeding the crickets free range (previous from a mounted station) and he zapped five of them. We may have turned a corner. At least I hope.

Side note, allowing him to free range to the window behind his enclosure has allowed me to handle him when returning him to his cage. He seems to be getting used to the idea and doesn't hiss and gape.

 

[sdheli420]

dude, my male panther did that a lil while back..i fed him some mealworms as a treat (even tried coating those things with calcium, because i hate them, but still want to offer my chams some other foods) well he decided he didnt want to eat crickets after i gave him a few mealies..so i ended up just beeing a **** about it and pretty much took them away completley untill he ate crickets again ( i would still feed the female one or two, but she would eat crickets too)..so check this out, now im kinda worried about whats gunna happen when the hornworms and silkies arrive???