Superworms can kiss my A$$

[ataraxia]

I recently had a veiled and panther go on a nothing but superworm spree. they would not eat anything else! being a naive dumby i fed them to them like candy. well about 2 months of this now they wont eat anything.... even supers. my other chameleons that did not get any supers and were fed crickets as stable are still feeding and plumping up.

for a fact something is not right with this feeder and if you choose to feed....it should be given sparingly.

im cutting them out of the schedule period! i dont see any sense in using them.

 

[carol5208]

so what are you going to do about the ones that will not eat? My chameleon currently eats supers, horns and silks. Prefers supers to everything!!! I am not a roach person and he will not eat crickets for nothing! i just bought a dozen and tried feeding to him a few days ago and he will have nothing to do with them. I would rather see him eat supers than nothing. I know they are fatty but I don't want to see him starve. I am very leary of feeding wild caught bugs that I know nothing about and could be potentially harmful. Will not do dubia either cause I hate roaches with a passion. I am guessing superworms must taste like filet mignon or something!!!!! What do you mean there is something wrong with this feeder????

 

[pantherlover]

Tough love is sometimes the best answer. How old are your chams? How is the fat reserve? Maybe dont offer anything for a couple of weeks? It has worked for me when this what ive had to do. I had a male panther go on a real bad hunger strike prior to feeding him a dragonfly. He wouldnt take any store bought feeder even wax worms which are like lobster tails to chams. I went two weeks, gave him a super and a cricket. He ate the super but not the cricket. I decided to give it another 2 weeks. Now he chases down what ever I put in front of him. Supers can be good depending on how you gutload and supplement but crickets are wayyyy better for your animal. It was extremely hard not to stick feeders in my chams face when he didnt wanna eat but having him shoot his tongue at a highly nutritious feeder whenever its offered to him priceless imo. I dont really see the point in always offering a huge variety when your crix are well fed. There is nothing a cricket wont eat that a super, silk, horn worm, butter worm, roach will. I also think its a lot harder to keep track of the nutrients your feeding your animal with a large spectrum of feeders on a daily basis. I use all types of feeders but only as occasional treats. You could also try changing up the gut load or seeing if you get any response in a free range setting.

 

[Cainschams]

Ive never used superworms. Even when I kept larger species like panthers and oustalets. Just never felt the need to. I like crickets the best for commercial insects. Just as pantherlover says, they will devour anything and everything that any other commercial feeder will. None of my chams have ever snubbed their nose at crickets

 

[sandrachameleon]

good idea to stop offering supers like candy LOL
a diet of only supers is like a diet of only icecream

Be strong, could take a week or three before the animal is hungry enough to accept an alternative feeder. Note: this is NOT starving it, because you ARE offering other feeders.

 

[DavidBuchan]

Note: this is NOT starving it, because you ARE offering other feeders.

And that's the moral of the story - momma knows best. How can you have any pudding when you've not ate your meat?

 

[ataraxia]

carol5208: with my other chams eatting ctickets as staple and never really going off of schedule says to me the feeder is pretty sound for a particular diet. these two were basically the only two that only wanted supers and now they both wont eat. the thing is that they ate like little pigs but i seen no obesity. they kept growing and look healthy but now they are skinny imo. the appetite has been going down hill and now for the past 2-3 weeks they have no interest in food. both active and alert. they get good ol'sunshine everyday. they are isolated basically in the feeding schedule and i have no problems with the others. it basically tells me something aint right with supers as a main staple. it actually comes at a good time as im out of them anyways

pantherlover: they are both around 2 yr. fat reserves on the panther is ok. the veiled is not much at all and it wasnt much even before the supers. we had a cham/dog accident a while back that was pretty bad and that took most of his reserves. we finally got his appetite going again...now were back to square one.

Cainschams: thank god you never did! your point about the crickets is dead on.

sandrachameleon: ive learned a lesson here. the thing is ive never been interested in supers as a feeder. tired of the same ol'cricket, silk, horn and dubais....the little devils got me!

 

[chachilla]

If your trying to break him on only eating supers, then you will have to stop feeding him super worms and start offering other insects. He will refuse them, but a healthy chameleon should last a while with out eating and will eventually give into other options of feeders and thus breaking him of his super worm diet.

 

[pssh]

Just stop feeding them. Offer other food items regularly, but no supers.

There are chameleons that have been on super only diets for extended lengths of time without any issues. You just have to gutload really well. It's not the end of the world, but it's best to get them to eat a variety of insects.

 

[Monzon]

Have you tried offering bb flies or moths?

 

[ataraxia]

thats a good suggestion