tastebuds changed overnight?

[ghettomike]

So my 6 month old veiled Carmie is a real good eater and usually likes her silkworms handfed to her but the other night she would not take them so i left them in her cage. 4 days later and they are still there even though ive just switched her over to everyother day feedings. She continues to eat crix, butters and supers. I was just about to place a big order for silks too lol. Has anybody else had their chams tastes change overnight?

 

[ghettomike]

its too bad to cause i really like silks as a feeder.

 

[dreamforthedead]

Mia did that with her crickets, i tried her on small grass hoppers which she loved so much to the point she refused to eat her crickets for weeks. Its only been the last couple of weeks she's started eating them again. But only when she's ate all her hoppers. lol, your little girl might do the same.

 

[Nixehface]

Chams sometimes do get bored of certain feeders.
Just give her other things for a couple of weeks and then maybe try silkies again to see if they interest her.

 

[dannigrrl]

Pablo used to love crickets.
then he hated crickets.
then he loved superworms only.
now he hates superworms.
He seems to refuse all food now, but he'll eat again when he gets really hungry. Food strikes are very common. George used to do the same thing.

 

[ghettomike]

and now Carmie is even turning her nose up at butterwormss and even her waxworm treat, weird, I wonder if it has anything to do with her adult colours just starting to pop through? She still loves he crix though.

 

[eppcheck]

I guess I'm lucky. My 6 month veiled will eat anything now. If I throw in a few free range crickets she will hunt them all down in a few minutes. She's kinda chubby but she can move when it comes to food.

Have you tried feeding hornworms? Those get all my chams attention real quick.

 

[ghettomike]

now she is not into any worms at all and is only eating gutloaded crix. Ill keep trying all the other feeders occasionally and im sure sooner or later she will eat them again. As for hornworms i would love to get some but canadian suppliers are have issues importing them from the states.

 

[radstusky]

Yes my panther seems to be changing his tastes frequently. It seems he doesn't want to eat whatever I have the most of! When I started with silkies he loved them, but now I've seen him walk right over them to get to a cricket. It's a similar story for horn worms, now it looks like I have 3 or 4 that are already too big for him to eat. I think this is just a natural behavior to keep variety in their diet, and also to drive us crazy!

 

[holmesese]

There are actually a few publications that document chams (pardalis in particular) changing their food preference. In summary, lab experiments found that if a cham was offered crickets only for more than three days and then offered a cricket and a grasshopper most of the time the cham chose the grasshopper. However, if the cham was offered grasshoppers only for more than three days in a row then had the choice between a grasshopper and a cricket they chose the cricket most often.

From an evolutionary standpoint, chams that actively vary their prey selection may increase their fitness through a balanced diet. Just like we can't get all our necessary vitamins and minerals through a diet of steak only- chams don't receive a balanced diet through a single feeder.

 

[satch4684]

my quad has the strangest reaction to butterworms, he ate them once, and I could see he didn't think they were anything special. now he wants NOTHING to do with them.

just a couple of hours ago I was freaking out, because he was pacing the side of his cage, looking stressed, and even stopped to plant his two front feet on the bottom. After a minute he started crawling back up, and then came down to look again. I've never seen him do that and knew going on the cage floor could be a really bad sign. then i peeked in and found a butterworm had dropped down there, I was trying to feed him one earlier and forgot about it. i got that sucker outta there and sure enough, he went back to happily hiding in his plants.

 

[Clifford]

So my 6 month old veiled Carmie is a real good eater and usually likes her silkworms handfed to her but the other night she would not take them so i left them in her cage. 4 days later and they are still there even though ive just switched her over to everyother day feedings. She continues to eat crix, butters and supers. I was just about to place a big order for silks too lol. Has anybody else had their chams tastes change overnight?

Yes. Mine goes through phases.
Consider also that yours may be getting close to laying eggs? that can make them change eating habits too