The Hunger Strike Continues!

[Justin Carl]

Most of the older and active forum members already know about my guy Igor.
He has not been eatting much since last Novemeber!
That is 6 months!
In the past 3 days he has eatten 2 superworms.
He weighs 155g and I'm getting very, very, very frustrated with this guy.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
He wont touch dubia, crickets, silkworms, hornworms, dragonfly, etc. just supers.
I can get a fecal done because he dosent eat, so he dosent poop!
Here are all the old threads.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/adult-veiled-fasting-7493/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/male-veiled-still-fasting-7612/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/force-feeding-now-7961/

 

[SoCaliSon]

My guy wouldn't touch the Dubias until one crawled on him and pissed him off... He ate it out of Vengance and now he loves them!

 

[Justin Carl]

My guy wouldn't touch the Dubias until one crawled on him and pissed him off... He ate it out of Vengance and now he loves them!

Thats not much help

-edit-
Sorry, that came across very rude.
I'm gutloading with everything right now.
I'm just really mad right now.

 

[SoCaliSon]

Just letting you know what did it for my guy, I just thought it was funny... I'm sure you have tried everything that I would... I can imagine how frustrating this would be... If it has been going on that long... What I would do would just be gutoad the supers as much as you can to get him as much nutrition as possible. Good luck man...

 

[CammieNLeno]

Hey Justin!

Man that has to be super frustrating. I imagine that you are more worried every day than anything else

I wish i could be of some help, i dont really have anything to offer that you dont allready know or have tried.

I know you said you tried dragonflys.. how about some moths? Perhaps the light coloration you can find with some, and them fluttering around could spark something? Meh, about all i can come up with Really rooting for ya that he starts to eat.

Best of luck man, my wishes are with ya

 

[royden]

If it makes you feel any better Justin, Otto is in the exact same place right now. The only way I can get him to eat is to let a dubia free roam near him every two or three days, and then he'll eat two or three at a time, once a week or so.

He's gobbling down silkies right now, but I can't afford to make silkies a staple.

He hasn't touched a cricket in half a year or more, and is eating the odd dubia every several days.

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Justin, I just PMd you about something you may wish to try.

 

[mczoo]

i realize you already may have tried this but i did not see mention of blue bottle or even house flies. i realize they may not ber super nutritious and small but definitely got my chams appetite back

Sean

 

[Cainschams]

Hey Justin have you tried grasshoppers yet? I would try and get some type of WC bugs and see if he will try those. THis is all the input I have and like everyone else said Im sure you have thought of this.

Royden silk worms are a lot cheaper if you buy the eggs. I did it for the first time not to long ago. It is really easy if you have an incubator. I mean EASY and if you have a mulberry tree around then its even cheaper.

 

[Justin Carl]

I did try a couple of grasshoppers a while back, but I still had no luck.
I may try again, but the risks of WC insects bothers me to much.
My guys is already not eatting, and if he gets sick from parasites it might get worse.
No, I haven't tried larGer flies with him yet.
It could be worth a try.
I'm waiting for a phone call, so that might bring good news.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

[nightcrawler]

have you tried mice? maybe a pinky will get him going.

he wont eat supers everyday either?

 

[bluegeorge]

Its funny, you helped me when my cham lost his appetite with the advise of well gutloaded superworms. He will only eat crix now if he is really hungry and his staple is the gut loaded superworms. That is by his choice as he is offered a large variety of different insects, grubs and crawly things everyday.

Mine can be a picky eater as he is 10 months old and I think his appetite is slowing down but when I put him outside the other day he snapped up and feasted on a few moths that flew by which stimulated his appetite and he wolfed down a few silkies that I placed in the tree that afternoon.

Have you tried him outside to see if he will snap up anything....even if you put a silkie or some superworms in the tree? I know this seems weird but it works for George....must be the sun, exercise and fresh air??

Has your boy retained his body mass or is he getting thin?

 

[AFH]

Justin, I think you mentioned that you've got your chams outside most of the time now. Are you sure he's not eating some WC bugs that get around him when you're not home? Just a thought.

Also, when mine get picky, I usually go for something flying. Even if it's just houseflies or bottleflies. Seems to get them more excited having things buzzing around than just crawling.

I hope you find something that interests him soon!

 

[Dave Legacy]

I just want to throw my experience out there since it was very unexpected to me. My female Sambava Panther was on a serious hunger strike. She went weeks w/o eating, but she seemed mildly interested in her prey. Eventually she'd eat one meal and then go on another serious hunger strike. I just couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.

Then I switched to silkworms which she would consume like candy. For some reason she just got tired of crickets and would only eat silkworms... or so I thought. One day, after all this trouble, I decide to just put the cup full of crickets in her face. The lazy girl ate all of them! WTH?! Next day she ate all of them straight from the container, but if you release them in the cage she wont touch them.

She's just super lazy! Try the container and see if it works.

 

[JoshCrane1]

food is good.

 

[Julirs]

Have you tried smaller crickets? Like large pin heads? Leon sometimes will eat those when he won't eat anything else...it is funny watching that big old guy crossing his eyes to shoot at those tiny things!

 

[Justin Carl]

I just wanted to post a little update on my main man Igor.
I decided not to put a single feeder in his cage for three days to see what would happen.
Well, I got a handful of silkworms from a member on the forum yesterday.
So, that worked out great!
I was a bit skeptical because he didn't touch them last time, but I figured I should try them again.
Last time I ended up tossing all of them in the garbage.
Yesterday he ate 5 and he ate another 4 this morning!
I'm going to try feeding him every other day now, so hopefully this will end the hunger strike.
I gave the remaining few to the rest of my chameleons, and they gobbled them up immediately.
I just bought 200 from Coastal.

 

[jannb]

I only feed Luie every other day and that seems to work great with him. He use to get bored with his food but no longer bored; alway hungry now.

 

[Julirs]

Cool-I am glad he ate-that stuff really stresses me out! The only cham I had that ever did that was my male Veiled and it was 3 weeks. Everyone here eats like they have never eaten before. Silkworms have to be everyones favorite!

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Hey, congratulations! That's great news.