Veiled freaked out over blueberry

[spoiltgrl]

I wasn't sure where to put this thread so I hope here is okay. My daughter has had her chameleon for a month in a half now and he is supposed to be 3 months old. Everything that is set up according to everything that is here & thanks to all of you and your advice he is doing great.
So he has been eating crickets since we got him on March 23rd, my daughter had read that some like blueberries, so I got some from the store and cut one up to put in his cage and he freaked out. As I was putting it on a leaf near him he started to change colors. He started to move super quick and fell catching a branch with his tail. I moved a leaf near him so he could grab a hold and regain his balance. I wasn't sure if he was racing to it or if he was frightened of it, but his final look made me think he wasn't too pleased.
Is this unusual? I am just curious for future reference of introducing new foods.
Thank you for any info you may have!
The first photo is the day we got him (3/23)
2nd is on 4/5 when I was cleaning his cage that is the most upset I've seen him
3rd is what he did over the blueberry!

 

[laurie]

I would back off the blueberries. I know a lot of people give their veileds fruit but I just can't remember what kind. I know one guy uses kiwi. It might also be how you presented it. If he is not used to your hands near him and in his cage you may have scared him. You have to approach him as slowly as chams normally move. Let him get comfortable by putting the fruit on a branch for him.

 

[NachoTacular519]

I would back off the blueberries. I know a lot of people give their veileds fruit but I just can't remember what kind. I know one guy uses kiwi. It might also be how you presented it. If he is not used to your hands near him and in his cage you may have scared him. You have to approach him as slowly as chams normally move. Let him get comfortable by putting the fruit on a branch for him.

The only reason I wouldn't feed berries unless they are wild or grown by you due to pesticide issues. My dad works CFIA and even in Canada blueberry farms can spray for pests up to a week or 2 before harvest (can't remember exact # of days). This is using pesticides that stay in the plant particularly in fruiting bodies. Blueberries are super high in anti-oxidants however and IMO good for almost any animal. I would think that any animal with a high protein diet would benefit from that. I'm thinking he likely just got scared because it was something he had never seen before and because baby chams tend to be jumpier(yes that's not a word lol). More than likely he was just spooked.

 

[little leaf]

I just LOVE the hair clip in the 2nd pic what a cute little cham
even if he was not happy about it once - offer it again in a few days- my baby chams ran for cover at the sight of their first mantis- but now , I can not even get my hand out before they are all over the feed cup

 

[spoiltgrl]

Thank you all very much for your input. I didn't even think about certain pesticides. I picked up organic and washed it well, but I will have to take that into consideration when my gardening starts.
My daughter found him shedding today, and thought perhaps all that blowing up caused his skin to realize it wasn't fitting anymore.
I actually cut up the berry and was attempting to put it on a branch when he freaked out. We handle him some as we clean out his cage, so I assume it was the sight of it that spooked him. I told my daughter the next time that we try it one of us will put it in when he is out and see if that works.
My daughter was so nervous when he ended up from her hand on her head because she couldn't fell him up there, so I was "spotting" with one hand and taking a picture with the other.

 

[lancaster0861]

You can try strawberries if you have some around. I slice them up into a decent size chip and let him take his triangle shaped chomps out of them. This works for me because he is ok with hand feeding. At first he would try to shoot it but quickly realized that they where way to slimy to bring to his mouth. Finally, he gained the courage and came up to take a big chomp out of them. Now he lights up when he sees a strawberry in my hand! Your guy may love them as well. I give them sparingly though, maybe at the rate of one strawberry chip every four or five days. Im not an expert so I'm really not to sure if this is healthy or not maybe someone can give some better insight on the deal. By the way he is super cute!

 

[ChameleonMom]

I feed my chameleons fruit once a week and they love it! Just make sure you cut it up small with no skin left on and they should learn to LOVE it in no time! My chams all eat mango, strawberries, canteloupe, blueberries and apple. I also feed them unsweetened apple sauce which they love immensely! If you can't get them to eat it out of your hand then add some cut up fruit to their cup of crickets. The crickets will stay in the cup to feed and your Cham will pick up both crickets and fruit when feeding, killing two birds with one stone!!

A note of caution: I would limit the amount of kiwi you feed - it has a lot of oxalic acid in it which in large amounts, inhibits conversion of calcium in your chams body!

Have fun!!

 

[Ferrah88]

The first time I tried feeding Yuki a bit of apple, she was much the same... I usually hand feed her, and this was no mealworm, phoenix worm, cricket, fly or anything that moves. She looked curiously at it and then almost immediately puffed up, swayed back and forth, opened her mouth and started hissing. I had the "brilliant" idea of trying to make the long, slender slice of apple look like a meal worm... she ended up changing to her stressed colours. Just as I started removing my hand to avoid her getting too stressed over a bit of apple, she lunged at my hand with a loud hiss, trying to bite my finger (She does this a lot when I do something she doesn't like, like come in with the water bottle). Instead of hitting my finger however, she sunk her teeth into the apple and, since I was holding it gently, took it out of my fingers. She went all cross eyed, trying to see what she got in her mouth, and then slowly but surely ate it. She did this for a couple more pieces until she had enough.

With this, I just wanted to say that your little guy was probably just scared of something new, and he just needs time to learn that it's something delicious, and not something scary! I'm sure once he tastes the juice, he will be all over them

 

[panhead55]

Lol my male veiled Moses just did the same thing.I held a blueberry in his cage and he blew up in size and color and grabbed the blueberry.You can tell he loved it.He then ate 2 more.He goes for strawberries,watermelon and bananas as well.Cant get him to eat his veggies though.