Veiled Only Wants "Junk Food"

[Green Pekoe]

Our female, who is coming up on five years old, only wants to eat hornworms, apple sauce and raspberries. She gets regular vitamins and is also on liquid calcium prescribed by the vet. She had a recent vet check that was went very well. How long can I let her live on this junk food diet before I drag her to the vet again (it is a bit of a haul so I try to avoid it as it is stressful for both of us)? This has been going on for about a month or so. Poops all look normal. Behaviour is her normal levels of grumpy. She's just done with fibre I guess.

I'm also open to other food ideas.

Thanks,

 

[GrannyK]

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  What other insects have you tried? Silkworms are a fav and grasshoppers in our house.

 

[GrannyK]

Welcome to the forum btw!! Wow 5 is great for your baby. Congrats on such a long time with her.

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi and welcome. I’m afraid the only way is to break her of the habit by only offering only nutritious bugs. She should not be receiving any plant matter and especially not fruits. They are very high in sugar and even though veiled will eat plant material, they have no need for it. The only plants she should have are all safe and live ones within her enclosure, that she’ll nibble on as the mood strikes her. As @GrannyK suggested, silkworms are a great staple food for her. Roaches are too, but for some chams they can be an acquired taste. Grasshoppers are also very well received and nutritious, but they can be hard to get. There are only a couple of sources for them at current. This is one. https://feedmychameleon.com/ Of course crickets are always an easily available and inexpensive feeder.
You’ll need to do some tough love. No healthy veiled chameleon has ever starved themself to death, but they can go quite a while without eating and still be fine. I had to tough love my leopard geckos out of their addictions to wax worms and it seemed like it took months with each barely eating a small cricket or other feeder every few weeks. It’s much harder on us than it is on them.

 

[kinyonga]

Raspberries…sugar content..”just 5 grams in an entire cup”..quite low as fruits go. Unsweetened apple sauce is higher at “20-25g of sugar per cup“.

I still wonder why so many veiled females in particular and some species of chameleons eat vegetation and other fruits and veggies, even in the wild if there is no need for it. I’m not saying we should feed them anything but insects, but I’m not 100% sold on there being no reason or need for it at times.

That being said…I would get your female off them anyway….maybe feed a bit of both to the insects for a few days so they have a bit of fruity taste would get her onto the insects more?

 

[Green Pekoe]

Thank you everyone for your feedback.

I took a look around and I can not get grasshoppers or roaches where I am. She has very little interest in silk worms, they are also a bit of a pain to get. Usually when she gets a raspberries, she gets one, and for her applesauce it is about a tablespoon, maybe two. Anything more and she leaves it in the dish. She gets hornworms once a month, but likely less. Her absolute favourite food is a fresh off the bush blackberry, she usually only gets about two or three of those a year. She's made it to five years old having fruit treats once every few weeks Her primary foods are crickets, wax worms and mealworms (usually a "salad"). Her vet is prefectly content with what we have been feeding her.

The only plant in her habitat she ever wanted to eat was a ficus that I had to remove as she almost killed it.

It has just been the last while that she has been ignoring her "crunchy" foods and wanting "squishy" foods. I have noticed that her hunting skills have declined since September. Her aim is off. I am thinking moving food may be too tough for her to catch.

I am of half a mind to think that she is now in "hospice" and at the end stages of her life. With my elderly cats my philosophy was "eh, eat what you want as long sit isn't outright poison." With a chameleon I don't know if this is a prudent course of action.

When shipping starts up again in the new year, I will try ordering some more buggy items off the list and try those.