Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a six month old female veiled and I'm have difficuty enticing her into eating a variety of foods. Wax worms, crickets, anything live and moving is easy. But, as far as leafy greens or other vegtables she won't even go near them. Any suggestions on both type of vegetable and presention will be greatly appreciated.

Dandelion flowers worked for me when I used to keep veileds.
Try hanging a few in the cage and see if she goes for them.

Try a thin wedge of apple. If you slip the end of it into the chameleon's mouth when its drinking so that it gets the taste of it in its mouth the chameleon may get the idea.

I wouldn't mind knowing if anyone here has a trustworthy source of seeds to grow dandelions. If you do, share please.

Both Canada and US sources would be awesome and I'm sure I'm not the only keeper that would think about picking some up.
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CANADIAN SILKWORMS

will - dandelions are lawn weeds introduced from Europe. As for a source, find a neighbor with a lawn and collect the fluffy heads in summer months
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
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0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
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Oh we see them here in Canada, but I prefer to be secure about knowing where my weed comes from. Should be hard to grow them, they are resilient.
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CANADIAN SILKWORMS

I also keep bearded dragons, so... A good seed source would be good. year round food.
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CANADIAN SILKWORMS

Kind of sounds like i might have to be a Kung Fu master to do that one.

Are really veileds into veggies?I am really skeptical about this.I know they bite bits and pieces occasionally but is it so important to consider it as a must to their diet?
personally I offer no vegetables exept for the plant in his cage

Thats a good point, but I've seen websites that talk about how importaint it is to provide vegetables as an additional souce of nutrition. On the other hand I've also found sites that make no mention of this at all. Can anyone shed any light on this.

Chameleons are carnivores. They get intake of plants/vegtables when they eat insects who are primary consumers and have bellies full of plant. Just makesure your feeder insects are well fed (gutload) so that your chameleon is getting that plant energy passed to him after eating the insect. It is true that chameleons ocasionally eat plant in the wild, I believe most cases are from a leaf sticking to its tongue after catching an insect, but there are situations where a chameleon may eat a plant or vegtable if he feels deficient in nutrients. If your insects feed on plant gutload or equivelent, and you provide suppliments I don't believe he would ever need a vegtable to eat. If you are still concerned just put a live plant in there for him to climb on, and if he may feel the need he can take a bite of green.
-ashley

I don't think that they HAVE to eat plants but mine really seem to like to eat them. So why not give them more variety in their food. If you think about it you wouldn't want to eat the same things all the time.
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Meg

Do you hand feed her? If not try putting one of her fav foods and place it on your hand by her. It usually takes some time but after a while she will take it.

If you do then, you can take a little piece of a leaf in her cage if she has a live plant or a little bit of apple and set it on your fingers. Then move your fingers around to move it, so she thinks it is moving. After a while they will readily take the vegitation you provide.

I have a hibiscus in my famale veiled's cage and she loves to eat the flowers and the leaves. The flowers usually look really deformed because as soon as they start to pop up they get eaten by her.
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Meg

thanks thats actually helpful