Reptile & Amphibian Forums

to everyone using or who has used roaches, what is the best way to get your cham to go for them? so far, one of my veileds has gobbled down 3, the other just looks at them, and the mellers picks out everything else. i put some crix in there to get his attention, and he ate all of them, but not the roach. it's still in there. maybe if i put a few in there? they are orange heads, and they were really cheap. i paid 2 for a dozen. i am thinking about getting some more on monday or tuesday, but i want to make sure that more than one of them will eat them.
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groups.msn.com/JEChameleons
1.1 Chameleo Calyptratus
1.1 Furcifer Pardalis (Diego Suarez)
1 Chameleo Melleri

The way I do it with hissing roaches is to get a heavy bowl, (not very deep and pretty big around, like 6 inches) and line the sides of it with Vaseline (kinda a pain) and just put it at the bottom of the cage. The chams that like roaches usually will go down there and just eat from the bowl, even though I don't normally bowl feed. A few of my panthers don't eat them, but my veileds do and all of my younger panthers like the young roaches. For my larger chameleons, I feed the roaches to them when they get about an inch long. Much larger than that and they're probably too big. I just let those ones grow up and breed. I have about 20 adults and I just feed off the babies. I use a heavy bowl because the cham's tounge can stick to the bowl a little and flip it over when retracting or if they climb on the rim of it it can flip over. Last thing I need is roaches getting loose at my house. I think I'm already missing a few.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
1.2 Nosy Be Panthers
2.2 Sambava Panthers
1.0 Tamatave Panther
1.0 Nosy Be X Unknown Cross
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.0.2 CBB Desert Tortoises
0.0.1 Sulcatta Tortoise

these are orange heads, so they can't climb glass. my female veiled will eat anything, so she took one right away. my mellers just kinda watches them, i think if he gets hungry enough, he will go for it. he isn't all too keen on trying new things usually. crickets are superactive, so he goes for those right away. i tried a hisser with him before, and he once again just stared at it. my male veiled has never been too much of an eater, he only will eat about 5-6 crix a day, if that sometimes. he really digs superworms, and usually silkworms. i am trying to get away from using crix so much, with a colony of roaches, i wouldn't have to order crix very often.
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groups.msn.com/JEChameleons
1.1 Chameleo Calyptratus
1.1 Furcifer Pardalis (Diego Suarez)
1 Chameleo Melleri

If you can get your chameleons eating roaches, and get a small colony of them started, you will save a lot of money on crix. Roaches are extremely easy to keep, low maintenance, and eat anything. A little time consuming to get started but if you get about 30 adults (1 male to 4 or 5 females) and wait about 2 months, you'll have roaches of all sizes to choose from. I think orange heads breed faster than hissers, so you wouldn't even need 2 months. I just like hissers cause newborn hissers are perfect for 4-5 month old chameleons. I can feed everything from newborn to 2 month olds to one of my chameleons. Plus, I think roaches are better than crickets for your chameleon. They have nice healthy meat and you can gutload them with anything, even moreso than crix. They breed with no effort and you can feed a lesser amount because they're bigger than crix.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
1.2 Nosy Be Panthers
2.2 Sambava Panthers
1.0 Tamatave Panther
1.0 Nosy Be X Unknown Cross
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.0.2 CBB Desert Tortoises
0.0.1 Sulcatta Tortoise

I have been using roaches for a couple of months now. Mine are lobsters so you need vaseline on the cup. The are easy as heck to breed, don't stink, and you can pick from many sizes during their life cycle....only thing is, my cham seemed to tire of them easily, and I have heard that some won't touch them. Too bad too considering how much easier they are than crix
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Matt

I use lobsters as well, and my panther loves them. I have always gave a varirty of food at once (Roaches, Crickets, silkworm etc)and have never refused any. Somedays he eats roaches first, then next day Crickets. Either way, he always finishes whats on his plate!