Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About a week ago I caught a katydid, feed it for a few days and then showed it to Bender. He hadn't been showing much interest in crickets or silkworms. But as soon as he saw that katydid he went nuts. Gobbled that thing up like there was no tomorrow. It was rather large and took him a little while to finish. But again he's not showing interest in the other bugs. Only eats maybe 2 crickets a day. Yesterday he did eat 3 nice fat ones. But none today. My question is, could he still be full from the big bug? I've been watching him closely and he's not impacted at all (has a habit of pooing when ever I mist. Mmmm warm water). Last time I had silkworms he'd run to eat them. Now he just walks over them. Should I be worried?? The temp has been a tiny bit cooler at night but other than that nothing has changed. What's the normal cricket amount per day? Is there something I could gutload them with to make them taste better? Currently they get cabbage, oranges, Fluker's grain mix, dark green lettuce, carrots, and apple.Thanks for all the help!!!

warm water makes me wanna evacuate too

cooler temps mean the cham will move less and thus need less food . also is he a adult? if so try feedin every other day (thats what ive been told)

Although my advisor studied Katydids extensivly, and said they had NO parasites that would affect lizards, this may have been local samples only.

A friend of mine had some large quantities of parsonii over the years. One thing he noticed was their preference for large green insects, katydids in particular.

He said that some parsonii were nortoriously picky, and wouldn;'t eat ANYTHING. They would ALWAYS eat katydids--ALWAYS.
And they would ALWAUYS give them nasty protozoans.

So just keep that in mind. I have fed all my chameleons big katydids over the last few years, with no problems. I probably wouldn't do it though, if not for the fact that I have my own miroscope,a dn do the fecal tests myself--they can get expensive, and taking the risk of introducing more protozoans in to the system is not always worth it.

I wouldn't worry much, with the cooler temps he'll metabolize less slowly than in the summer. He might also be having a little bit of food boredom, and the katydid was something new and exciting. If he stops eating for an extended period(several days) then this would be a cause of concern, but what you have described seems normal.

I wouldn't worry about it. Most people overfeed their chams anyway. If a cham stops eating it's usually one of two things: 1)he's sick and the anorexia is a symptom of another, more serious problem.... veterinary or husbandry-related.
2)He's bored with the food. My chams also went nuts over their first silkies...... for about 3 days. Now they won't touch them even though thy hadn't seen one a month.

BTW, I, too, use the herpnutrition supplement but only once a month....... twice a month at most and then only with tyhe VERY lightest dusting. People who supplement at every feeding, covering the crix with so much powder that they're white, risk serious problems from oversupllementation. See the relevant articles in the vet sections of www.adcham.com and www.chameleonjournals.com
Ed