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My male Ambaja Panther Chameleon barely eats anymore. He doesn't like crickets anymore so I started feeding him superworms. He liked superworms but he doesn't like them now either. All the meanwhile, he has been afraid of Silkworms and Goliath horned worms and will only eat them if he is really hungry or if I coax him into eating them. He is just over a year old and is over 14" inches. I have him in a small cage for his size (30x16x16) but am working on a bigger cage (almost done). He drinks a lot and climbs a lot. His temperatures are perfect and lighting is fine. Could it be the cage being to small?

Hi there!

I really dont think its an issue with the cage being too small, rather there might be something else, perhapes internally that is affecting his appetite. Or perhapes he is just bored of the food you give him. Why not try waxworms? You didint mention waxworms, so give it a try. Or perhapes Mantis?

The trick for fussy eaters who stops eating, at least through my own expereince, is to feed them something they havent had befor or in a long time, and feed them only that for a period of time. Once the new food entices them and they begin eating, they usually get their appetites back and you can switch back to what you regularly feed them. Is your Ambanja wild caught by any chance?

IF that doesn't work, then keep an eye out for anything irregular about your panther, such as signs of ilness(sunken eyes, opening of mouth for extensive periods of time, or even subcutaneous parasites). A visit to the vet might be needed.

goodluck with him.

i went thru kinda the same thing with my jacksons...turned out he gets bored with the prey items so i have to mix it up and recognize when his "run" on a particular insect is over

try mixing in the occasional wild caught insect (mine loves daddy long legs but he's half the size of your cham)...my cham isn't big on silkies either...he only seems to like leggy insects

one other strange thing about my cham (don't know if this is common), when an insect is on the screen wall he'll ignore it for hours...take that same insect and put it on the vine below or above him and he'll aggresively go after it...hope this helped

My female blue bar ambilobe is the same way, she refuses to eat insects off the screen, but once you put them on the vines the ficus leaves or the manzanita watch out she will rip your hand off if its in the way of her food. On the other hand my male blue bar ambilobe could care less about where the insects are in his cage as long as there is plenty for him to stuff his face.

Thank you all for replying to my post. My Ambaja is captive born and I believe he has no parasites whatsoever. He doesn't feed from my hand and he does the opposite of what some of you said>>>>>He will sometimes eat if he sees me attach a superworm to the screen but if I attach a silkworm or horned worm he just looks at me like what is this! I will try waxworms and am pondering starting a roach culture but I don't want roaches in the house. I hope he snaps out of it and starts eating once I get his giant cage ready. I have heard of major breeders housing adult panthers in the size of cage in which mine is in and in my opinion it is not big enough.