Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Of course once there's one problem, there's more. But now it's not my male, and instead it's my female. She won't eat crickets anymore. At all. I put them in, and instead of being her normal self and hunting them all down, she ignores them completely. I decided to bust out the mealworms on her and she ate them, but a whole new problem has seemed to arisen. She walked over to the dish I had them in(I hold the dish, she eats them, and goes away) and instead of flinging out her tongue to capture them, she put her face right up to them, slowly pressed her tongue on one, and then ate it. Sooooooo, my question is... Is this a physical problem, a disease, or the begining to a whole new slew of problems? Is it possible to simply feed her by hand every day? Why am I having so many problems? I was pretty sure all my husbandry practices were fine...but maybe I'm wrong. I'll soon post a picture of my setups. Thanks in advance.

Hey,

I couldn't help notice the title of the thread "OF course! More problems!"
First of all, here is why u are having so many probs. IN MY OPINION, not all chams will live in captivity, even cb. Some are destined to die. They all don't prosper in captivity. Why??? Simple, they are an exotic. While you might have their husbandry down pat, some just won't make it, while other will thrive. Some won't breed, while others will lay eggs ever 3 weeks. Each animal is different. Maybe this is my opinion, but I am sure that others feel the same. Maybe you think I am a moron, and that they will ALL thrive if the proper husbandry parameters are met; you can think what you want. But, don't get frustrated when you fail on certain specimens; you might get another, and keep it exactly the same way, and it will thrive. Keep trying, and you will succeed.
"Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines."
~Robert Schuller.

It might be the begginning to more probs, or it might be the end result of another prob. I have had chams that have been fine, and ate great, and then came down with URI's or parasites, or something similar, and then they do the exact same thing: they go right up to the food, about an inch away, and then use their toungue, not really fully shooting it out. All of the times it has happened to me, which has only been about 2-3 times, it was after a stressful event, i.e. parasites, URI, ect. But, are are probably other reasons too. I have seen no bad effects other than that you can't enjoy watching it eat. I have never reversed it, but I am sure there are ways.

Also, try silkworms, and other feeders,(LOL, I would say roaches, but lets just say that we dont reccommend them any more after we had some escape!) instead of meal worms. They are not the most nutritious.

Ank-Inc.
Adam.

PS- If there was anything I forgot to mention, let me know.

I do agree with you completely that some animals just won't make it. I mostly find it frustrating because I'm trying so hard, and my results are nothing short of disappointing. I've been giving her mealworms because I use those for my leo's, I'm going to order roaches next week cause I'm tired of dealing with crickets....ewwwwww they're so nasty.

Hey,

LOL, the reason why we didn't reccomend roaches, was because we keep, or should I say kept a large colony of lobster roaches. Some how, they got out!!! And the way the room was, was just perfect for them to breed. But they never did...that we know of. But other than that, they make great feeders. Silkworms have always worked for me. I wouldn't recommend wax worms. They are just basically fat, with no nutritional value.

Ank-Inc.
Adam.

Mmmm! Some yummy thoughts...

Wax worms are great when you need your herps to bulk up though! I have a beared dragon that loved them, which is awesome because she is small and skinny.

Right now, I love Silkworms. They are possibly the neatest feeder there is. They even dance! Plus the smell relatively nice. The smell of the mulberry food takes a while to get used to.

Also, butterworms are the best smelling feeder there is I think. Quite nutritious and incredibly easy to keep. They can live past three months. The downfall is how hard they are to aquire and how Expensive.

Adam, I always love your photos! That one with the cricket is adorable, with his hands clasped as if giddy! May I ask what kind of camera you are using? Any special Flash?

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1.1 Bearded Dragons
1.2 Maroantsetra Panther Chameleons
2.0 Long Tailed Grass Lizards
0.0.1 Giant Mellers Chameleon
0.0.2 Kenyan Pigmy Chameleons
500 Escaped Crickets

Hey,

Yea, butter worms DO smell good!!! They have 2x the calcium as anyother feeder insect as well. But, I haven't seen them offered anywhere in the last few months, and never in bulk. It's too bad. Every chameleon is different however. Some will love butterworms and silkworms, while others will only eat crickets. LOL, this makes it real hard to give a varied diet to all of them when keeping alot!!! Stick bugs, and mantids also work well. I have never personally used stick bugs, or even adult mantises; I have only hatched egg sacks to feed to baby chams, which is cheap and works great. I wish more feeders were available though...

Thanks for the compliment on the pics. Your pic of the cham with it's tongue out is fantastic. I can never get one like that!!! I am not sure the model number, which I will find out in the next few days, but I use a Kodak with 5.0 mega pixels. It works pretty good. You should definetly ask others what kinds of camera they use though, as others have pics 10x better than mine.

I posted a pic of my cages that I just took today. I have been adding an irrigation system to the cages all weekend. You can't see it too well though. IT IS GREAT!!! I can leave the auto misters on for hours at a time and all the excess water flows into a bucket. Can't wait to try it again tomarrow. I also posted a few miselaneous pics. Let me know what you think.

Ank-Inc.
Adam.

I love that photo with all the cages. Some day I want some 9x16x16 cages made for me to keep on a shelf above troughs, similar to that. A ficus and a vine in each one. Would work great for raising a full clutch of babies from my Maroantsetra group. The set up you have there looks great! Don't mist too too long and let that wood dry between mistings and you'll have a very efficient time doing the clean up and feeding duties.

I ask about the camera because I'm a photographer and your photos seem reonalbly crisp and pretty nice for just a point and shoot digi-cam. Some day maybe I can affor to buy a new dslr with a macro lense. Photos of bugs and rptile skin always amaze me. Here is a gallery of mine: http://exiledphotography.deviantart.com/gallery/

The Nosy, looks great. Nice size. Personally, I am incredibly partial to the Zues Bloodline from BlueBeast Reptiles. Gorgeous animal, killer offspring.
I can't wait for my babes to grow.
Especially the Melleri, I wish he would eat more though.

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1.1 Bearded Dragons
1.2 Maroantsetra Panther Chameleons
2.0 Long Tailed Grass Lizards
0.0.1 Giant Mellers Chameleon
0.0.2 Kenyan Pigmy Chameleons
500 Escaped Crickets

Hello,everyone.not sure where you guys live.The New York reptile show in White Plains always has butterworms and they are pricey. My jackson gets sick of crickets quickly so i feed him supers silkies, lobster roaches mealies(sometimes) and I just bought a cup of hornworms. He seems to like them. However I have never seen him refuse a roach. lobsters are a pain though. good luck, Matt

Is this the female that just had the babies? Maybe she's looking for something with a little more substance. Maybe her cricket strike is her simply saying that she wants more MEAT, less filling! IMHO I would DEFINITELY reccommend ROACHES! I would prefer to stay away from the glass climbers as discoid and orange head nymphs would make great meaty feeders!
You might even try something with a higher fat content, such as waxworms or butterworms. Silkworms are great, but most of my Jacksons seemed to ignore silkworms in general. They took em as a novelty, but once the novelty wore off, they seem to run away from them.
Personally, I would eliminate the feeding cup if she is being lazy with her hunting. At least until she becomes more active in her hunting. I don't have evidence to back up this opinion, but I think the 'use it or lose it' thought comes into play here. She might lose her ability to shoot her tongue properly if she's not shooting for her food.
All this is strictly anectodal information; just my own personal observations with my Jacksons.
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi@yahoo.com

Victor, you are right on here. Chams are predators...they get bored with our limited types of feeders and also get bored eating out of a dish. Once they learn that the prey doesn't really need to be hunted they may eat like this and their tongue gets lazy too. I find that keeping a few loose day active insects in the cage stimulates the cham's interest. Crix, superworms and roaches just hide, so I like houseflies as feeders as they are active, tend to stay up in the light where it is warm, and the cham can watch and shoot them. I also like using a large plastic storage box instead of a small feeding cup. The insects roam around and actually need to be "caught". The cham has to come to the rim of the box, select, aim, and shoot at lunch.