Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[gollum]

hey, I'm new here, i got a Yemen chameleon and he doesn't eat much at all, Ive had him about 8 months and he used to eat anything...and lots of it. but now he will only eat a couple of super worms every couple of days, does anyone know how i can tempt him with other insects, Ive tried cockroaches, locusts, cricket, wax worms, fruit beetle larvae...even stick insects...nothings helping

hes in a 4'x2'x2'(HxWxD) Viv with mesh sides, a 10% UV bulb with a 60w basking lamp, the temps are stable and correct, i mist the cage about 3 times a day, humidity varies between 30% and 70%(just after misting) he has plenty of real non toxic planting ( he doesn't eat it anyway) and a drip system that's on about an hour a day.

i even have a outdoor mesh cage for when the weathers good enough...hes shedding his skin without trouble, and doesn't seem to be underweight or ill in any way...can anyone help...please!

[felix93]

Can he use his tongue properly? I mean does he flip his tongue right out to catch the food?

[gollum]

yeah, no problem there at all, i heard they eat lest as they get older. hes just over a year old...that doesn't seem old to me?

[felix93]

1 year old is not old at all. All mine can eat like a horse if I let them. How do you dust the livefeed? I read some people dust them a lot or vice versa and their chams gone off it because of that too. Otherwise, may be he doesn't want you to watch him to eat anymore, so leave a few locusts inside his viv and see if he would eat them secretly overnight / early in the morning before you attend to him.

If he doesn't eat anything or a lot, try to starve him for more than a couple of days, and if he is hungry enough, he should eat anything you put into the viv after that starviing period.

[gollum]

i dust it with nurabol, he wont eat anything without it, i'm trying to cut it down a bit but he's not making it easy! i've tried leaving locusts and dubia roach nymphs for him, but he doesn't touch them, if anything he seems a little scared of them. he used to eat adult locust and full size silkworms(when i could get hold of them), he went through a faze of only eating wax worms, but he wont touch them now either.

he seems healthy enough, but i don't know how long that will last if he doesn't start eating properly. his Viv is spotless too, so its not that putting him off.

[felix93]

The only thing I could suggest is try to "starve" him for a little longer than what you are doing now and hope he will be hungry enough to start eating again. From what I know of, an off food Yemen can last for about 1 to 2 weeks as long as there's still water for hydration, that's what my vet told me when I have egg bound Yemen girls. Of course don't leave that for too long.

When one of my females that got egg bound and not eating, I did try to get her angry (TBH that's hard becos my Yemens have got good temper and rarely puff up), so she puff up and opened her mouth, I just put a waxworm in before she closed her mouth again and that works. I managed to squeeze in about 8 waxies at one go, even waxies are not great livefeed but it's still better than nothing. Their tongues are pretty stickies and if you put the food inside the mouth, they can't really spilt that out. Bear in mind if your Yemen is not friendly, then you have to deal with his stress later but get him to eat is more important.