Dubia Movement Not Interesting Enough

[Mirrorakay]

Zeke is a worm man. He loves any and all kinds of worms and has since I first brought him home. He is normally a shy eater, but he gets so interested in them he will even eat them when I'm around (normally a very shy eater). However, I haven't really found a way to make them a staple feeder. Originally he had crickets as a staple, but he got bored and refuses them entirely. Then we switched to dubia. This is where the trouble started.

Zeke likes them and will eat them, but it is very difficult to feed these to him. He seems almost oblivious to their movements when I put them in the tank. I've tried putting them in a bowl and he completely ignores them. I've tried putting them on the floor of his tank and he'll glance at them, but their movement isn't enough to convince him to chase after them. The roaches scurry to where he can't get them by the time he even considers eating. The only time he will seem to eat them is if they come out of hiding after I've been away from the tank from a while. So when he is being fed roaches, he is eating maybe one or two a day. I don't know how to feed them to him, because I know he likes them. It's just their movement doesn't entice him. Does anyone have any tricks on how to get Zeke interested?

 

[RioReptiles]

I hand feed and hold them in front of their faces so they can see the legs move. This is usually enough to show them they are alive, then if they still aren't too sure, I just move it side to side in front of their faces. I don't know how old or big he is, but if hes a sub adult or adult his metabolism has probably slown down and he doesn't need to eat as much. When they get to this stage, I start skipping days and feeding live bugs every other day or every third day until I figure out their feeding pattern.

 

[Mirrorakay]

He is an adult so that may well be our problem. I'll try going to every other day and see if that helps.

 

[RioReptiles]

Even more so since he's a male. I noticed my boys will eat more greens when I get them on the 2 or 3 day bug regimen.