About feeder breeding

[sandrachameleon]

Oh...guess what 'hatched'? Got four painted ladies! Came out just a couple hours ago! Totally unprepared to use them to start a colony tho. The care sheet that came with them didn't really go into keeping them, just said get flowers or dribble some sugar water on TP or paper towels. What do I need to do to ensure they stay healty and happy? Also how often would a cham be able to have these? That way I know how many I need to keep vs get rid of.

This is what I believe I one can safely feed the larva: mallow, hollyhock, sunflower, coreopsis, daisy.
And for the butterflies: watermellon, ripe banana, sugar water, fresh orange juice, coreopsis flower nectar, mallow nectar, Hollyhock nectar, hummingbird food

NOT milkweed

Previous thread: https://www.chameleonforums.com/painted-lady-butterfly-vanessa-cardui-37328/

 

[nick barta]

One of the problems with starting colonies of feeders before you get your Chameleon, is you may find the feeders are too big for the chameleon you purchase, or the cham won't eat your choice of feeders.

A better order to pursue might be to read about in the Forum on how to get the living space set up for the cham first.

I would suggest you put your energies toward getting the cage, lighting, plants, and watering system in place first, as well as powdered supplements, and then order small amounts of the following feeders the week before your chams arrival:

Crickets
Silk worms
Super worms (zoophobias)
Phoenix worms
Horn worms
Blue Bottle flies
Dubia Roaches
Stick bugs

Hopefully he/she will like them all, but if some are refused, you haven't put a lot of time and money into the feeders.

The underlined feeders are the ones I would start with for a 12 week old cham, which is pretty small.


Nick

 

[Captyn Cron]

So I found this site--tidbits of info really but it did help

http://lawrencehallofscience.org/foss/fossweb/teachers/materials/plantanimal/ladybutterfly.html

I found out that you can make a 'wick bottle' filled with humming bird food. I took an small Tang container (ya know the plastic ones with the screw on tops.) and drilled a couple good sized holes in the top. Then I took a rolled up coffee filter and put two into the holes I made into the HB food. I had these like pre-made jobs that was kinda cone shaped but, you can use paper towels too.
They also need water on the regular but can't drink out of a dish unless they have something to rest on. I took a lid, soaked a sponge and put it in the lid. They seem to be happy and all we gotta find now are some of the above mentioned leaves for them to lay eggs on and to feed the larvae.

Nick-sent you a return pm. Kristy is at work right now but we will talk when she gets home. We might just get some superworms asap and leave the rest until closer to the time we get our cham.