Are Soldier Larvae Good Food?

[jajeanpierre]

I'm brand new to chameleons, buying my first a 3 to 4 month old veiled female in mid November. While picking up some supplies for her at a Petsmart, I couldn't resist a really beautiful older male veiled that I've had a few days.

I pulled a lot of soldier fly larvae (I think some retailers sell them as Phoenix worms) from my compost bin, washed them off and set up a bin in the house where I can make sure they eat good food (and no coffee--they really love coffee grounds) and are not living and eating moldy vegetable matter.

The male (about 70 grams) just ate and ate and ate everything in sight on the first day, including plants, and even tried to eat the big river rocks covering the soil. His first bowel movement was full of rocks and big chunks of bark from the substrate in the pet shop. Because of all the large garbage in his poop, I was happy to see him eating so much, filling the gut with soft food so the rocks and stuff could pass without a problem.

The next day, he had a reasonably large bowel movement but it had lots of undigested soldier fly larvae in it. He swallowed them whole. I couldn't find any undigested crickets and he ate a lot of them.

I don't think he has a parasite problem--I'll get a stool sample in next week.

Are soldier fly larvae too tough to digest unless they have been bitten?

 

[jamncristian]

From previous examples given by other keepers
soldier fly larvae can be tougher to digest unless that skin is broken

I have heard of people pricking the skin of the larvae with thumbtacks
to ease in the digestive process

 

[laurie]

I feed the larvae to my quads and have had no problems. That may just be luck, I don't know. But I will tell you my chams will knock you over to get the soldier flys. If you are worried, either prick them as mentioned, or let then hatch to flys.

 

[Norcal55]

My Chams love them and have had no issues at all when feeding.
They will get firmer as they start to pupate. When that happens I just feed those off when they are flies and the Chams go crazy for them

 

[fluxlizard]

A couple of summers ago I produced many soldier fly larvae and my chams had no problems with them. I suspect they may be similar to mealworms- if the lizard is very hungry when fed, or cold or sick, they will pass through mostly undigested. If well fed and healthy and warm, they are digested completely.

Maybe skip this insect for a few weeks, feed roaches or crickets, and then reintroduce once your lizard has stopped passing garbage from his pet shop life out in his poop, and has had a chance to settle in and get his system going normally. Then introduce a few at a time and see what happens before increasing the amount given in a feeding.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

 

[frikitiki]

My chams like them as well.... But they love them even better as flies. I will feed a few of as larvae but will let ther rest turn to flies.