Bees Stings CAN HURT Your Cham

[Andrew1283]

Well I’m glad my ignorance didn’t harm my buddy with lasting effects. Her jaw looks much better and she’s eating crickets like normal. I tried to inspect her mouth as snitz427 recommended but her veil/head is small and she wiggled free. I didn’t want to hold her too hard and hurt her and I wasn’t wearing gloves. She took a snap at me and now she’s looking at me with her war paint colors.

 

[CasqueAbove]

I don’t think it is a sting. If it is then they are not susceptible to the venom. A sting I would expect to swell far more.

Also it is learned how to hunt. Not all know at first. We see this with supper worms where they learn to strike the head so not to get bit

 

[nightanole]

I don’t think it is a sting. If it is then they are not susceptible to the venom. A sting I would expect to swell far more.

Also it is learned how to hunt. Not all know at first. We see this with supper worms where they learn to strike the head so not to get bit

Mine never learn that trick, or how to not eat dubia sideways...

Id be happy if they just ate dubia head first so they didnt have a chance to crawl out inbetween chomps...

 

[aleagueofherown]

Mine never learn that trick, or how to not eat dubia sideways...

Id be happy if they just ate dubia head first so they didnt have a chance to crawl out inbetween chomps...

Or how to eat hornworms without squishing all their poop out and having it gush everywhere

 

[Kaizen]

I get it, bees collect pollen from a variety of sources and keep it on their back legs. The chameleon ingests the bee and gets the nutritional benefits of the bee, as well as the pollen they have collected. Removing a stinger is not that difficult to do. You hold the bee with a pair of tweezers and use a second set of tweezers to grab and pull out the stinger. I have good vision so it’s easy for me but others may need to use a magnifying glass. At that point I would say forget about it! Bumblebees have no stingers so they are easy feeders. Niteanole, unfortunately I can’t see the stinger and bag because the sting is on the inside of her mouth. I watched her grab the honeybee with her tongue and draw it into her mouth before chewing. If this is the outside of her mouth, I can’t imagine the damage inside. I’ll try to get her to open her mouth with a feeding today. We have a good trusting relationship but I can’t make her go Ahhhh like I’m a dentist This is her today and the spot is smaller with less yellow.

Bumblebees do have stingers.

 

[Kaizen]

Not to beat a dead horse, but I just thought I’d share a few thoughts. First, bumblebees do indeed have stingers. Honeybees have a three pronged barbed stinger that sticks in mammal flesh, and as a result when honey bees sting mammals, the stinger—along with a portion of their innards—comes off when they sting mammals. Honey bees can sting other insects over and over, but something about the barbed nature of their stingers makes them stick in mammal flesh.

While I respect any keeper’s decision to allow his/her Cham to eat bees, wasps, etc., the operative word is “allow”. I don’t know many folks who advocate catching bees and feeding them off like crix. Most fans of bees usually just say if you have the opportunity to allow your Cham to tag a bee or two, that’s a good thing. In all fairness, I know of no study into wild chameleon bee stings, so any evidence here is going to be anecdotal; however, there is plenty of empirical evidence that wild chameleons of all shapes and sizes regularly eat hymenopterans. The articles and their findings can be found in my blog on gutloading. Anyways, the big point is allowing your Cham to tag a few bees is different from trying to hand feed your cham a bee—regardless of whether you have removed the stinger or not. Chams, unsurprisingly, are pretty good at tagging all manner of flying insect from branches/leaves, etc. Thousands of years of evolution has I’m used them with a robust ability to tag, shock and crunch without injury. When is humans interject ourselves into that process, it should be no surprise that things go wrong.

I know, typos, and I talk way too much. Noted! Here’s my take, allow your Cham to tag bees, or don’t. But if you do, allow the Cham to take care of business on his/her own; don’t interfere, or try to micromanage.

finally, here’s a few pics of some of my outdoor enclosures. Note the adjacent beehives.

 

[Chameleoking]

Not to beat a dead horse, but I just thought I’d share a few thoughts. First, bumblebees do indeed have stingers. Honeybees have a three pronged barbed stinger that sticks in mammal flesh, and as a result when honey bees sting mammals, the stinger—along with a portion of their innards—comes off when they sting mammals. Honey bees can sting other insects over and over, but something about the barbed nature of their stingers makes them stick in mammal flesh.

While I respect any keeper’s decision to allow his/her Cham to eat bees, wasps, etc., the operative word is “allow”. I don’t know many folks who advocate catching bees and feeding them off like crix. Most fans of bees usually just say if you have the opportunity to allow your Cham to tag a bee or two, that’s a good thing. In all fairness, I know of no study into wild chameleon bee stings, so any evidence here is going to be anecdotal; however, there is plenty of empirical evidence that wild chameleons of all shapes and sizes regularly eat hymenopterans. The articles and their findings can be found in my blog on gutloading. Anyways, the big point is allowing your Cham to tag a few bees is different from trying to hand feed your cham a bee—regardless of whether you have removed the stinger or not. Chams, unsurprisingly, are pretty good at tagging all manner of flying insect from branches/leaves, etc. Thousands of years of evolution has I’m used them with a robust ability to tag, shock and crunch without injury. When is humans interject ourselves into that process, it should be no surprise that things go wrong.

I know, typos, and I talk way too much. Noted! Here’s my take, allow your Cham to tag bees, or don’t. But if you do, allow the Cham to take care of business on his/her own; don’t interfere, or try to micromanage.

finally, here’s a few pics of some of my outdoor enclosures. Note the adjacent beehives.

I absolutely love this idea! Also very well put

 

[Andrew1283]

Kaizen that looks amazing!