Bug Talk!

andrearamirezo91

andrearamirezo91

Avid Member
It's me again lol :p

So I've been trying to vary my chameleon's diet but it is really hard for me to find the proper insects and size for my chameleon.

All I can find in the four different pet stores around me are crickets, wax worms, super worms and mealworms. I do find hornworms sometimes, but they're literally the size of my chameleon! I cant find the small ones anywhere! :(

I know meal worms are hard to digest and have very low nutritional value so I don't buy them. I do buy wax worms sometimes just because he really seems to love them, so I give them to him as an occasional treat and ONLY if he lets me hand feed him lol.

So basically all he's been eating are crickets and super worms, but I really want to vary his diet more as I have learned this is important.

So how do you guys keep up with a varied diet? Where do you buy your feeders? Don't a bunch of them die if you get them shipped? o_O
 
andrearamirezo91 said:
It's me again lol :p

So I've been trying to vary my chameleon's diet but it is really hard for me to find the proper insects and size for my chameleon.

All I can find in the four different pet stores around me are crickets, wax worms, super worms and mealworms. I do find hornworms sometimes, but they're literally the size of my chameleon! I cant find the small ones anywhere! :(

I know meal worms are hard to digest and have very low nutritional value so I don't buy them. I do buy wax worms sometimes just because he really seems to love them, so I give them to him as an occasional treat and ONLY if he lets me hand feed him lol.

So basically all he's been eating are crickets and super worms, but I really want to vary his diet more as I have learned this is important.

So how do you guys keep up with a varied diet? Where do you buy your feeders? Don't a bunch of them die if you get them shipped? o_O
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Actually whenever I order silkworms and hornworms from mulberry farms, or hornworms from great lakes hornworm all are alive and smaller they aren't like huge but they do come with their food etc. if you want them bigger or depending on amount of food to get a couple to adult size and breed them! Breeding is also another thing I started doing 1. because it'll save me money and 2. I won't have to keep ordering my feeders.
 
I get all of my feeders shipped since the only pet store in my area is Petco, which is definitely no bueno. I buy from dubiaroaches.com. They have good service, awesome feeders, and awesome supplies. Dubia roaches are a very healthy and very delicious (in my cham's perspective) option. I have tried to vary my cham's diet multiple times before. I tried hornworms, and she didn't like them. I also tried BSFL, and she didn't really love them either. I used to have crickets, but they escaped everywhere, and I could never tell if my cham was actually eating them or if they were just escaping.

I highly suggest ordering them online. When I order 100 dubia roaches from dubiaroaches.com, I can never find a single dead one. Roaches are seriously hardy bugs. They will eat just about anything, and my cham loves them.

I have also tried to breed a bit, which as @bloftis said above, saves money and time.
 
I have had a lot of success with ordering bugs from Josh's frogs. I also am breeding silkworms. I started with some eggs from costal silkworms. I probably would only have the silkworms as an occasional treat if I had to relay on the chow as they seem more prone to dying off compared to feeding them mulberry leaves.
 
CamrynTheCham22 said:
I get all of my feeders shipped since the only pet store in my area is Petco, which is definitely no bueno. I buy from dubiaroaches.com. They have good service, awesome feeders, and awesome supplies. Dubia roaches are a very healthy and very delicious (in my cham's perspective) option. I have tried to vary my cham's diet multiple times before. I tried hornworms, and she didn't like them. I also tried BSFL, and she didn't really love them either. I used to have crickets, but they escaped everywhere, and I could never tell if my cham was actually eating them or if they were just escaping.

I highly suggest ordering them online. When I order 100 dubia roaches from dubiaroaches.com, I can never find a single dead one. Roaches are seriously hardy bugs. They will eat just about anything, and my cham loves them.

I have also tried to breed a bit, which as @bloftis said above, saves money and time.
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Oh yes! I also forget to mention about dubia roaches, glad you touched up on those feeders. I'm thinking on switching to them as my staple instead of crix, I'm quite afraid of the crix TBH lol! But I'm gladly going pick up some dubias any day, but heck no to crix.
 
I am lucky enough that I can get a variety from different stores. For the more unusual feeders I buy them from someone who breeds feeders as a side business, met her at the local reptile expo and she's great. No website though, she works from a Facebook page. For hornworms though, are the ones you find, in the cups by Timberline? If they are like my local pet store, they order the hornworm cups with small hornworms, but in 1-2 weeks they are already giant. The trick is to find out when they get their bug shipments in, and you can buy them while still small. Also, if they carry Timberline bugs, see if they will order for you, my store does not carry Calciworms normally, but they buy some for me. Which is nice, it's almost always too hot or too cold to buy online, I'd end up paying a fortune in cool and heat packs.
 
bloftis1 said:
Oh yes! I also forget to mention about dubia roaches, glad you touched up on those feeders. I'm thinking on switching to them as my staple instead of crix, I'm quite afraid of the crix TBH lol! But I'm gladly going pick up some dubias any day, but heck no to crix.
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If roaches don't make you run for the hills you may want to try red runners. Over the last six months I have been trying out dubia's, orange headed and red runners. The red runners elicit the best feeding response of the three with my panther and with how quickly they breed and eat all of the gutload would be a good staple roach.
 
DavidL said:
If roaches don't make you run for the hills you may want to try red runners. Over the last six months I have been trying out dubia's, orange headed and red runners. The red runners elicit the best feeding response of the three with my panther and with how quickly they breed and eat all of the gutload would be a good staple roach.
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Ooooo thank you for that! I'm looking into anything like them. (y)(y)
 
Red runners can infest in certain environments, I'd be careful with them. As for worms and such, I get a lot from Josh's frogs. Ordering is definitely the way to go.

I'd recommend different roach species, I have like 9 in a basement room. Isopods and snails are also great feeders that can reproduce easily.
 
Thanks everybody! I'm honestly terrified of roaches but I'm aware that I'm gonna have to get over it for my chameleon's sake lol. I was just as afraid of crickets and the first week I got my chameleon I accidentally lost like 6-7 of them in the house (long story) and I wasn't able to sleep thinking they'd climb in my bed while I was asleep :eek:

blue_cham said:
I am lucky enough that I can get a variety from different stores. For the more unusual feeders I buy them from someone who breeds feeders as a side business, met her at the local reptile expo and she's great. No website though, she works from a Facebook page. For hornworms though, are the ones you find, in the cups by Timberline? If they are like my local pet store, they order the hornworm cups with small hornworms, but in 1-2 weeks they are already giant. The trick is to find out when they get their bug shipments in, and you can buy them while still small. Also, if they carry Timberline bugs, see if they will order for you, my store does not carry Calciworms normally, but they buy some for me. Which is nice, it's almost always too hot or too cold to buy online, I'd end up paying a fortune in cool and heat packs.
Click to expand...

They do have calciworms at my LPS, they look tiny though and I had never heard anyone here mention them before so I don't really buy them. Are they good? I could go get some of those to add to his diet as well.
 
I am not sure what country you are in, but in the USA you can get butterworms and waxworms at walmart. If you go to a local bait shop, you can probably get spikes for cheap and let a few turn into flies at a time. . I am pretty sure crickets, hornworms, and superworms are at any reptile pet shop, those places tend to be expensive but if you're only feeding one or two reptiles it doesn't matter too much. You could start a small colony of roaches, too, maybe dubia or orange heads which will come in handy if you get more reptiles or you can always sell any excess or if you really want to be nice give them to a reptile rescue.
 
To the OP, aren't you in Florida? You're gonna have a hard time getting roaches since most are illegal to shipped/own in your state. I believe some of the feeder roaches that are legal in Florida are Blaberus discoidalis (discoids), Pycnoscelus surinamensis (surinams), and Panchlora nivea (green banana). You cannot get dubias, orange heads, and definitely not red runners in Florida
 
andrearamirezo91 said:
Awesome! will stop by the pet store today after work to get some of those too :)
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Yes, like James mentioned, although small, they add a good little variety. They are also the only feeder that I know of that has a positipo calcium to phosphorus ratio, which is nice
 
andrearamirezo91 said:
Thanks everybody! I'm honestly terrified of roaches but I'm aware that I'm gonna have to get over it for my chameleon's sake lol. I was just as afraid of crickets and the first week I got my chameleon I accidentally lost like 6-7 of them in the house (long story) and I wasn't able to sleep thinking they'd climb in my bed while I was asleep :eek:



They do have calciworms at my LPS, they look tiny though and I had never heard anyone here mention them before so I don't really buy them. Are they good? I could go get some of those to add to his diet as well.
Click to expand...
LOL me! That's how I was when I first got my cham too, I had maybe 5-6 escapees and I just ran out of the room, I peaced out xD
 
Thanks to everyone for your input, it's been really helpful. I'm gonna be placing some online orders for small hornworms and I have an order of calciworms coming in to my LPS today. Sad to hear about the roaches as everyone seems to have these as one of their first choice feeders for their chameleons. I am however terrified of roaches lol. Are these guys fast? :cautious: Do they fly? Do they bite?! :eek:

Ohh the things I do for my little boy... :rolleyes:
 
Oh gosh I hate roaches too. I don't even know what it is about them. My guys don't actually care for them, I get 20 at a time and give one or two a week. Getting a small number helps me make sure there are no escapees :D I dropped a dusted one once and spent the next 15 minutes hunting it down
 
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