Can I feed a Meller’s chameleon a lizard?

[Washoe]

We just purchased our first Meller’s a few days ago. He seems a little bit stressed, but I think he’s slowly settling in. He seems to have a good appetite, and is eating 15+ large crickets a day. I just caught an adult western fence lizard in my driveway. Would it be safe and/or advisable to feed it to the Meller’s? It is about four inches in length, including the tail.

 

[Rickky]

If your Mellers is big enough andyouare sure that pesticides have not been use around your area lizards in general arein a Meller's natural diet...

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I wouldn't.

-Brad

 

[Washoe]

I couldn't bring myself to do it. I let the little bugger go free.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I think that was the best decision for both lizards involved.
Good choice!

-Brad

 

[Washoe]

OK, but please indulge me. What do you think would have happened had I fed the fence lizard to the chameleon (aside from the rather unpleasant prospect of him only eating half of it)?

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

If it had traces of pesticides I would guess it could cause liver or kidney damage.

 

[dectr6]

main thing to worry about is parasites. The fence lizard likely has them and you can pass them on to your cham. I used to feed my veiled's newly born gecko's that are on our front porch. My chams started coming up positive on their fecals. I stopped feeding them to my chams about 4 months ago and their fecals have come up negative the last two months. I was only giving each cham one every month.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Parasites would be my first concern.

-Brad

 

[Eric Adrignola]

Yeah - it's better to not feed them lizards form here. It's not just the fact that it's parasites - it's alien parasites. As in not the kind the animal is used to dealing with.

but melleri will eat themselves some vertebrates. I've seem Ardi eye up some aubadult veields I have... he would eat them, I'm sure.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I almost didn't say parasites because of the phenomenon that a lot of new world parasites do not effect old world animals.
However, I always play the better safe than sorry card and surely there are some parasites that could come into play.

-Brad

 

[joefarah]

I've seen them eat green anoles before. It's pretty wild!

 

[Eric Adrignola]

A freind of mine lost 20 leopard geckos - most of which were over 20 years old - when a lizard-sitter dug up and fed them some earthworms from the backyard. There was some sort of parasite in the worms that killed all of them. He had a vet look, and they were just overrun. Can't remember if it was a worm or protozoan.

 

[CammieNLeno]

You guys seen these? I don't want to "offend" anyone with the direct video links so if you have a kid or something sitting on your lap, please know these videos are of chameleons eating stuff other than bugs.

Mellers eating a rat -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A62wNKmJAf0


Veiled Chameleon eating a mouse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9CVBiDSqHo


Veiled Chameleon eating a mouse 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNzsGiVvOgA

 

[Eric Adrignola]

Melleri love vertebrates. Veileds do too. My brother, when we were young, was the type that got a kick out of feeding mammals to reptiles. Sick little.......

He fed my male a few fuzzy mice here and there.

My friend owned a reptile store in NJ, and we were trying to get his new parsonii to eat some more. We gave it a mouse. Quickest mouse-death I've seen in a reptile. Flattened it right out.

I've been told that melleri just LOVE brevs in the wild - they climb down mango trees for them. The rotting fruit bring in bugs, which bring in brevs... it's a buffet.