can you feed superworms to a veiled with a snout length of 2"?

[ken2414]

i am getting crickets from lllreptile next thursday so i went to petsmart and all they had was superworms which are 3" in length. I fed them to my hungry charlie and he ate them. he chomps it down peice by peice and i cant watch it. i keep thinking he will choke on the worm. so my question is is the worms i am feeding him to big? will he choke?

 

[Jordan]

I would advise against feeding him superworms at that size. Veileds are pretty excitable eaters at times so he will probably get them down but you have to worry about them coming out. They are high in chitin. A little chitin in a chameleons' diet is great it acts in a similar fashion as fiber does to humans. To much chitin and it can have a reverse effect causing constipation.

If you are looking to mix up his diet a little bit at that size the only thing I would recommend is some meal worms. I don't really like meal worms to much as they are not very filling but it is variety. These to are high in chitin but the portion amounts would be drastically different.

On the other hand when he gets older and bigger you can utilize the meal worms for something different. They are cheap and getting them in large amounts is not a problem. Allow them to cocoon over into beetles and they are quite a tasty treat for a chameleon. Something to think about for the future, they are cheap, they are easy to maintain and I have not found a chameleon yet that does not like these beetles. I have used these as the staple feeder for awhile.

Superworm beetles are a little more hit and miss. I have two that go crazy for them. The rest will not go near them.

 

[ken2414]

will he last on them till next thursday. by the way he didnt eat them today, just stared at them..

 

[Jordan]

I wouldn't try it. Do not have a local pet store near you? You could at least pick up enough crickets to last tell you get your order. Fish/Bait stores have crickets a lot of times too.

 

[ken2414]

ok, im going to the mart on friday. i will get enough, but at nine cents a pop my mom is guna freak, and he is on the binge where he eats like 20 a day.

 

[Jordan]

You can reduce the food amount to buy you sometime tell they get in.

 

[ken2414]

ok thanks i will do that.

 

[SuperRad]

i just wrote an article on supers in my breeding section.
I mention the cham should not be longer than the length of your chameleons head. That is the general rule of thumb to follow.