Chameleon Success with ALL dead food (Good Read)!

J

JWilson

New Member
I know everyone on this site is going to frown upon me for doing this, but I have successfully have raised a Male Veiled Chameleon with all CANNED FOOD. He has grown to about 23 inches, has had NO parasites, does not have MBD, and also is very active and loves climbing around his cage. Everytime since he was a baby he WOULD recognize DEAD food and eat it in an instant! He has has steady feeding patterns and has not once had a problem the entire time I have kept him! \

I have been feeding him: Can O' Crickets, Can O' Mealworms, Can O' Grasshoppers, and every month I gave him Kale.

So in my conclusion myths that have been proven FALSE:
Chameleons will not recognize dead food
Live food is essential for a healthy chameleon
The Can O' Products are a waste of money

Questions and Comments below are welcome:D
 
You are right, veiled chams will pick up the dead cricks off the floor, and even snap up crick legs laying around.

But that's just veiled chams, not panthers or jax. They wont do it, or I should say, are way less likely.

I'm not going to comment on the canned food thing, because I dont know, but I believe it's healthier for them to hunt and find their own live food as nature intended. Even if it's for no other reason then to keep them from becoming bored and lazy ;)

Another thing, I dont trust prepaired and canned foods because I dont know how they were prepared and what ingredience are used.

When I feed my guys crickets, I know what they are getting, because I raised and fed the cricks myself.
 
Psychobunny said:
You are right, veiled chams will pick up the dead cricks off the floor, and even snap up crick legs laying around.

But that's just veiled chams, not panthers or jax. They wont do it, or I should say, are way less likely.

I'm not going to comment on the canned food thing, because I dont know, but I believe it's healthier for them to hunt and find their own live food as nature intended. Even if it's for no other reason then to keep them from becoming bored and lazy ;)

Another thing, I dont trust prepaired and canned foods because I dont know how they were prepared and what ingredience are used.

When I feed my guys crickets, I know what they are getting, because I raised and fed the cricks myself.
Click to expand...

I just can't resist canned tuna though…in fact I'm out right now. Gosh darn it.
 
Well I drain the liquid first and then mix the tuna with mayonnaise, pepper and a bit of garlic salt. Then put it on toast. …you must try.

EDIT: For HUMANS, NOT chameleons!
 
How old is he and how long has he been eating dead food? I assume your dead food was never gutloaded either then? Just kidding...:eek: 2 feet long? Can you post some pics?
 
I would pay hell trying to get my panther to eat anything that don't move. It doesn't surprise me you have been able to raise your cham on can o yuck but they can't be as nutritious as a live well gut loaded insect. Kind of like can o bugs is like a big Mac it will fill you up and keep you alive also I'm guessing they put some kind of preservatives on the bugs to keep them from rotting and you have NO CLUE what they have fed on. So do you hand feed him or put them in a bowl? From what I have read you don't want to many in there as they can start rotting fast. I want the BEST for my cham so if I got to breed food to know what they eat and make sure nothing is added then that's what I will do.
 
So you've raised ONE chameleon to adult size (what, 8-12 months?) on canned insects and don't have any signs of issues yet?

That's not quite enough info to make the statement that you can keep healthy chameleons their entire life-time on canned, un-gutloaded food. Especially since we have to assume you're right when you say that he's healthy, has no deficiencies, etc. (and that's not personal, but we have people all the time that say "my chameleon is in great shape, I don't know why he's suddenly on the floor!" and then the photo shows a totally deformed chameleon that hasn't seen calcium a day in it's life. So we take people's claims with a grain of salt!)

Sorry to be the skeptic but those feeder insects by themselves have fairly terrible ratios of things like phosphorous to calcium (some more than others) and without any gut loading make pretty poor food. You can correct for calcium with supplements but they're void of any additional value. If anything, it says more about the hardiness of veileds more than it does about the quality of nutrition! I'm sorry, but I wouldn't recommend this type of diet to anyone, ever.
 
^ I like the bagged stuff that has the seasoning added. LemonPepper and Sweet N Spicy are my fav straight out of the packet.:D
 
I would of liked a group of chameleons that was fed on live bugs only and another that was fed dead bugs only to see the difference and such in both groups before we jump to conclusions like that.
 
JWilson said:
I know everyone on this site is going to frown upon me for doing this, but I have successfully have raised a Male Veiled Chameleon with all CANNED FOOD. He has grown to about 23 inches, has had NO parasites, does not have MBD, and also is very active and loves climbing around his cage. Everytime since he was a baby he WOULD recognize DEAD food and eat it in an instant! He has has steady feeding patterns and has not once had a problem the entire time I have kept him! \

I have been feeding him: Can O' Crickets, Can O' Mealworms, Can O' Grasshoppers, and every month I gave him Kale.

So in my conclusion myths that have been proven FALSE:
Chameleons will not recognize dead food
Live food is essential for a healthy chameleon
The Can O' Products are a waste of money

Questions and Comments below are welcome:D
Click to expand...

My issues with your conclusions:
1) The actions of one Veiled does not equal all chameleons, or even all veileds. One case doesn't make a theory.
2) How are you judging health? Not having MBD or parasites is not a stamp of health.
3) The Can O' products are much more expensive than my live feeders, so they still seem like a waste of money to me.
 
JWilson said:
I know everyone on this site is going to frown upon me for doing this, but I have successfully have raised a Male Veiled Chameleon with all CANNED FOOD.
Click to expand...

I feel very sorry for that chameleon. Hopefully this is just a troll thread and you really havent done this thing.

even humans can be raised to adult size on a terrible diet (ie mcdonalds) - that doesnt make it healthy or good.

its also a terrible waste of money, give how expensive those horrible canned products are in comparison to providing gutloaded prey.
 
sandrachameleon said:
I feel very sorry for that chameleon. Hopefully this is just a troll thread and you really havent done this thing.
Click to expand...

Sandra, I think you nailed this one. The OP has just 1 post and has not come back to defend his original comment. I completely believe that this is a troll thread.

I also find it hard to believe that any cham would live for very long, and certainly not be healthy, fed only expensive, dead, canned insects. When I can get crickets, hornworms, silkworms, phoenix worms, and breed my own Dubia, allowing me to feed my 3 chams for about $30 a month, including gutload, the canned stuff seems like a HUGE waste (even if it could sustain a healthy cham longterm).
 
sandrachameleon said:
Hopefully this is just a troll thread and you really havent done this
Click to expand...
Thank you. This is what I stated earlier with Darwin. I wasn't speaking of his evolution theory. I was speaking on his thoughts of survival (i.e. the stupidest creatures in life die first). :eek:
Kinda like: what was the last thing the redneck said? Hey watch this. Human breeding license....Revoked!
 
This thread is probably bogus and just trying to get us going and some of us fell for it hook line and sinker! And don't forget, just because they might end up posting a pic, does not even prove it is their chameleon!
 
I answered anyway just because you never know who else is reading, not so much for the sake of the poster. I don't want newer keepers to go, "oh, well that sounds convenient! I'm going to dump out my live, stinky crickets and just buy canned ones instead!" so I reply for their sake at the very least. There might always be someone lurking and learning so they should know why we think this is a terrible idea lol.
 
Olimpia said:
I answered anyway just because you never know who else is reading, not so much for the sake of the poster. I don't want newer keepers to go, "oh, well that sounds convenient! I'm going to dump out my live, stinky crickets and just buy canned ones instead!" so I reply for their sake at the very least. There might always be someone lurking and learning so they should know why we think this is a terrible idea lol.
Click to expand...

That makes perfect sense and you are right!
 
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