Critique my feeding schedule

[cushcameleon]

Ok so when feeding my male rudis I have adopted this ROUGH feeding schedule. Read through it and tell me what you think. I use four feeders silkworms, butterworms, wax worms, and superworms. I feed my chameleon every morning till he gets full, which is about 5-8 worms. I use silkworms as my staple feeder because my cham refuses to eat crickets.

Sunday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple of wax worms.

Monday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple of super worms. Calcium D3 dusted.

Tuesday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple of superworms and butterworms. Calcium dusted.

Wednesday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple of butterworms.

Thursday:
Mostly slikworms and a couple of wax worms. Calcium dusted.

Friday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple superworms.

Saturday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple of butterworms. Calcium dusted.

 

[cushcameleon]

Good? Bad? OK?

 

[chambabysitter1]

I don't think all soft body feeders are a great idea.
Although variety is good, you need staples like crickets or dubia's with some chitin in them.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

How old is the animal?
In my opinion you are over feeding and over supplementing.
I would offer a couple of silkworms and a super worm every other day and calcium with D3 once every month to 6 weeks for a mountain chameleon.

-Brad

 

[cushcameleon]

I am having huge problems getting him to eat crickets and I do not want to buy dubias since they only come in mixed sizes (my cham is to small to handle the big ones). What if I included some mealworms for some chitin?

 

[cushcameleon]

I'm currently doing D3 supplement every other week (forgot to write that in the original post). I can shorten that down to once a month, but I am not sure if he is still a juvenile (I am waiting to here back from the store I bought him from).

 

[Brad Ramsey]

He looks to be pretty close to full grown in your avatar.
Superworms will provide all the chitin your chameleon needs.
Have you tried houseflies? Great supplemental feeder and nice enrichment experience as well.

-Brad

 

[eisentrauti]

Ok so when feeding my male rudis I have adopted this ROUGH feeding schedule. Read through it and tell me what you think. I use four feeders silkworms, butterworms, wax worms, and superworms. I feed my chameleon every morning till he gets full, which is about 5-8 worms. I use silkworms as my staple feeder because my cham refuses to eat crickets.

Sunday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple of wax worms.

Monday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple of super worms. Calcium D3 dusted.

Tuesday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple of superworms and butterworms. Calcium dusted.

Wednesday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple of butterworms.

Thursday:
Mostly slikworms and a couple of wax worms. Calcium dusted.

Friday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple superworms.

Saturday:
Mostly silkworms and a couple of butterworms. Calcium dusted.

Sorry your schedule is a catastrophe ! It's the false to eat and from that too much ! It's like if you are a go three times per day to McDonalds !

Feed him only 2-3 per week. Give him crickets and cockroaches. You could also give him flys. But at most one time per week silkworms or superworms. Trioceros species could die fast because of too much supplementation. Their metabolism is much lesser (right word ? maybe smaller) than of pardalis or calyptratus.

If you still will feed him with this schedule I bet that he won't live longer than 3 months. His organs will save the hole fat and he'll die because of adiposias

 

[chambabysitter1]

He looks to be pretty close to full grown in your avatar.
Superworms will provide all the chitin your chameleon needs.
Have you tried houseflies? Great supplemental feeder and nice enrichment experience as well.

-Brad

I was led to believe that superworms offer less chitin then dubias or crickets. This is good information to learn, thanks.

Does this mean I can use them as a chitin replacement for crickets or dubias? Keeping in a healthy mix of variety of course.

 

[eisentrauti]

Superworms are like BigMacs, why do you give your chameleons such unhealthy food ? They definitly don't need it for variety

 

[cushcameleon]

Ok I am finding way to much variety on some of the stuff in these forums. I am finding posts from other members that lead me into creating a feeding schedule like the one I have created, but now I am getting grilled on it .

 

[cushcameleon]

Can anyone come up with a better schedule then mine for a rudis using only superworms, silkworms, butterworms and waxworms? If so please post it.

 

[eisentrauti]

If you want to keep your chameleon as long as possible alive, forget all that worm-crap
It's impossible to get a healthy chameleon with this food.

Here's my suggestion:

Monday: Crickets or Grashoppers
Tuesday: -
Wednesday: -
Thursday: Dubias/Cockroaches
Friday: -
Saturday: Crickets and 1-3 of your worms
Sunday: -

Food which could be always available are all kind of flies and drosos

Please remember that the metabolism of all reptils is componding to similar big birds and mammals very low. Nearly no reptil in captivity dies because it gets to less food

 

[dragongoddess]

Some people are a little over opinionated in their posts. When in doubt look to site moderators and Senior Members. Also do your own research. This site is great for hearing other peoples experiences but sometimes they only look from the point of view of their own species or husbandry. Ideas of husbandry in the US and Germany vary greatly from time to time, and from person to person.
This is the size of a Rudis that might have to be feed every day, yours look adult or close to it.

He's not much bigger than my index finger.

 

[eisentrauti]

Some people are a little over opinionated in their posts. When in doubt look to site moderators and Senior Members. Also do your own research. This site is great for hearing other peoples experiences but sometimes they only look from the point of view of their own species or husbandry. Ideas of husbandry in the US and Germany vary greatly from time to time, and from person to person.
This is the size of a Rudis that might have to be feed every day, yours look adult or close to it.
He's not much bigger than my index finger.

Sorry, but I think I knew very well what I'm writing. Btw: What are your experiences in keeping and breeding chameleons ?

 

[sandrachameleon]

Its not suprising that a chameleon will choose to eat fatty tasty larva over crickets and such. Stop offering larva for a week and it will likely eat the crickets or other prey items offered. Once you break the bad eating habit, try to offer a different prey item each day, so that it doesnt get stuck on one or bored.

Certainly I wouldnt use all larva if I wanted the best chance of a healthy chameleon. I wouldnt use waxworms at all (well, mine get them on special occassions, like their hatch day anniversary), and I'd limit superworms to a couple times a week max as they are also quite high in fat. You do need a little "roughage" in the diet, from feeders such as superworms, mealworms (not something I'd offer often either), isopods, crickets, roaches, stick insects etc.

You dont need to calcium dust butterworms, btw. They are naturally high in calcium.

Here is a list of feeder options for you to consider.

Feel free to have a look at my blog, where I have several entries listing what my chameleons ate that week. (they are panthers, so take that into consideration)

 

[eisentrauti]

Maybe you believe a senior member, I hope so

 

[moody232002]

i may be mistaken but i thought butterworms had enough calcium without dusting.
waxies only as a treat(i usually give them after a visit to the vets haha)
mista will only eat locusts as his staple but i understand they are not available in parts of america or canada which is such a shame,
myself i calcium dust no d3 3 days a week,vitamins 2 days and with d3 2 days for my 8 month old

 

[moody232002]

ooops and here i go replying to an old thread