exotic insects for cham

dodolah

dodolah

Retired Moderator
anybody ever tried some of these insects for your cham (or your cham has ever hunt these insects outside and eat them)?
Tell me what you think of them.. I am just curious (Don't worry, it's not like
i am literally gonna hunt and feed them to my chameleon)..

a. Dragonfly
b. Butterfly
c. Moth
d. Beetles
e. millipede and/or centipede
f. stick insect
g. spider or scorpion
 
dodolah said:
anybody ever tried some of these insects for your cham
a. Dragonfly
b. Butterfly
c. Moth
d. Beetles
e. millipede and/or centipede
f. stick insect
g. spider or scorpion
Click to expand...

I've heard of someone raising dragon flies here to feed off. Most butterflies are toxic to chams like the Monarch butterfly. Moths are usually okay to feed and so are some beetles. I can't remember which one is toxic millipede or centipede. Stick insects are good treats but too bad they are illegal in the united states. Some spiders are okay to feed, But I wouldn't risk it. Same goes for the scorpions. I just bought a couple of praying Mantids at a reptile show yesterday. Once I breed them, I will feed a couple to my cham. The general rules to feeding wild caught bugs are these:
1) Brightly colored bugs such as ladybugs are usually toxic
2) Always ID the bug before feeding it off
3) Make sure it is not from an area that uses pesticides
4) let it eat fresh gutload for at least 24 hours before feeding to your cham. That way you can clean out it's system.
 
Centipedes are toxic. Most have a poison gland and even a bite to humans can prove fatal if not treated.
 
i'm not sure about how cham would digest snails..
or whether cham will loves them or not.

However i do know that wild caught snails contain tons of parasite. The most common is the liver worm.
It lives in the egg form within the snail's internal organ and will grow as soon as it attached itself into a host.

So, if you have to do it then i would suggest you buy them from a snail farm (if they have one..they probably do since the introduction of French cuisine of escargot).
 
I would worry about spiders biting my cham... also the venom they might contain.
I don't think there's very much nutrition in stick insects...
 
dodolah said:
where do you get a stick insect in CA?
Is it really illegal here to own one?
Click to expand...

Yep. I asked a former stick insect breeder about them and he told me he stopped breeding them because he found out they are illegal. He used to sale them at conventions five years ago and he said they were a hot seller. But Then
he got the bad news before he got caught.
 
A good rule of thumb to remember about insects that sting and bite that contain possible venom of any sort is that the venom is 99% causes paralization which attacks the spinal cord of any living creature.

A bee sting in the mouth or upon your chams tounge could lead to a very quick and painfull death of not being able to breath from swelling.

Edit: Side note. Why wasps are a big no no. Even though your cham got lucky and got a wasp, these creatures are capable of stinging your pet repeativly. But to make things even worse they have the ability to call in more wasps to attack your cham and their very territorial about any threats that can be of any danger to their nests. Even if you spray a nest yourself you better be ready to run and fast.
 
Last edited:
My chameleons also eat moths. Occaisionally I will open something old in the pantry that has become infested. This is no longer a misfortune...

rcmike said:
Can you imagine a chameleon with a swollen tongue?:D

I used to feed my veileds moths all the time. They really went after them. I could catch a ton of them in the summer time around the porch lights.
Click to expand...
 
Marc10edora said:
I agree about the stick insect nutrition. That is why they should be only offered as snacks.
Click to expand...

Have you seen a stick insect eat???
Talk about gut loading!
You can pack that animal chock full of nutrition.
rose and rasberry leaves, romaine lettuce, collard and mustard greens, etc...
Two problems we encountered here were: Kitty did not recognize them as food and lived in perfect harmony with them... and, the legality issues and population explosion that occurred.
They really could take over the world.

-Brad
 
Blackworms?

Blackworms are small aquatic worms, kind of like earthworms at pencil=lead thickness. i had some on-hand when the babies arrived unexpectedly, and thought that they might be a good food item. I think maybe a couple did get eaten, then went to fruit flies, not wishing to waste any more time with them. They do move around for a while out of water, but dry up pretty quickly. Has anybody tried this item, or had any success?

dodolah said:
anybody ever tried some of these insects for your cham (or your cham has ever hunt these insects outside and eat them)?
Tell me what you think of them.. I am just curious (Don't worry, it's not like
i am literally gonna hunt and feed them to my chameleon)..

a. Dragonfly
b. Butterfly
c. Moth
d. Beetles
e. millipede and/or centipede
f. stick insect
g. spider or scorpion
Click to expand...
 
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