Feeding chameleons pinkies?

pippin

New Member
Ive never done or want to do it but i have read on a care sheet for a fischers chameleon that their diet should include live pinkie mice is this beneficial to them for their diet? Give them more fat or protein? or is this care sheet completley wrong.
 
Care sheet is wrong. They can have pinky mice, but those are not epecially nutritious feeders. I will never feed one of these to any of my chameleons.
 
Ive never done or want to do it but i have read on a care sheet for a fischers chameleon that their diet should include live pinkie mice is this beneficial to them for their diet? Give them more fat or protein? or is this care sheet completley wrong.
There has been so much research done on chameleon feeding in the last few years. Pinkies are thought to contain too much protein so not a good idea.:)
 
ok thanks never heard it reccomended before only seen videos on youtube of people doing it and by looking at the set ups most of them didnt know what they were doing anyway. Wasnt ever planning on feeding them just after seeing made me think whether they would actually benefit the chameleons diet. Im finding it hard to find a good caresheet on fischers so ill put the link and would anyone be able to tell me if its just the pinkie bit that was wrong or it lots of other parts are too? as I could be refering to this caresheet in the futre and if its wrong I don't want to give the chameleon bad care.
http://lllreptile.com/info/library/animal-care-sheets/chameleons/-/fischers-chameleon/
thanks
 
Eh during my first veiled days in the late 80's early 90's hey lasted 7 years on 1 fuzzy a week and veggies. No other insects. Always got a clean bill of health from the vet. Still I wouldnt recommend them more than a 2x a month as a snack. They are high in fat and organ meat, and not high in calcium.
 
For the larger chams I doubt it would be much of a problem if given very rarely. In the wild Panthers, Mellers, and Parson's have been known to eat lizards. In the case of Parson's they have been witnessed eating tiny birds.

The main problem lies in the design of there intestinal tract which has evolved to process mostly insect food sources. Large mass dense proteins like pink mice, lizards, and the like don't digest as efficiently and can lead to intestinal problems.

In the end you must decide whether the feeding of such prey items is for nutritional enhancement or wow factor. If its wow factor the I suggest feeding the small animals to snakes and monitors and leaving insects to the Chams.

Sometimes I hate You-Tube
 
pinks

I like your post dlegare. It is the most scientific general post. Chameleons don't feed on rodents very often and I don't eat prime rib very often. Is it going to kill me? No, but I will get some nutrients from it as well as my tastes buds getting some really good stimulation. Chameleon husbandry is very scientific, but we tend to forget that no matter how much research is done and what we think we know they are still wild animals and there is now black and white answer to most questions. What works for one may or may not work for others.
 
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