Feeding Supers

[kelso]

Just wondering if superworms can be too big for a baby panther? He's about 3-4 months. I know that the general rule is that it has to be the size of his head from eye to eye- but that it's different for soft shell worms? Are supers included in this category? The only superworms i can get my hands on are huge... almost the size of my baby !!! haha so if anyone could shed some light on this that would be great =]

Thanks everyone,
Kelsie

 

[Miss Lily]

I've been wondering the same thing! I'll be watching this thread with interest - my cham is a 4 - 5 months old veiled, and I have a tub of supers left over that my last cham didn't eat. If they are too big for her to eat now, then I'll just keep gutloading them until Amy is big enough to eat them!

 

[kelso]

Yeah at the petstore where I live they only carry large supers- so when I was out of town this weekend I bought some at a petstore where I was, but when I was removing them from the sawdust that they come in to my crushed bran/fruit mix I noticed that these ones were still pretty big!! I am scared to feed them to my little guy!! I don't know if he will be able to handle them or not....?

 

[jeff martin]

Feed my sambava super worms and he ate it like spaggetti, No problem and he is 5 months old. Loves them !! one time a week or so.

 

[sandrachameleon]

If it seems too large, it probably is.
The super shouldnt be wider than the space between the chameleons eyes, and should be less than half as long, roughly, as the chameleon STV

Silkies could be a bit bigger, as they are soft and squishy.

Since you have the supers now anyhow, try plumping them up then encouraging them to pupate so that you can get beetles and breed your own. By the time you have baby supers, you wont need them cuz your chameleon will be eating larger ones. But keep feeding the baby supers and soon you will have big ones again - more than you started with for certain.

 

[kelso]

how would i encourage them to pupate? how should I go about breeding the beetles?
never done this before at all!! haha

 

[chameleon guy]

Feed the worms and all that and wait a loooong time for them to pupate and wait maybe a week and a half or so and just place the beetles together while feeding them as well. Not hard just takes forever. So far I have some supers and 1 darkling beetle(super worm beetle).

 

[kelso]

Then what will the beetles do once i put them together with food?

 

[chameleon guy]

Then what will the beetles do once i put them together with food?

You'll unfortunately have to wait even longer until you see tiny worms, but they will mate. You also can't sex the beetles either.

 

[sandrachameleon]

how would i encourage them to pupate? how should I go about breeding the beetles?
never done this before at all!! haha

Here you go - everything you could ever want to know about breeding superworms
https://www.chameleonforums.com/can-i-breed-my-19747/
http://www.howtobreedsuperworms.com/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/bocajan/45-super-worm-breeding.html

It does take awhile, but its EASY and CHEAP. Plus, once you've got a system going, you'll know that you'll always have at least that feeder on hand, should the local store run out of crickets, or should there be a winter storm that prevents you from getting bugs shipped, etc. AND by breeding your own bugs, you know exactly what conditions they were kept in, what they've been fed, etc and will always have a variety of sizes on hand.

 

[kelso]

great thanks for all the info.. that should get me going!!

haha i have had learn so much about a lot of things when i got my little guy... who knew!

thanks guys =]
Kelsie

 

[sandrachameleon]

I've had chameleons over ten years, and I'm still learning. its one of the pleasures of the hobby.

 

[kelso]

yeah I'm loving it. =] It's a lot different then raising my leopard gecko though for example. I'm already wanting another chameleon and I've only had my first baby for less than two months!! I just don't think I will be able to talk to my other half into letting me bring more lizards into the house...... yet, anyway =]