How many crickets should I give?

[Willie]

So, female cham, maybe 1 year old, just laid unfertile eggs last week. The guy I got her from last month would give her 30 crickets about every 3 days. I've changed this up a bit since I want to know exactly how many she eats. I've searched all the blogs and Google but can only come up with the question as to how much instead of the answer.. Right now I toss in about 8 every other day. I gut load properly, give mealworms ( about 3 a day) and a waxworm twice a week. She will eat the worms from a cup but not the crickets. She definitely does not race around and chase the crickets down when I do feed her either so she's not starving. But she does come right to the mealworm cup!
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Hi
What type of chameleon is it? Do you intend to breed her, or restrict her egg laying?

If I understand correctly, you are giving her around 8 crickets every other day, plus three mealworms daily, plus a few waxworms. So around 45 bugs weekly?
I feed my female panthers around 1-4 bugs daily, when not breeding. That's Perhaps around 10-20 weekly.
So you are offering yours a fair bit more weekly than I offer mine.

I would suggest not offering that many waxworms unless you are trying to help her gain weight - they offer little to no nutritional value and are high in fat. A few mealworms are fine, but I suggest in place of half of them and/or in lieu of some the crickets you try instead to vary the diet further with butterworms, silkworms, roaches, cultured blue bottle flies, terrestrial isopods (woodsow), etc. There is a pretty good list of the commonly used feeder types here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html

Here are two blog entries that log how much my chameleons ate daily over two month:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/359-october-prey-diary-adults.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/343-food-log-september-2010.html

You might also find this blog entry interesting:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...s-day-required-maintain-chameleon-weight.html

 

[Elizadolots]

I think an important question (in addition to those Sandra asked) is how big are these insects? I'm feeding about 20 crickets every other day....that will go down as the crickets grow up. By the time they are getting wings, I'll be feeding 3 or 4 every other day (3 to one, 4 to the other).

Same deal on mealworms (though, I'd suggest daily mealworms of any size aren't a great idea..make them a twice a week snack). Size of everything involved--chameleon, insects--is important information.

 

[sandrachameleon]

i think an important question (in addition to those sandra asked) is how big are these insects?

good point!

 

[kinyonga]

How many eggs did she lay?
What species is she?