How often should I feed?

[rpritch]

Hello,

My little buddy Irwin is still doing great! I purchased him almost a year ago when he was just a baby. For the longest time I have been feeding him everyday. Now that he is bigger, however, I have started to feed less frequently. He gets a varied diet of crickets, mealworms, super worms, and the occasional wax worm.

First of all, at what age is a veiled chameleon considered an adult? Also, once an adult, how often should he be fed?

 

[jpowell86]

They are considered adults when they are about 8 - 10 months of age. I feed my adult veileds about 5-8 crickets or 4-6 dubia every other day. I will mix in some superworms and hornworms as treats once a week.

 

[rpritch]

Thanks for the quick response!

 

[Liamruss89]

My chameleon is hardly eating he's recently shed but he's have 1-2 size 4 locus prob in a week should I be worried

 

[Blang]

Hello,

My little buddy Irwin is still doing great! I purchased him almost a year ago when he was just a baby. For the longest time I have been feeding him everyday. Now that he is bigger, however, I have started to feed less frequently. He gets a varied diet of crickets, mealworms, super worms, and the occasional wax worm.

First of all, at what age is a veiled chameleon considered an adult? Also, once an adult, how often should he be fed?

One thing I would do is not feed him the mealworms anymore!

 

[brownie64]

My chameleon is hardly eating he's recently shed but he's have 1-2 size 4 locus prob in a week should I be worried

It's hard to say they sometimes just slow down on eating, and go on hunger strikes. Usually it's do to being board with the food they are offered. You really need to start your own thread in the health clinic. Fill out a how to ask for help form, and that way we can give you a lot more informed answer to your question. I'll leave you a link to the ask for help form just paste it on your thread and answer the questions. https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/

 

[rpritch]

Are the mealworms OK as a treat from time to time, or should they be completely removed from his diet?

 

[gotwqqd]

Are the mealworms OK as a treat from time to time, or should they be completely removed from his diet?

One breeder I know says never to feed mealworms.

 

[rpritch]

Good to know. I will cut that from the diet. Any suggestions on readily available foods that could replace them?

 

[Gwendalyn.brock]

Good to know. I will cut that from the diet. Any suggestions on readily available foods that could replace them?

Superworms or waxworms as treats would be better

 

[trickedoutbiker]

Are the mealworms OK as a treat from time to time, or should they be completely removed from his diet?

mealworms are mostly hard exoskeleton which is hard for chameleons to digest. I'd personally remove them from his diet completely and give him wax worms every once in a while as a treat. wax worms got a good protein makeup and are good for hydrating as well, but don't feed him too many; wax worms are also fatty, so too many too often might cause constipation. I give mine a wax worm about once every 1.5 - 2 weeks.

I usually go out and buy 50 wax worms and throw about 40 of them in a glass jar so they can turn into moths. I keep 10 in the fridge door to use as treats once in a while, and I put those other 40 in a ventilated glass jar and put a 20 watt bulb on the jar, 12 hours a day, to keep the heat in the 80's. After about a week, most will begin to pupate. After about another week or so, they will begin to hatch out as moths. Dust the moths with a tad bit of calcium powder and feed to the chameleon. You can feed them more moths, because they aren't as fatty as wax worms. Wax worms use up most of their fat and energy storage turning into bee moths, so once in moth form, you can feed them a few a day to your chameleon. And chameleons go crazy for bee moths.

As for full diet, my cham has a main diet of well gutloaded crickets. I also feed him bee moths, gutloaded blue bottle flies and house flies, silkworms, phoenix worms (like, the best calcium bug EVER for your cham), and wax worms occasionally for treats. I have a jar of wax worms that pupate into bee moths. A jar of housefly and blue bottle fly spikes that pupate into flies. And I also have a jar of phoenix worms that pupate into Black Soldier Flies (another great feeder for chameleons). I've heard lots of good things about roaches, but my gf is terrified of them.... So I guess that's a "no" on that one for me.... :-( In the summer I might get some grasshoppers going, along with a few other insects here and there. Always good to keep a good variety so your cham never gets bored.