Ideal Feeder

[andy27012]

I seem to have run into a bit of a problem. I am trying to figure out a good "staple" insect for a panther chameleon. It is three months old and feeding on small crickets currently. I have considered many insects and have issues with most of them:
Roaches-will not keep them for sanitary reasons(am a dialysis patient and the doc says no)
Crickets- too smelly and noisy
silkworms-mulberry food is expensive and I will forget to order it in time
Hornworms-Too big, grow too fast? too expensive?
pheonix worms-don't really know enough about them
Flightless fruit flies are what I am starting with but I know he will outgrow them quickly.

 

[Ace]

sorry to say this but the most common staple insect feeder is crickets-
you can try stick bugs an praying mantis, and also locusts - give them a try but its also good to give your cham different things like silkworms and hornworms when he is bigger. just make sure to gutload your insects with friuts and veggies for nutrientss that will be good for your cham..
good luck

 

[greenguy420]

Use search.........

 

[Silverdusk]

Use search.........

For wanting to become a vet, that's not very helpful.

I keep dubia roaches and you'd be very surprised how clean they actually are compared to a lot of other feeders.

The only other really clean feeder would have to be Silkworms, because they should be kept in a sterile like environment. Buy them as adults and buy leaves to sustain them.

I know neither of those are your choice for reasons listed, but I think it's going to be your best options.

 

[sandrachameleon]

There is a list of the most commonly used feeders here:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html

It also has my opinion (generally agreed with by others) as to which can be used regularily and which have less "staple" value. keep in mind that no single bug should form the bulk of the chameleons diet, IMHO

If you are unable to provide these insects, a chameleon may not be the right animal for you.

 

[nosytrish]

In My Experience...

We have tried almost everything available and our little guy only eats crickets and/or superworms (he rotates which one he prefers every week or so). In our experience, Superworms don't smell, live a very long time, and can be fed scraps of veggies and stuff from dinner to gutload (but refer to pages from the forum on how to gutload properly). You can keep them in a small container of bran (and we add in a bit of our cricket crack) and you have to change the medium that they live in a lot less often then crickets. I know that impaction is a common concern on this site, if you get the smaller worms, their chittin is less developed on them and it could be a good way to test how the chameleon feels about it.
Hope that this helps.

Also, thanks for the link Sandra. Very helpful. There is a few on here that we are going to try to locate for our little man. Hopefully we will have a better experience than when we got him horn worms (he just got mad at them...even the babies!)

 

[Texas Ranger]

I seem to have run into a bit of a problem. I am trying to figure out a good "staple" insect for a panther chameleon. It is three months old and feeding on small crickets currently. I have considered many insects and have issues with most of them:
Roaches-will not keep them for sanitary reasons(am a dialysis patient and the doc says no)
Crickets- too smelly and noisy
silkworms-mulberry food is expensive and I will forget to order it in time
Hornworms-Too big, grow too fast? too expensive?
pheonix worms-don't really know enough about them
Flightless fruit flies are what I am starting with but I know he will outgrow them quickly.

When I bought my first panther cham, the breeder told me that I can use Crickets as the staple food. That the trick is to gutload them with 2 or 3 different fresh items every week. And that the breeder has never had a hunger strike or any other problems with just using crickets as the only food. I like to think of a cricket as a pill. Just load them up with good stuff for your cham. And if you change the gutload week to week. Thats where you varitey comes from. Small crickets dont make any noise. That happens when they are big enough to breed. And they are cheap enough that you could just by a week supply at a time and you wont have to deal with noise and to much of a smell.
Hope this helps
Amanda

 

[tkilgour]

Mix it up between fruit flies, blue bottle flies, crickets, supers, and silks. BBflies are affordable and easy to gutload. I buy blue bottle fly gutload from Mantidsplace.com and you can buy larva and pupae at forktreeranch.com.