Is this to much

spanky

New Member
I give my female veil 5 meal worms in the morning and around 5pm I give her about 10 crickets. Am I over feeding her, is about 4 to 5mo?
 
I think you should back off on the mealworms a bit. Maybe one or two they are hard to digest. Perhaps throw in an extra cricket to make up for the lost amout. Sounds about right as far as overall amount.
 
Thanks for the reply. I will do that. Also am I waiting to long to feed her the first feeding is at 7am and again at 5pm?
 
I would go just once in a day. There are some slight risk with feeding multiple times a day. These risks are really because they are in captivity and probably never happen in the wild.

Meal worms are not the best feeders. The shells are hard to digest and they usually do not gut load well. That being said I still offer them in the diet as variety. You maybe able to come across some superworms in your area. They to have a shell. If she is fair sized these will be okay. They gut load way better, offer some calcium, and hydration as they are very juicy. You can probably get a hold of some wax worms too. I get mine at a co-op store. They sell like farming supplies and fishing stuff. These should be offered occasionally. They are high in fat and they are not good on a regular basis. Once you feel a little more comfortable you could get some silk worms. Coastal silkworms sells them (link of the home page). These are great feeders and are not to bad to take care of. The have some information about what is involved on that site. If the supers or meals are allowed to coccon they will turn into beetles. At her age the shell is probably to hard but something to considered for the future. Supers and meals are cheap this can add some variety with something you already get. I will look around I have a link with a better explaination on how to on that site. If you want to do see a pissed off chameleon throw in some moths. This will usually do the trick. I would not count these as a food item. I just think it is funny to watch at least with mine it is.
 
If you want to do see a pissed off chameleon throw in some moths. This will usually do the trick. I would not count these as a food item. I just think it is funny to watch at least with mine it is.

Why do moths piss off your chameleon? And why don't you count them as food items? I use a bug napper almost nightly and feed them regularly to all of my chameleons. It is a bit of a chore to seperate small moths from large moths, but the brevs like them just as much as the panthers. If I didn't count moths as food items, then my male panther has only been fed about a half a dozen times in the last 6 months...? They have been his staple diet since March when they came out. Now that the weather is cooling down, the panthers are beginning to eat other kept food, mainly cockroaches and superworms. The really great thing about wild moths is that the chameleons pick up nutrients that they never get from farmed insects. I hand fed Spencer a half a dozen moths this morning.

This is an old pic of Spencer enjoying a really big moth:

moth1.jpg
 
timing...

Thanks for the reply. I will do that. Also am I waiting to long to feed her the first feeding is at 7am and again at 5pm?

you might consider feeding her earlier in the day - say 3:00-ish. It's not the length of time, but they should never be fed too close to lights out. they need a minimum of basking time after eating their last meal in order to digest or it will ferment in their cool belly overnight. :eek: If this happened once in a while it is OK, but regularly will cause lots of health problems.

That said, if your light do not go out until 8:pm then OK.

Have you considered cup feeding the crickets so she can eat when she want during the day instead of all at once?

lele
 
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Thanks for the help everyone. I pick up some wax worms today to add to her diet. I would like to see some of you guys feeding arrangments on your chameleons and what type of feed items you offer them.
 
They say variety is the spice of life....this is true for chams too. I have a panther and I feed him crickets, silk worms, butter worms, and wax worms. We tried phoenix worms but he didn't care for them. I think it's because they are too wiggly.
 
Okay Heika you are right on that. If I could catch a moth as big as the one in your picture I would count that. The ones I see and catch in my area are small to say the least. I should have specified better what I was talking about.
 
Okay Heika you are right on that. If I could catch a moth as big as the one in your picture I would count that. The ones I see and catch in my area are small to say the least. I should have specified better what I was talking about.

Hi Jordon,

The vast majority of the moths that I catch in the bug napper are about the size of an adult cricket. My area gets giant moths in waves through the summer though. Make for a tasty treat when one actually makes it into the bug napper. They are pretty big and don't always go through the hole. I really have used moths as a staple diet for my panther since March, although I probably fed him other insects more than a half a dozen times. My big question is.. why/how does your chameleon get pissed off about moths? From the leaf chameleons to my newest female panther, all of them love them.

Heika
 
I did not mean he does not like them. He stands alert as they fly around. He flattens and have seen him raise his front legs in relation to the side that the moth is on. His colors brighten if they continue to fly about for awhile. His tongue to pushes down on his gular skin. The second they stop they are eaten. He takes a certain pattern when I feed him normally. I figure that this is excitement. He charges about the cage consuming everything. With the moths his behavior and coloration is about the same as me trying to pick him up. My female is similar when I put in moths. She can and will pick them out of the air though. I think it is funny to watch. Perhaps if I feed them to them on a more regular basis this reaction would go away. They may just be defensive as they do not see them very often.
 
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