Meal Worm Beatles???

[JDunkz6501]

I Bought A Box Of Like 1000 Meal Worms About A Month And A Half Ago And Have Been Feeding Them To My Chameleon Ever Since. They Are All Starting To Turn Into Beatles Now And I Was Wondering If It Is Ok To Feed The Beatles To My Chameleon. I Have Never Heard Of Anyone Doing Such A Thing So I Really Need An Answer

 

[dodolah]

i don't know whether bettles are exactly taste good and won't cause problem due to its hard shell..
I'm curious too.. how bout the silkworm moths?

 

[Tygerr]

You can feed mealworm beetles to your cham, but a lot of chams will refuse to eat them because the beetles secrete a defensive odour which probably doesn't taste very good.

Don Wells has this to say (see http://www.chameleonnews.com/year2003/oct2003/mealworms/mealworms.html):

Many people do not realize how great a feeder insect a mealworm beetle can be! I much prefer them to Zophoba beetles which I have found very, very few animals will touch. On the contrary, mealworm beetles are relished by most reptiles. In fact, I know of some animals that will not eat anything else if given a choice between the beetles and crickets and other bug species. Don't overdue this of course but the beetles seem to give good roughage to a reptile's diet so feed them too. I have raised certain beetle-feeding Geckos on nothing else but these beetles and when others couldn't keep these species alive, mine thrived!

 

[Tygerr]

I'm curious too.. how bout the silkworm moths?

You can feed silkworm moths to your cham as a treat. The fluttering wings will definitely catch most cham's attention.
However, they should simply be treats, not staple feeders since I doubt whether they offer very much in terms of nutrtional value and since the moths never eat anything it is impossible to gutload them.

 

[JDunkz6501]

I Guess I'll Try It Out And See What Happens....

 

[lele]

You can feed silkworm moths to your cham as a treat. The fluttering wings will definitely catch most cham's attention.
However, they should simply be treats, not staple feeders since I doubt whether they offer very much in terms of nutrtional value and since the moths never eat anything it is impossible to gutload them.

Just an FYI, the nutritional value in the adult stage is not diminished much from the pupal or larval stage. Moths that do feed as adults you can't really gutload anyway as most are nectar feeders (though some feed on decaying matter and other odd things). So the silkmoths do still have a high protein, low fat, high calcium, low phosphorus (therefore good Ca ratio) values and can be fed to your cham as long as he'll eat them