Camodacham
New Member
I went to pet smart and bought a 50 count of meal worms and I was told to keep them refrigerated but they don’t move so how do I get them to move so that my chameleon will be able to eat them?
Meal worms question
- Thread starter Camodacham
- Start date
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
Mealworms warm up and start moving pretty quickly. However, they are not the best feeder for your chameleon. Much better choices are crickets, roaches, bsfl (calciworms or pheonix worms), silkworms etc. I’m attaching a couple of graphics to help guide you.
Like us, chameleons like and need variety. Many on line vendors sell variety packs, which are awesome. Check out forum sponsors like dubiaroaches.com and rainbowmealworms.com A couple of other vendors (not sponsors) are Josh’s frogs and http://www.lindasgonebuggie.com/
Just as important as the rest of your husbandry is what you feed to your feeder insects. While some have specialized diets (hornworms, silkworms), you want to make sure to feed them a variety of fresh produce. The various cubes that pet stores sell aren’t good for more than hydration. I give my bugs the same fresh produce that I feed to my bearded dragons - varied greens (turnip, mustard, escarole, dandelion, collards), varied squashes (yellow, acorn, butternut, spaghetti, zucchini), bell pepper, sweet potato, a bit of carrot and just a little fruit (usually berries or a piece of banana). I also give them a little bit of Repashy Bug Burger just to round things out. The healthier you keep your bugs, the more nutritious they will be for your pretty girl. For the mealworms, if you have a wildlife rescue near you, those would make a great donation to help them feed the baby birds they get.
Like us, chameleons like and need variety. Many on line vendors sell variety packs, which are awesome. Check out forum sponsors like dubiaroaches.com and rainbowmealworms.com A couple of other vendors (not sponsors) are Josh’s frogs and http://www.lindasgonebuggie.com/
Just as important as the rest of your husbandry is what you feed to your feeder insects. While some have specialized diets (hornworms, silkworms), you want to make sure to feed them a variety of fresh produce. The various cubes that pet stores sell aren’t good for more than hydration. I give my bugs the same fresh produce that I feed to my bearded dragons - varied greens (turnip, mustard, escarole, dandelion, collards), varied squashes (yellow, acorn, butternut, spaghetti, zucchini), bell pepper, sweet potato, a bit of carrot and just a little fruit (usually berries or a piece of banana). I also give them a little bit of Repashy Bug Burger just to round things out. The healthier you keep your bugs, the more nutritious they will be for your pretty girl. For the mealworms, if you have a wildlife rescue near you, those would make a great donation to help them feed the baby birds they get.
Camodacham
New Member
So you don’t suggest feeding mealworms like once a week? Like as a treat type of thing? The worker from pet smart said to not feed it occasionally cuz the chameleon may want to only eat that so use it as a treat / snack
nightanole
Chameleon Enthusiast
Mealworms are a secondary staple. They are not "bad" but they are highish in fat, high in chiten, and can only be gut loaded to 10% body weight tops (vs a dubia that is over 50%, after all they squirt). You can feed several a week, but keep them below 20% of the food weight per week. Feed them singular and not with a trail mix of other feeders in a feeder cup
As you say keep them as a treat. They are wonderful for taming (you only get the worm if you take it from the hand) and for breaking hunger strikes.
A better long term solution would be "small" superworms. These have a much higher meat to shell ratio. And ive used them as a direct replacement for crickets since they live forever fully grown vs crickets that you only get a week or two before death.
My goto is a bin of supers and a bin of dubia. And both bins get a completely separate set of gutloads. No point of having a variety of bugs all getting fed the same stuff.
Honestly im not sure about the "staple" list since most are unuptanium for most folk. Around here Stick bugs are illegal, so are feeder mantis and locus, silkworms are seasonal. That leaves "moths" that you cant raise or buy, flies, BSF that some have issues, crickets, and roaches...
Last edited:
nightanole
Chameleon Enthusiast
MzLaurie11
Avid Member
The oNe good thing about mealworms is they are cheap and will last for a long long time if refrigerated. I always have a container with 250 in my frig. If a shipment of crickets gets delayed, i have a live supply of mealworms on hand to cover me. Wax worms and meal worms i consider treats and both can be refrigerated to last a long time. now superworms and bsfl will die if refrigerated. So you have to keep things straight. Good luck to you. I have found with trial and error that chameleons love to hunt. its why they stand still for so long and mive their eyes they way they do and have a tongue like they do. Just putting food in a cup leaves them bored and these curious guys need to hunt to stay engauged and happy. So please dont deny her that if possible..
Similar threads
