Mealworms for my baby Jackson

[Mattmoo360]

Hi guys,

Just wondering is it ok to feed my baby Jackson some meal worms?

He's been on small crickets which he loves but I hear variety is key..

Can someone give me some advice? Being in Midlands Ireland, petshops don't supply much food for baby's chams nor do they seem to have the knowledge.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[nightanole]

Might want to start growing some fruit flies and regular(or blue bottle) flies.

You can feed them meal worms no problem. I would however feed them a gut load different from the crickets. No point in having all your feeders on the same gut load.

Im assuming you are 100% crickets right now, so 2-3 days a week you could have meal worm only days. I would also rig it up so that they eat them one at a time, so maybe a trough feeder or something.

 

[Mattmoo360]

Might want to start growing some fruit flies and regular(or blue bottle) flies.

You can feed them meal worms no problem. I would however feed them a gut load different from the crickets. No point in having all your feeders on the same gut load.

Im assuming you are 100% crickets right now, so 2-3 days a week you could have meal worm only days. I would also rig it up so that they eat them one at a time, so maybe a trough feeder or something.

Great thanks for your help!

If you don't mind me asking, what gutload should I give the insects?

And

Why give the Chameleon one mealworm at a time?

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

Please do not feed mealworms! They have very little nutritional value and can cause intestinal impactions!

 

[nightanole]

Please do not feed mealworms! They have very little nutritional value and can cause intestinal impactions!

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/zoo.21246

I could also post papers that show crickets(if you include the legs) have higher chitin than both meal worms and super worms.

 

[NickTide]

Hi guys,

Just wondering is it ok to feed my baby Jackson some meal worms?

He's been on small crickets which he loves but I hear variety is key..

Can someone give me some advice? Being in Midlands Ireland, petshops don't supply much food for baby's chams nor do they seem to have the knowledge.

Thanks in advance!!

Most shops in the US don't seem to have much knowledge either. Baby chams do well with fruit flies and small crickets. If you can get them... bean beetles are supposed to be great also. Easy to grow as well. Baby super worms are good as well...

 

[ERKleRose]

And isopods!

 

[insectovore]

I asked a very experienced reptile vet if he had ever seen an actual impaction with mealworms and he told me had seen it, but wasn't sure if it was a GI issue that caused the problem or the mealworms. Having said that, I do use mealworms in a rotation with lots of other insects and I have never had an issue. Use proper sizes, feed a variety of prey items, keep your animals hydrated, and I doubt you will ever have an issue. Now, onto the other original problem with mealworms. Having been raised on some kind of bran, they are pretty bad feeders. You really need to give them about a full 48 hours on a 8-10% calcium gutload. If the gutload is ground up together with the calcium properly, they will be around the 1:1 Ca : P ratio after that time frame and I don't know how long they can live on it but mine go quite a few days sometimes until I've managed to feed them off. I suppose the trouble with mealworms is that they are inexpensive, easily stored, and people end up feeding them as the bulk of the diet when they really should be a smaller component of a varied diet.

 

[KingGoodman]

From everything I have read, meal worms are simply a bad choice because they have nearly zero nutritional value. There are just better choices out there that would help your chameleon grow up big and beautiful.

 

[Mattmoo360]

Thanks everyone for you help! I'll steer away!