Mice

[airforce03007]

My chameleon likes to eat mice. I have given her both crickets and meal worms but she would much rather have a baby mouse over the insects. I hope thats alright. She also likes carrots as well as oranges. I hope all of that is good for her. Any given advice would be greatly appreciated. Oh! And shes only eight months old.

http://youtu.be/IiBzQZZHcWE

 

[TKR]

im new to the whole chameleon world, but i dont think that seems right...

 

[VeiledChams]

No, it isn't. Maybe as a treat. Not as staple.

Here's a thread about that:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/mice-57583/index2.html

 

[laurie]

Feeding a cham mice is not a good idea, feeding a 8 month old cham a mouse could cause it's death. Sorry, I just don't want you to lose your cham. Put feeding mice into our search function and read some of the threads.

Oh sorry, welcome to the forum.

 

[airforce03007]

I didnt think it was right either but she loves them. Its crazy. I put crickets in her cage every day and she wont even go after them but the minute I put a mouse in there, shes all over it.

Thanks Laurie!

 

[laurie]

You are very welcome. Just remember our chams are our kids, and you know the kids always go for candy!

I didnt think it was right either but she loves them. Its crazy. I put crickets in her cage every day and she wont even go after them but the minute I put a mouse in there, shes all over it.

Thanks Laurie!

 

[Jamielee]

aww that was the saddest thing to watch...

 

[SSimsswiSS]

I didnt think it was right either but she loves them. Its crazy. I put crickets in her cage every day and she wont even go after them but the minute I put a mouse in there, shes all over it.

I don't think I'd need any crickets either, after a meal that size. There's a whole lota pink feet in the video. She was'nt exactly all over it in the video, but understand she was probable a little camera shy.

 

[sdheli420]

do not feed insectivorious animals anything other than insects..they have evolved over time to eat only insects...you dont eat raw meat do you???you cook it..would you feed a baby raw chicken?? there are different animals that have evolved into specialized units that can only feed on certain things...like horses they can eat meat( remember how mad cow disease came to be?? they fed them meat)....dont feed your beloved chams anything other than gutloaded insects..

 

[dagy24]

I think at her age most people have already cut back to small daily feedings or moderate sized every other day feedings. If you give her a mouse and then give her crickets the next day, she's probably not going to be hungry for them yet, but since she finds the mice so tasty she'll eat them. I just think that amount of food is a very bad thing, it's not the right type of feeder and she will probably become quite a chub and cycle some huge clutches.

I haven't fed my chameleons mice. I may try in the future. I think they have a practical application for underweight/malnourished/gravid/justlayedeggs chameleons, used very very sparingly. From what I've researched it doesn't seem like a good choice for regular feeding at all. If I were you I would just start offering only crickets and/or worms (there are lots of good options other than just mealworms!) and see what happens after a few days. She'll probably get hungry enough that she ends up eating them. She'll be okay if she skips a few days. If she's still not eating them after that then yeah, she might really be a total mouse fiend, haha.

 

[javsto]

do not feed insectivorious animals anything other than insects..they have evolved over time to eat only insects...you dont eat raw meat do you???you cook it..would you feed a baby raw chicken?? there are different animals that have evolved into specialized units that can only feed on certain things...like horses they can eat meat( remember how mad cow disease came to be?? they fed them meat)....dont feed your beloved chams anything other than gutloaded insects..

I dont agree with the above statement at all. You would probably consider crickets themselves to be *vegetarians*but ive read post after post where ppl say how the crix they keep constatnly cannibalize themselves. You would consider a spider to be an insectivour but ive seen them eat fish, frogs, birds anthing they can catch. both of my dogs, one a golden retriever the other a pomeranian not only eat wet/dry dog food but also love to eat bananas, broccoli, peppers & onions, lots of things you would think a dog would eat. There are plenty of videos on youtube of ppl feeding "pinkys" and white mice to thier pet chams but also anole reptiles and I think live bearing chams have cannibalized their own offspring shortly after birth. If the op wants to feed her pet what she wants too then thats his/her decision and if in the end it turns out to be bad then its a lesson learned.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

There are plenty of videos on youtube of ppl feeding "pinkys" and white mice to thier pet chams but also anole reptiles and I think live bearing chams have cannibalized their own offspring shortly after birth. If the op wants to feed her pet what she wants too then thats his/her decision and if in the end it turns out to be bad then its a lesson learned.

My answer to your statement from another thread, because this topic has been beaten to death many times before:

you can also find tons of videos on YouTube of guys hitting other guys in the nuts for fun - is that good evidence that nut trauma is good for them? I don't think anyone should be using YouTube for their moral compass...or to make any real decisions really...jmo. What an animal is exposed to in captivity may or may not be representative of what it will do under natural conditions in the wild - they're usually not the same.

This discussion has already been had: you can read more about it here. Page 3 starts discussing health considerations. Make your own educated decisions from what others have said.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

You would probably consider crickets themselves to be insectivorious but ive read post after post where ppl say how the crix they keep constatnly cannibalize themselves.

Would that not make them insectivorous as you say they are?

 

[antithesis123]

Did you know that dear eat birds? lol! There is a revolving door of certain threads here!! I guess that's part of the fun.

 

[pssh]

Crickets are opportunistic feeders. They eat what they find. They will eat garbage. They will eat plastic. That's why we offer only nutritious foods to the crickets and clean out the bin frequently. We try to minimize the opportunity for them to eat each other.

 

[javsto]

Crickets are opportunistic feeders. They eat what they find. They will eat garbage. They will eat plastic. That's why we offer only nutritious foods to the crickets and clean out the bin frequently. We try to minimize the opportunity for them to eat each other.

but it still happens so to catagorize them as only being vegans is not entirely correct.