Only fruits and veggies in diet??

[Mike H.]

Hello! my two veilds have been really enjoying their fruits and veggies recently! (ie grapes bananas lettuce kale watermelon, mango, they eat everything!) which leads me to think, would it be possible to keep a chameleon on STRICT fruit and veggie diet so long as it is varied and has the nutrients they need? no crickets that is? of course i would never do that to my chams! but out of curiosity, anybody got opinions on this or tried this??

 

[jajeanpierre]

Veileds are not herbivores; they are insectivores.

I doubt a veiled can get many nutrients from eating fruits and veggies other than water. Their intestines are not designed to digest plant matter. Plant eaters have very long digestive tracts which chameleons do not have. I think veiled tend to eat plants because they come from an area in the world with very little rainfall and eat plants to get fluids.

 

[Mike H.]

What do you think would happen then? impaction? or would the plant matter just go right through them without having all the nutrients digested. And i disagree, there could be a regimen set up to provide the chameleon with all it needs, with different fruits and veggies. tortoises live on just vegetation.

 

[jajeanpierre]

What do you think would happen then? impaction? or would the plant matter just go right through them without having all the nutrients digested. And i disagree, there could be a regimen set up to provide the chameleon with all it needs, with different fruits and veggies. tortoises live on just vegetation.

Tortoises are not chameleons. Different digestive system. Different diet. Different gut bacteria. Chameleons are insectivores.

 

[Virgil1972]

Chameleons are insectivores while veileds can eat vegetation I doubt they could live on only vegetation. Its like trying to get a lion to only eat vegetation or a cow to only eat meat. Another thing to note is that many species of tortoise will eat some carrion when they come across it and will also eat stuff like earthworms to supplement their mostly plant diet.