Other feeders

[Lizardlover]

my chams have been eating crickets as their staple diest along with the occasional silkworms, superworms, and waxworms, but i was just wondering what everyone else uses for a staple diet, because i am tired of stinky crickets, i was thinking of using praying mantises or locusts, but i think locusts cant be bought in the U.S., any ideas?

 

[THECHAMMAN]

roaches. they dont stink, most cant climb, most are slow as heck, none can hop, only hissers make noise. and more. dubias are the best staple feeders. the females and the nymphs dont have the stereotypical roach look, but the males do.

 

[jannb]

Some people use roaches or dubia.

 

[Lizardlover]

could one of you please list me good reasons to use roaches, my mom says anything but roaches, yes my mom, i am a young but experienced keeper

 

[FooL111394]

ha me to I'm only thirteen...oh yeah I would reccomend roaches(dubias) if you don't want the smell. Roaches are more meatier. Roaches are easy to breed. Roaches can't climb out of the plastic container. Roaches can't fly. They will eat more of a variety of food. They tend to like more sweeter foods. Both crickets and roaches are great but they both have there pros and cons. Also, go on my profile and find my post:Crickets or roaches?
I made it so everyone can look back to it and decide for themselves.

 

[Lizardlover]

oh cool, what kind of chams do you keep?

 

[FooL111394]

I have one blue-barred(4 or 5 months) from screameleons. Here are two pics from a couple weeks ago:

Here is the sire(closest reference)

I see you have an awesome looking veiled.

 

[Lizardlover]

yeah, i have a blue bar too and a baby high orange veiled

 

[sandrachameleon]

my chams have been eating crickets as their staple diest along with the occasional silkworms, superworms, and waxworms, but i was just wondering what everyone else uses for a staple diet, because i am tired of stinky crickets, i was thinking of using praying mantises or locusts, but i think locusts cant be bought in the U.S., any ideas?

Roaches. I have hissers and (recently) Turkish. Easy to keep, quiet (even the hissers are usually quiet, and even when at their loudest they are not loud like crickets). The M Hissers dont look like common house roaches one might find in North America. Tell your mom they are Madagascar Hissing Beetles (not entirely untrue).

Other options for rounding out your variety, but not as staples, are: butterworms, stick insects / phasmids, hormworms.

I have pet mantids, so I cant bring mys elf to use them as feeders

 

[Lizardlover]

haha good idea

 

[FooL111394]

Mantids will put up a fight fun to watchXD

 

[Lizardlover]

yeah, i can buy a starting colony of mantids for like 20 bucks and it has like 1000 mantids

 

[FooL111394]

you can also buy eggs for only like 5 bucks from carolina science I had one it was awesome.

 

[Lizardlover]

i ordered some just to try, and belive it or not my local pet store sells roaches, dubias madagascans lobsters

 

[adam1v]

i've just bought my second batch of dubias (bought 35 before and 350 this time round!).
They are right what people have said,very clean, quiet, cant jump etc, which is why I like them.

The only downside to Locust is I think the locust are better at moving around the cage and generally making themselves visible in all spots of the tank, mainly higher areas, whereas dubias are not tree climbers so tend to stay down lower.

Whats everyone feeding/gutloading their dubias on?

 

[Lizardlover]

i just got some cuz my local petstore has dubias and stuff just like i said in the post above yours and i feed them pollen, honey, lime juice and a little smushed up veggies, it makes a paste

 

[hawaiianice99]

If you want to watch something really exciting and fun get some BB flies, that will really jumpstart your chams hunting instincts.

 

[Lizardlover]

what are BB flies, its probably something stupid that i just dont know

 

[chamlover]

I need to correct some information that you got. They said roaches don't climb, yes they do. There are only 1 or 2 that don't, so be careful as to which ones you get. I have the orange spotted or dubias and they are the ones that don't climb or fly or smell or anything. I don't like roaches either but if your mom can put up with the smell of crickets that she will learn to love the roaches. And if any escape they WILL NOT infest the house. They are tropical roaches and unless you give them 85 degree weather in the house during the winter they will die off. If she is that worried, you can get those sticky strips and put them down in the room where you keep them just in case some get loose. Also they are very slow for roaches and even an old lady like me can catch the ones that try to escape. Also you will save alot of money as well because once your colony gets large enough they will breed faster than you can feed them off so you will eventually have to sell some. See so then you can make some money on them as well instead of buying crickets month after month. Is that enough reasons? I bought mine off of someone on the forum and got a great deal.

Debby

 

[dodolah]

what are BB flies, its probably something stupid that i just dont know

Blue bottle flies