Pinkie Mice

[beardeds7587]

hi i have a buddy that owns a male nosy be and he feeds him pinkies , i tell him it aint good and now im askin for other members oppions beacuse were taking a tally on it because he belives that his breeder is right and i beilive other wise ... sorry for misspelling im in a rush lol

 

[sarah777]

Personally I don't feed pinkies just because it doesn't seem like they could find them in their natural habitat. So why give them to your cham in captivity and I couldn't bear to see it.

 

[VeiledOwner87]

looks like your being directed to the search button again my friend this has been a topic talked about one too many times.

 

[morpheon]

+1 to Veiled.

The bottom line is, Pinkies are not unhealthy for chameleons as long as the chameleon is big enough to eat it, and as long as the chameleon only eats one pinky every month or so. Higher than 2 or 3 a month you will be unbalancing the nutriments needed for the chameleon, which is not a good idea.

Pinkies are mostly useful for malnourished chameleons, at least in my opinion.

 

[VeiledOwner87]

it is personal preference. and you have to ask yourself. is it reallly a need? is the chameleon so malnurited it needs a high fat and protene meal? or is it because the keeper just enjoys seeing other animals kill other animals for enjoyment. personally, i do not think that a chameleon has what it needs to properly digest and metablise everything in pinkies, fuzzies or feeder lizards in captivity. too much protene will lead to health issues and diseases that can easily be avoided and safe you a heafty vet bill.

also too, feeder lizards are NOT captive bred, they are wild caught because of the vast populations, therefore hudge risks of very harmful parasites. on the subject of mice.. you never know what they are feeding them. this goes to any reptile that eats mice and rats. are the breeders giving them a healthy diet? or are they cheaping you out and feeding scraps?

to sum it up, ask yourself the simple questions of:
1) does my chameleon realy need it
2) does he have what it takes to digest and metablise it PROPERLY
3) is it healthy for him
4) am i doing it just to do it?


My answers are:
1) strongly depends
2) no
3) no
4) i really do hope not

just my honest opinion.

 

[Olimpia]

In the wild, chameleons eat all sorts of non-insect food matter. From birds to lizards, I've seen photos of everything. However, in the wild it's a necesity thing - you may not see anything really good in days, and if a nice little lizard crawls infront of you, you're going to take the chance because you might not eat again in a couple days. But in captivity, it's not really doing much since you can spice up the diet with so many other, more insectivore-specific bugs. And as Veiled is saying, the animal protein in mice is tough for insectivore animals to digest, since their systems just aren't specialized for that. And an excess of it will lead to medical issues.

It's a little like dogs. Some [insane] people think they can keep their dogs on a vegetarian diet, which cuts about 7 years off the life of your dog. Why? Because even though dogs are a tiny bit omnivorous and can happily tolerate some veggies and fruit, their digestive system and body is built for the digestion of red meat. So a carrot here and there is absolutely fine, but as soon as you make it a large chunk of the diet you're hurting the animal.

I think that perhaps if you really had to, a few a year wouldn't do much harm, but I just don't see any great points in favor of the practice. If you need extra fat, we have wax woms. If you need more calcium we have supplements and phoenix and butterworms. We have everything they want in insects.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Pinkies are primarily blobs of fat. There is no benefit to providing them to chameleons. All a chameleon's nutritional needs can be met without pinkies.