Reading about food cycles

[Firsttimer]

Just been reading about various food cycles, you have some really interesting insects that I can't find hear in the UK. Little man favours calci worms and will eat crickets. I can get flightless fruit flies and lob worms? Hoppers and locusts which he doesn't seem keen on. Is there any one else from the UK, that knows where to find other varieties of insects to vary his diet.

 

[Twitchet]

Hi there, I’m from the U.K too, you can buy silkworms or silkworm eggs /starter kits easily from thesilkwormstore.co.uk or eBay or silkworm Safari, my veiled absolutely loves them.
I buy eggs and raise them, i don’t find them the easiest to raise but their nutritional value is worth the effort, I also have a bin of Dubia roaches, they are easy to keep, don’t smell and pretty cheap to set up, you’ll find he can’t manage larger roaches but you can always sell oversized or excess on eBay and buy something else with the proceeds,
I raised Indian stick insects, a bit of work collecting bramble but a possible, eggs and nymphs found easily on eBay,
Onlinereptileshop.co.uk sell curly wing flies if your Chameleon is small, I also buy blue or green bottle fly casters from wormsdirect for something different but it increases the risk of you having blue bottles flying around your house, I personally don’t feed crickets but locusts are a real favourite.
As a rare treat I feed pachnoda grubs, and am setting up a colony as they are fairly quick to breed and produce larvae, probably not worth you doing for one Chameleon though but they are easy to buy as larvae, but you’ll have to wait until he’s full grown as they are quite big, I snip the mandibles out before feeding by the way, they nip and they are only as a rare treat.
Calciworms are great if you buy a box and leave them to pupate and emerge as flies, they are slow flying and easy for the Cham to catch. I also buy waxworms and let them turn into moths, my chams love them!
Remember to gutload what insect types you can and keep them nice and clean, clean bins, cages, remove old food etc. There’s lots of info in the caresheets here about good plants for gutloading etc.
Hope this helps a little.
Good luck with your quest.

 

[Firsttimer]

Wow! You are amazing. I will get on to that asap. He is being cheeky at the moment, almost demanding calciworms, he came to the front of his house with his big sad eyes, whilst i have been at work, after only giving him crickets this morning, to encourage him not to rely on just the calciworms, however my partner who is scared of him and insects of all varieties, has hand fed him his favourite treat giving into his baby faced charms. He got told off! I shall endeavour to go in search of these alternative insects treats. Thanks that is a big help.

 

[Twitchet]

Lol, yes they do get a bit keen on certain foods,
I’m glad it was of help and if I get any excess food I’ll let you know, see if you can use them, nice to be able to make good use of feeders.
I’ll probaly grow Indian sticks again this year so there’s always an excess of them.
Best of luck with your new baby.