some feeding suggestions...

[moner]

so my one year old Veiled, Sam is on a cricket strike. he has lost all interest in them. he will happily eat anything else i give him (meal worms, superworms, house flies when i can catch them) but he draws the line at crickets. he used to eat them happily, and then one day it seems he just decided that he didnt want them anymore.

anyone have suggestions on how to help him get past the "issue", and maybe some good suggestions for alternatives in his diet besides mealworms?

everything else about him seems great and healthy.

 

[AngieL]

Hi! He's probably bored of crickets, they change thier mind a lot!

Some good feeders are roaches, silkworms, hornworms, butterworms, grasshoppers, painted lady butterflies.

Try feeding different bugs different days and include crickets in the rotation, see if he eats them again. If not its no biggie, there are lots of good feeders out there

 

[Azaria]

Ooh, are house bugs allowed for chams? I always thought house flies were supposedly the most disgusting creature on earth so wouldn't have thought to catch them and let my girl eat them. They can't get them sick?

Also, I was under the impression that super worms were too tough for the chams, so I was avoiding giving them to her. (I keep them around for my beardie)

 

[AllFallDown]

Ooh, are house bugs allowed for chams? I always thought house flies were supposedly the most disgusting creature on earth so wouldn't have thought to catch them and let my girl eat them. They can't get them sick?

Also, I was under the impression that super worms were too tough for the chams, so I was avoiding giving them to her. (I keep them around for my beardie)

Dont recall for sure but I think super worms are ok, its meal worms that are hard to digest. you might want to verify that regarding the supers though. I almost never feed any of my reptiles mealworms.

 

[AngieL]

Supers are ok for ocassional feeding, maybe once a week or so. I would't feed any wild caught flies either, too many germs from lanind on bins and poo etc. You can buy kits to culture your own flies though and that's not a bad idea at all.

 

[AllFallDown]

Supers are ok for ocassional feeding, maybe once a week or so. I would't feed any wild caught flies either, too many germs from lanind on bins and poo etc. You can buy kits to culture your own flies though and that's not a bad idea at all.

From what I have read, they make great composters as well. Perfect if you are a gardener!

Oops, I am specifically thinking of solderflies. Must be time for bed, I am mixing up threads in my head.

 

[AngieL]

From what I have read, they make great composters as well. Perfect if you are a gardener!

Oops, I am specifically thinking of solderflies. Must be time for bed, I am mixing up threads in my head.

Lol! You are up pretty late, it's 11.10am here!

 

[carol5208]

I gutload mine just like crickets and feed them often but I mix it up with some soft bodied feeders like silks and horns. So on those days when I feed supers I feed those feeders also. They are fatty and that is the drawback just like us eating red meat as opposed to chicken I guess. Neither one of my chameleons are fat even though they are a good part of their diet. Not saying this is right or wrong but what I do and I don't have any type of digestion problems or anything like that. Now, we of course cannot see what is going on in the inside, so I will not confirm or deny that fatty feeders cannot cause problems down the line to organs such as the liver. My two main feeders are silks and crickets, but I do feed supers regularly too but just not as many in quantity.

 

[moner]

some good comments. thanks. if anyone else any other comments, im all ears!

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

I would not feed off house flies. They eat waste, like poop. If you can breed them and know exactly what they eat then I doubt it'd be a problem.

 

[Trillian]

Silkworms are good, much healthier than mealworms or crickets, and they turn into silkmoths which are also good feeders! I also second hornworms and butterworms. Might be worth considering starting a dubia roach colony, they are much easier to breed than crickets and they can't clim, so don't escape, and they also don't smell.

 

[carol5208]

I agree with you on the silks but if I recall right Lady Silkworm posted awhile back that the moths have basically no nutritional value. I might be wrong but I I am pretty sure I remember reading this. It cannot hurt to feed them as they are something your chameleon probably does not get on a regular basis so it might be nice for them to eat something different