super worm crazy

[Allen Whitaker]

So my beautiful chameleon moe is going through an eating stage, thing, in his life right now. He ate only small crickets and phenox worms when <4 months. Then i went to full size crickets, well gutloaded with cricket crack and my own veggy mixture, and silkworms. He loved the super worms bu they proved to be too expensive and difficult to keep a steady supply of. I now have gone to crickets and super worms. He eats 3-5 superworms a day and about 2-3 crickets. I have crickets available all day, and only put the superworms in in the morning and eve. They will be gone within hours.

My question is: Does this diet of superworms affect his health, even though this has been going on for a month and he looks better than ever?

 

[Syn]

Be careful of a chameleon superworm addiction! LOL

 

[sandrachameleon]

how old is your chameleon? Are you gutloading and calcium dusting the superworms? Superworms do have a fairly high fat content, like most (if not all) larva. I prefer to offer as much variety as possible, and include superworms fairly but I personally would not offer them every day if you can find other options. Even if the other option is usually only crickets. That said, there are people who successfully keep healthy chameleons using superworms as the primary staple.

 

[Allen Whitaker]

I do not gut load the superworms. I gut load and dust the crickets.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Time to start gutloading the superworms, if you are going to use them as a feeder on even a semi-regular basis!

 

[Chameleon Company]

As noted, you can gut-load superworms. Chameleons can get spoiled on a particular food item. It may make no sense, but it happens. Superworms are still in the realm of insects that you can gut-load fairly well. Silk-worms and hornworms are problematic when it comes to a balanced diet via 1-2 insects. I wish I could tell you that you could easily starve your chameleon back to the diet you wanted most to provide, but they can be stubborn about this. Again, it makes no sense, but I stopped trying to think like a chameleon long ago.

 

[ciafardo 4]

I have a few that wont touch crickets or roaches just supers,horns and recently silks so i gutload the supers and dust them i think supers can be a staple without a problem.

 

[Allen Whitaker]

ok, well he still eats crickets. He just obviously loves supers. What do i feed the supers and what do i keep them in. So far i have been just keeping them in the sawdust looking stuff they come in from petco.

 

[Clifford]

Oats and bran and whatever dry gut load you use for Crickets can be used as a substrate for superworms
Then add fresh fruits and veggies to give them moisture

 

[Julirs]

I keep my crickets in oats, and just add a few slices of apple, sweet potatoes, green leafy lettuces, etc. every few days to gutload them. If he is eating crickets and Supers there is nothing to worry about.