Superworms

[FAIL]

ARE HUGE. AND EXPENSIVE. AND SCARY. Can they bite me? lol. seriously, how old or large must a cham be before it can it a superworm, i just picked some up, cut off one of the heads of a large one, and my 9 month old veiled at it very fast...didnt chew it much, it was his first one...Do i need to feed them anything? (the worms) Or just throw it in there with no head or with the head? And can my larger than average 5.5 panther eat them too?

 

[Nosybe]

ARE HUGE. AND EXPENSIVE. AND SCARY. Can they bite me? lol. seriously, how old or large must a cham be before it can it a superworm, i just picked some up, cut off one of the heads of a large one, and my 9 month old veiled at it very fast...didnt chew it much, it was his first one...Do i need to feed them anything? (the worms) Or just throw it in there with no head or with the head? And can my larger than average 5.5 panther eat them too?

Expensive? I don't know how much you are paying for supers but they are a fraction of the price of silkies/hornworms/roaches

 

[panthercham]

Expensive? I don't know how much you are paying for supers but they are a fraction of the price of silkies/hornworms/roaches

I agree

With my superworms they are kept in bran and I just gutload with carrot, apple and kale and other dryish veg. Stay away from fruit like orange or high water content stuff as they just make the bedding a soggy mess.

I dont cut their heads off, I just let them climb the sides of the cage and they get picked off like that.

 

[chambabysitter1]

I buy my supers small. Let them get big.

Put a bunch of bran in a bin, toss in some veggies every few days, and you will have gigantic superworms for half the cost.

This is what I do anyways. Superworms are probably the easiest to keep out of all the bugs I've kept IMO.

They don't pupate until you seperate them, so they can last a good while. Leave the heads on, don't take out the fun crunchy part. My chameleon loves the crunchy bits of the head.

I also cling them to the side of my cage, they start crawling around and it draws the chameleons eyes in real fast.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Supers start small and grow large. If you have a small chameleon, get smaller supers. Try not to use too many supers - they are very fatty and have a high level of chinton. You do want to gutload supers. And you do not need to cut off their heads. Although some people have reported getting a nip from a super, I've handled thousands and never been bit. A large male cricket is more likely, in my opionion, to bite. Supers are cheap to raise and cheap to buy. if you are paying a high price for yours, shop elsewhere.

 

[OOOst16]

no cutting the heads off is a old wives tale....its a farse YOU DO NOT have to cut there heads off....there are many threads about this.

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."Do i need to feed them anything? "...I have had a colony of superworms living and reproducing in my three-keeled box turtles cage for over 6 years now. I provide them with a piece of rotting wood and they eat the same greens, veggies and fruit that the turtles eat (dandelion greens, kale, endive, collards, escarole, squash, carrots, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, apple, pear, etc.).

 

[renzo0684]

ARE HUGE. AND EXPENSIVE. AND SCARY. Can they bite me? lol. seriously, how old or large must a cham be before it can it a superworm, i just picked some up, cut off one of the heads of a large one, and my 9 month old veiled at it very fast...didnt chew it much, it was his first one...Do i need to feed them anything? (the worms) Or just throw it in there with no head or with the head? And can my larger than average 5.5 panther eat them too?

Where I get my supers I pay the same amount as I do crickets... I feed 1 about every other week to my 4 month old as a treat usually on sundays so I can dust it with d3 or his multiviamin.... I gut load them the same as crickets

 

[FAIL]

it was 4.99 for 25 supers...they huge, chams eat them in like 3 bites...is that normal?

 

[pssh]

Look online. You can buy hundreds for really cheap. Plus online places often have different sizes available.

 

[renzo0684]

Correct me if I am wrong but you dont want to use supers all the time because they are fatty.... Are you looking for something to use all the time other than crix?

EDIT--- HA HA HA I just saw this oops...

Supers start small and grow large. If you have a small chameleon, get smaller supers. Try not to use too many supers - they are very fatty and have a high level of chinton. You do want to gutload supers. And you do not need to cut off their heads. Although some people have reported getting a nip from a super, I've handled thousands and never been bit. A large male cricket is more likely, in my opionion, to bite. Supers are cheap to raise and cheap to buy. if you are paying a high price for yours, shop elsewhere.

 

[FAIL]

lol, i just want to add more variety to their diet, so far its been crickets. i tried waxworms but they dont seem to want to eat them.

 

[OOOst16]

yeah i heavily gutload crix....and heavily gutload supers and feed mine those. its recomeneded you do more then 2 different feeders. but its really your call in the end

 

[nick barta]

I would suggest internet shopping, and look at Horn Worms (Great Lakes Hornworms.com) and Blue Bottle flies (mantisplace.com). Silk Worms are difficult to buy in any size larger than 1 inch, but if you have patience and lots of time, you can raise them from eggs (Mulberry Farms.com).

Great Lakes Hornworms has smaller Super worms too.

Come Spring, grasshoppers, moths, and butterflies, cost=ZERO

Nick

 

[OOOst16]

im always afraid to feed wild caught...i feel like parasites might be in them. is it a risk or not? i mean you cant really tell.because we gots plenty of bugz here during summer!....so feeding Wc bugs...yeh or neh?

 

[Nosybe]

Do what I do...
Come spring catch about 50 adult grasshoppers/katydids/whatever you want to feed
Set up a breeding program
You can find info on how to breed crickets, locusts, grasshoppers, and katydids on the internet.
Feed of the first generation captive baby bugs.

 

[OOOst16]

paro-------sites still scare me because....my male juts got over his pinworms....so...yeah ...it scares me

 

[pssh]

Most parasites dont actually harm your animal as much as you think. The parasites have been around and developing so that they dont kill the animal, they want to live there side by side with the animal. Though I dont suggest just feeding random bugs all the time. I certainly can't hurt all that much. As long as you get fecals done every 6 months then you'll know if you can feed off the first generation bugs or if you should feed off the second or third generation bugs. Also remember that the captive bred bugs you buy at pet stores can have parasites in them as well.

 

[sandrachameleon]

im always afraid to feed wild caught...i feel like parasites might be in them. is it a risk or not? i mean you cant really tell.because we gots plenty of bugz here during summer!....so feeding Wc bugs...yeh or neh?

Yes absolutely there is risk to using wild caught insects. Wild caught insects are far more likely to carry parasites than captive bred bugs. Some parasites are easy to deal with, but some are most certainly NOT easy to deal with and can kill the chameleon. Wild caught insects are also potential carriers of small amounts of pestacides (not enough to ahve killed them yet, but enough to sicken the chameleon just the same). And further there is a risk of accidentally giving your chameleon a bug that is itself toxic, or that has recently been eating a plant that is toxic to chameleons. Some bugs are heavy metal bioaccumulators - they wall off inside of them these metals as their way of dealing with them. This doesnt harm the bug because the bugs life is short. But a chameleon eating several of these bugs injests several doses of these harmful metals, building up over time.

Having said all that, I personally do use certain wild caught bugs in season, such as grasshoppers and cabbage loppers.