UK - locusts

[cotley]

Fairly new to these forums, and had a bit hunt about, but apologies if this has been done to death already.

I mainly base my veiled's diet around locusts - reasonably affordable here in UK, and said to have some of the best nutrional value - my cham turns his nose at crickets if locusts are available... he just can't resist them.

I wondered if anyone here is cup feeding locusts? I'm not convinced of the need to remove legs (they're not big enough to have substantial spikey bits), nor am I keen to do so - but these guys really move in comparison to crickets, and easily climb up the sheer side of their plastic tank before being placed in the viv.

Thing is of course that locusts totally pillage my live plants - I've never cup fed before but fancy trying it out.

(On a side note I notice majority of people here are American and seem to be able to get away with mesh setups - just impractical in my climate unfortunately, flats never warm enough!)

So - any tips from those of you with lots of locust experience? My veiled is eating medium to large (from a certain popular online UK retailer!)

Ta!

 

[jonpat83]

Hi, I like to use locusts as one of my main feeders also, i've read somewhere that they are one of the naturally calcium rich livefoods that they find in the wild, largely because they are grazers and grass contains alot of calcium. They are also very attractive from the chameleons point of view, I have veiled, panther and von hohnells chams and they all love them!

Feeding them from a cup is not so easy as they always try to climb out, even if you remove the back legs they will still do this. As long as you don't feed oversized locusts for your cham there is no need to remove the back legs, I would only reccomend removal on adult locusts as the spines seem to get alot harder on adults.

I would really reccomend a mesh cage, I live in Scotland and its not very warm at all but they all thrive well as they need the ventilation of an open sided cage. What temp does your cage drop to at night? Veileds are quite happy with a drop at night, my oldest is 4 years old and has never been bothered by a night drop to 14 degrees celcius. I dont let the panthers drop below 18 degrees c.

Hope this is helpfull,

Jon

 

[Kent67]

We'd love to use them if they were still commercially available here in the US. I would use them solely in place of crickets if I could. For one thing, grasshoppers and locusts are diurnal so are a big part of wild chameleons' diets. Domestic crickets are generally nocturnal, and thus would not be much of a part of a wild chameleon's diet. Some of the bigger ones do have very hard, thorny jumping legs. I think it's a matter of just using good judgment as to removing them or not. Certainly they deal with jumping legs on wild locusts, but if that one little puncture leads to a mouth or throat infection, I'd rather be safe than sorry and remove them from the big ones.

Anyone want to send me some from the UK??

 

[jonpat83]

I'm not sure how legal it is to send locusts to US as they are a species that could colonise. I would love to get hornworms here but no-one seems to have them in the UK

 

[Kent67]

I'm not sure how legal it is to send locusts to US as they are a species that could colonise. I would love to get hornworms here but no-one seems to have them in the UK

It would not be legal. Just joking. But.....I would accept them if they showed up in a box marked "fruit cake" though.

 

[jonpat83]

I could maybe bake a nice cake in exchange for some hornworms, oh I mean a jam sponge!

 

[alan23]

hi i ws thinking tht today has i just set up me 260 flex i tub fed some brown crickets tpday bt aint tryed locust yet i let em roam and like seeing him hunt too.

 

[alan23]

oh thts another thing wht do u fe ur locust?

 

[Ash]

I let the locust free roam in my Veiled's cage, only take the legs off adult Locust when I can get them.

He loves the locusts though, he'll 8 or 9 in one sitting! I hate using crickets aswells, I HATE the big black ones

Ash

 

[alan23]

sorry my last reply didnt come out wht i said lol ws meant to say wht do u gutload ur locust on?

 

[jonpat83]

You can gutload locusts on any healthy greens, its a great way of getting greens into your chameleon without them even realising. I use kale, mustard greens, clover, dandelion flowers and leaves, nasturtium flowers and leaves, stinging nettles, grass, wheat & oat sprouts, basically any of the vegetables reccomended for feeding to chameleons. They will also feed on fruit but seem to prefer greens.