What do you feed your Chameleons, and how often?

[Korouri]

So for the moment my girl has just been eating crickets, and I plan to expand her diet later this week. However, it's a little difficult to figure out what kinds of bugs (even with the minimized selection of commercially raised) to go with. I believe I'm going to try purchasing variety from rainbowmealworms.com because I've seen a lot of good reviews for them, but they have so many things there I'm not sure quite what to get.

I'm not asking for suggestions from people about what I should try, though. I'd actually like to draw an idea of what to do based on what you guys personally feed your own chameleons. Because this is also a bit of a confusing subject since some people say certain feeders are bad while others say they're good, and ect, and not everyone gives their pets their nutrition in the same exact ways.

So, what do you feed your chameleons, and how often do you feed them whatever insects it is that you do? What is the staple of their diets, and what are treats? What do you recommend most, or what do you recommend against? And for veiled chameleons/ones that like plants once in a while, what do yours like?

Thanks for anyone's input!

 

[KapitalJ]

Male Veiled 9mths old

My male typically eats everyday, although I do skip a day here or there. If i see a few crickets still in his dish I will not feed him the next day.

This isn't set in stone by any means, but is a rough idea of what I feed. I constantly change it up.

Day 1 - 10-15 crickets (calcuim no D3)
Day 2 - 3 super worms (treat) and a few crickets (calcuim no D3)
Day 3 - 4 grasshoppers, and a butterfly (all caught outside)
Day 4 - 2 butterworms (treat) and a few crickets (calcuim no D3)
Day 5 - 10-15 crickets (calcuim no D3)
Day 6 - no food
Day 7 - 2 hornworms a few crickets a few house fly's (calcium with d3 one week, vitamin the next week)

I have seen some nibble marks on my plants, but nothing substantial. I have offered greens to him, but there was no interest. I have yet to try fruit.

Hope this helps.

 

[Karenxx67]

Thats great thank you. That will help me a lot x

 

[ChamDE86]

Be careful with treat feeders such as hornworms/superworms/butterworms. These can quickly become your chams addiction and turn them into picky eaters. I like to offer crickets/dubia early in the day and then give treat feeders later on. I do this because if given the option, my guy will only eat the treats and ignore everything else. I guess you can say its a reward thing, but its a good way to make sure he's getting a variety of feeders in his diet. If he does not touch his crickets at all, I won't give him his treats. These guys can go weeks without eating, so don't be afraid to skip a day or two if he's being picky. The link below has a ton of info in regards to insect nutrition.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/entry/feeders.74/

 

[Korouri]

Thanks so much KapitalJ for your input! That's super helpful, and actually your supplement regimen is really similar to the one I went with (right down to the d3 one week, vitimins the next week, cycle).

I wish I could feed wild caught insects to Dahlia but I don't trust the bugs around here. I just really don't want to risk parasites or pesticides on/in them. You never know where they've been. D:

Thats great thank you. That will help me a lot x

It's great so see this thread could be helpful to other people too! It's just everyone does feeding variety a bit differently from what I can tell so it's nice to see what others do to help you develop your own way of doing it that works with you.

Be careful with treat feeders such as hornworms/superworms/butterworms. These can quickly become your chams addiction and turn them into picky eaters.

Ah, yes, see that's why I'd like to see how often people do give them the 'treat' bugs, and such. Plus I've seen things like waxworms are a once in a rare while treat, if not avoided entirely because they're just little globs of fat. So it's things like that that make me unsure of purchasing them at all.

 

[Andreab102]

I feed my female veiled every other day. Crickets are my staple, but I usually feed a few hornworms each week for hydration purposes. I also feed a superworm or two like every other week. Finally, I feed wax worms very seldom, like one or two a month. I live in FL and can't get dubias, but I may try discoids in the future.

 

[Peachypink]

My staple is Dibia. I feed about 15 ish small ones a day, I have a male panther and right now I feed him however much he will eat. Some days he eats them all others he will eat 8-10. I do however skip Sunday's, this is the schedule Karmmers had him on and I just kept it. I did try and feed Sunday's too but he never ate what I put there anyway.

I will also do 3 hornworms a week and 1-2 silk worms a day. I just got some BSF larva that I'm going to attempt to pupate. The worms themselves are so tiny I dot think he will get much from them but adding something that flies he might enjoy.

I also use Rapashy calcium plus daily. This is an all in one supplement that covers the multi vitamin and D3. Although depending on what type of Cham you have will determine which type of calcium plus you would use. There is also a low D version.

 

[Remkon]

My cham is a picky eater so i figured i'd just stick with crickets until he's fullgrown and offer some dubia, grasshopper or calcium/wax worm sometimes (my ackies are walking trashcans so they will eat anything my cham doesnt)...
Once he's fullgrown I'm just going to let him go hungry for a few days and then only offer him said feeders.

 

[KapitalJ]

Be careful with treat feeders such as hornworms/superworms/butterworms. These can quickly become your chams addiction and turn them into picky eaters. I like to offer crickets/dubia early in the day and then give treat feeders later on. I do this because if given the option, my guy will only eat the treats and ignore everything else. I guess you can say its a reward thing, but its a good way to make sure he's getting a variety of feeders in his diet. If he does not touch his crickets at all, I won't give him his treats. These guys can go weeks without eating, so don't be afraid to skip a day or two if he's being picky. The link below has a ton of info in regards to insect nutrition.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/entry/feeders.74/

Great idea for the treats! This is why I only give a few crickets on my "Treat Days". You are right, he only eats the treats and maybe a cricket or 2. I am going to try your way next time. Problem is during the week I get home just before 4pm not leaving much time for 2 feedings. On the weekend when I am around its no problem.

He loves the wild caught insects. I don't supplement at all on those days!

 

[Korouri]

(my ackies are walking trashcans so they will eat anything my cham doesnt)...

Yeah, that's pretty much what my bearded dragon is too haha. He tries to eat everything and anything unless he specifically hates it (like raspberries).

Does anyone use phoenix worms? They seem to just be little calcium nuggets kind of like the waxworms are fat - so is there no real nutritional use to them if you supplement/gutload your other bugs with calcium? Nobody's mentioned them yet.

Otherwise I'm getting a good idea of what to do for Dahlia, although I'm also super excited to see what my other pets are going to think of some of the new feeders too! My bearded dragon never had a huge variety of bugs (made up for with veggies) but he'll love having more interesting bugs. That and I'd love to see my B.albopilosum tarantula pounce on a little hornworm lol.

 

[PJK]

Yeah, that's pretty much what my bearded dragon is too haha. He tries to eat everything and anything unless he specifically hates it (like raspberries).

Does anyone use phoenix worms? They seem to just be little calcium nuggets kind of like the waxworms are fat - so is there no real nutritional use to them if you supplement/gutload your other bugs with calcium? Nobody's mentioned them yet.

Otherwise I'm getting a good idea of what to do for Dahlia, although I'm also super excited to see what my other pets are going to think of some of the new feeders too! My bearded dragon never had a huge variety of bugs (made up for with veggies) but he'll love having more interesting bugs. That and I'd love to see my B.albopilosum tarantula pounce on a little hornworm lol.

Phoenix worms are black soldier fly larvae (BSFL). They are just a trademarked version. you may also see them called caliciworms at large chain pet stores . All the same thing. Super high in calcium, and cannot be gutloaded, and do not need to be dusted. They are a good feeder, but are tough to feed sometimes because they are small and do not wriggle as much as other worms. Again, they are a good feeder, but I cant realistically see them being a successful staple.

 

[Peachypink]

Phoenix worms are black soldier fly larvae (BSFL). They are just a trademarked version. you may also see them called caliciworms at large chain pet stores . All the same thing. Super high in calcium, and cannot be gutloaded, and do not need to be dusted. They are a good feeder, but are tough to feed sometimes because they are small and do not wriggle as much as other worms. Again, they are a good feeder, but I cant realistically see them being a successful staple.

I was just thinking this myself. I just ordered them for the first time and they are just so tiny. I feed dubia as my staple so I was thinking of them more as a treat. I may just let them pupate and feed the flies for the variety.

 

[PJK]

I was just thinking this myself. I just ordered them for the first time and they are just so tiny. I feed dubia as my staple so I was thinking of them more as a treat. I may just let them pupate and feed the flies for the variety.

I've got an exotic pet store in my neighborhood that is pretty high end and they advertise them as "the best feeder" available, and I really don't see it, They are too small to be a real staple, and the first time I fed them to my cham, he just knocked the cup over in protest. He ate them eventually, but begrudgingly I think.

 

[ChamDE86]

I forget sometimes that not everyone is working off of the same schedule and may not have the luxury of offering food twice a day . Your feeding schedule is pretty much spot on though. My guy will eat almost anything after a skipped meal day, so I make sure to rotate variety in that way as well. You gotta get them when they are at their hungriest .

 

[Korouri]

I forget sometimes that not everyone is working off of the same schedule and may not have the luxury of offering food twice a day . Your feeding schedule is pretty much spot on though. My guy will eat almost anything after a skipped meal day, so I make sure to rotate variety in that way as well. You gotta get them when they are at their hungriest .

I'll be surprised if mine grows up to not be as big of a glutton as she is now haha.

Any further input would be fantastic for future reference and whatnot, but thanks to everyone who's included information so far! It's really helped out.

 

[Theveiled]

Just remember egg laying age females need to be fed less to help reduce clutch size