Whos chameleon also HATES..

[Lucasthecham]

Mealworms.
I tried placing one on the palm of my hand and nothing. I also tried laying one down on a leaf and letting him get it him self, nope. Then I tried to put several of them in a tiny little feed bowl hoping that if he saw a lot of movement in he’d go for it, still no! He passed through the bowl slowly, looked at it and flared up! So picky!

Panther Cham. 4-5 months old.

 

[jamest0o0]

Most/all of the experienced members don't feed mealworms. They're nutritionally useless and just full of chitin. One every once and awhile wouldn't harm a healthy chameleon, but I wouldn't even bother buying them.

 

[JacksJill]

Your chameleon nows what's not good for him. Mealworms are hard to digest and not very nutritional. You have a very smart chameleon. If you want to feed him something similar but more digestible you should try superworms. I'm guessing he won't go for those either as they are the same shape. Hornworms or silkworms are far better treats and silks can be used as more than a treat in the diet.
Edit: @jamest0o0 you beat me to it.

 

[Lucasthecham]

Most/all of the experienced members don't feed mealworms. They're nutritionally useless and just full of chitin. One every once and awhile wouldn't harm a healthy chameleon, but I wouldn't even bother buying them.

He eats crickets, I wasn’t trying to feed him mealworms as an everyday thing, was just trying to change his diet a bit so he wouldn’t ONLY eat crickets but yeah, he didn’t like them.

 

[Lucasthecham]

Your chameleon nows what's not good for him. Mealworms are hard to digest and not very nutritional. You have a very smart chameleon. If you want to feed him something similar but more digestible you should try superworms. I'm guessing he won't go for those either as they are the same shape. Hornworms or silkworms are far better treats and silks can be used as more than a treat in the diet.
Edit: @jamest0o0 you beat me to it.

He’s fed crickets every day. I just wanted to change his diet a bit when I bought the mealworms.Im scared to buy superworms, silkworms, hornworms, etc as a treat because he might not like those either.

 

[JacksJill]

I understand but they can cause constipation and I wanted you to know.

 

[Lucasthecham]

I understand but they can cause constipation and I wanted you to know.

I know, thanks

 

[makkatfloof]

Mealworms are, like everyone is saying, nutritionally useless.
They have more fat, so in that case, they are better for underweight reptiles sometimes to help get them back up to size. But usually, even with underweight chams especially, you usually just wanna let them grow and naturally gain back on their own with good healthy feeder insects. Unless they are like my cham was where he got sick and got EXTREMELY underweight. He doesn’t even like mealworms that much but I’ve been feeding him them and wax worms to at least get him close to a normal weight.
That’s really the only time I could see the necessity of feeding a cham them. I see sometimes people giving their cham one or two as sort of a treat, but that’s it.

 

[jamest0o0]

@makkatfloof I think you may be thinking of superworms which are fattier. Mealworms are more like fingernails as others have said lol.

 

[makkatfloof]

@makkatfloof I think you may be thinking of superworms which are fattier. Mealworms are more like fingernails as others have said lol.

No, they actually have a much higher percentage of fat than crickets. Not as much as superworms, but they are a lot more fatty.
But they are like fingernails, which is another reason to not feed them because their exoskeleton is hard to digest. You can, though, get them when they are small and net developed the hard exoskeleton. They are also fattier at that age too.

 

[jamest0o0]

@makkatfloof that would be relative to body size though, to receive a decent amount of fat from them you'd have to feed wayyy more than what would be a healthy amount of chitin. I would never go to mealworms for fat. Much better options.

 

[makkatfloof]

@makkatfloof that would be relative to body size though, to receive a decent amount of fat from them you'd have to feed wayyy more than what would be a healthy amount of chitin. I would never go to mealworms for fat. Much better options.

No offense or anything, but they have been helping with the weight of my underweight little guy and many other friends I have that have rescued sick chams.
At the same time, I do know the lack of value they have, which is why I go more towards wax worms than I do mealworms. I know I’m relatively new to at least chameleon care, but anything that has helped my boy in any way through his illness and others, i will suggest. At least with this though, yes, their lack of value sucks. So it’s a big no to feed a lot of them anyways.

 

[Jevin]

My panther hates anything worm like.