Worms; Silk, Horn, Butter, Wax Super! Need advice

[paigesc]

We have a 6 month old we feed strictly crickets (properly gutloaded) and we have a 2 yr old arriving tomorrow.

What/when and how often do you supplement worms to their diet? Is there an age/ratio formula to go by? Are worms necessary for a well rounded diet? I can not bring roaches into my house considering the $ spent yearly to keep them out

How are you feeding your cham and what/when/how much do you feed?

Thanks!
John & Paige

 

[phase]

not shure if worm are neccesary but the chams can go on hunger strike because of the same old boring foods. its always nice to give them a couple different types of staple food. and sometime throw in a couple worms (snacks). i feed my baby crickets as a staple, but every other day i throw in a couple mealworms to prevent him from going on hunger strike. once he gets bigger i will expand his list of foods

 

[paigesc]

Thank you!

 

[chameleongirl2]

ya u need some uniqe foods at some points, what i do is i give her crickets and 1-4 worms and once a week i give her a wax worm thats what makes her go coo-coo

 

[armyrec1]

Yea, definitely crickets as a staple, and worms as a treat. Our Ambilobe absolutely goes crazy for silks, and reptis.

 

[splinter]

wow I have a problem with that cause no one sell worms here in Puerto Rico and the temperature is high so it could be a problem for mailing live food. Do you know of any site that wold send small amounts of worms to Puerto Rico? I can not buy too mush worms cause I just have one jackson Cham.

 

[armyrec1]

wow I have a problem with that cause no one sell worms here in Puerto Rico and the temperature is high so it could be a problem for mailing live food. Do you know of any site that wold send small amounts of worms to Puerto Rico? I can not buy too mush worms cause I just have one jackson Cham.

We buy from Mulberryfarm.com you can also buy some worms in egg form and hatch them yourself. We just did that with silk worms, I believe we bought 200 eggs. The pots of Repti worms are awesome and apparently very good for Chams because of the calcium content esp when they go black (just before they turn into solider flies) when they turn into Black soldier flies we feed them to our boy too, He goes crazy for them, loves to hunt them and goggle them up.

 

[sandrachameleon]

... What/when and how often do you supplement worms to their diet? Is there an age/ratio formula to go by? Are worms necessary for a well rounded diet? I can not bring roaches into my house considering the $ spent yearly to keep them out

How are you feeding your cham and what/when/how much do you feed?

Thanks!
John & Paige

Hello
You can (and should, imho) use a variety of prey from the first week of the chameleons life. I certainly do with mine.

No, worms/larva are not critical, but including some will certainly allow for a greater variety of feeders. Try to not have ANY one feeder (including crickets) make up more than 20% of your chameleons diet. Also try to have "fatty" feeders (such as superworms) or those with low nutrient values (such as moths) or with very high/very low chinton levels (isopods and mealworms / hornworms) kept to less than 10% of the chameleons diet.

Here is a good list of feeder prey choices, with information about each, including how regularily they can be offered: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html
Here is a log of what I feed my panther chameleons (you'll see more entries relate to adult males, but some also cover females and babies): https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/food-diary/

 

[splinter]

We buy from Mulberryfarm.com you can also buy some worms in egg form and hatch them yourself. We just did that with silk worms, I believe we bought 200 eggs. The pots of Repti worms are awesome and apparently very good for Chams because of the calcium content esp when they go black (just before they turn into solider flies) when they turn into Black soldier flies we feed them to our boy too, He goes crazy for them, loves to hunt them and goggle them up.

Did you buy 200 eggs for one cham? My Jackson does not eat much and I don't want to buy lots of food that eventually will die before he got a chance to eat them. He is about 10 month old.

 

[Aminah Undone]

Maybe it was a typo, but the chitin level in hornworms should be NILL. They are super soft bodied worms.

@splinter.. Silkworm eggs can be kept in your freezer. You take out the amount you want to hatch out, producing silkworms, and leave the remainder in the freezer until you want to use them. It's a great way to have them on hand and not have to feed them or care for them, in the mean time.

 

[splinter]

OK thanks, I still a new to this.

 

[Aminah Undone]

Enjoy the hobby! Chameleons are some of my most favorite reptiles to work with.. very rewarding and mesmerizing!