We just purchased our first Meller’s a few days ago. He seems a little bit stressed, but I think he’s slowly settling in. He seems to have a good appetite, and is eating 15+ large crickets a day. I just caught an adult western fence lizard in my driveway. Would it be safe and/or advisable to feed it to the Meller’s? It is about four inches in length, including the tail.

If your Mellers is big enough andyouare sure that pesticides have not been use around your area lizards in general arein a Meller's natural diet...

I wouldn't.

-Brad

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http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
Dedicated to promoting superior care for Veiled Chameleons

I couldn't bring myself to do it. I let the little bugger go free.

I think that was the best decision for both lizards involved.
Good choice!

-Brad

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http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
Dedicated to promoting superior care for Veiled Chameleons

OK, but please indulge me. What do you think would have happened had I fed the fence lizard to the chameleon (aside from the rather unpleasant prospect of him only eating half of it)?

If it had traces of pesticides I would guess it could cause liver or kidney damage.

main thing to worry about is parasites. The fence lizard likely has them and you can pass them on to your cham. I used to feed my veiled's newly born gecko's that are on our front porch. My chams started coming up positive on their fecals. I stopped feeding them to my chams about 4 months ago and their fecals have come up negative the last two months. I was only giving each cham one every month.

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David 2.2 veiled 1.0 diego 1.0 camaroon sailfin 0.1 french bulldog 1.0 tuxedo cat 1.1 1/2 homo sapian

Parasites would be my first concern.

-Brad

__________________
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
Dedicated to promoting superior care for Veiled Chameleons

Yeah - it's better to not feed them lizards form here. It's not just the fact that it's parasites - it's alien parasites. As in not the kind the animal is used to dealing with.

but melleri will eat themselves some vertebrates. I've seem Ardi eye up some aubadult veields I have... he would eat them, I'm sure.