Food in college

So I'm moving off to college next year, and I'll be bringing my female veiled chameleon. The trick here will be finding a roommate who won't mind sharing the room with a chameleon. I figure it won't be too much of a hassle, but chirping crickets might be a deal-breaker. What I'm wondering is, is there any combination of feeders that I could store entirely in my mini-fridge to replace crickets entirely? Like, superworms and silkworms or something like that.

Silks, supers, hornworms all cannot be refrigerated. Waxworms can but they should only be fed in moderation and not as a staple as they are one of the fattiest feeders. Lots of people use the Dubias roaches(I don't) but from what I hear they are quiet and much cleaner than crickets. now to find a roommate that doesnt mind Roaches! Hope your new roomie is not a lady!!!!

Heh, thanks, guess if I got dubias I could put a blanket over them or something. How many dubias should I feed an adult female veiled chameleon every day? And for that matter, under what conditions will dubias lay eggs?

just get dubias and say they are beetles
I know a lot of people whos girlfriends think dubia are beetles

latshki said:

just get dubias and say they are beetles
I know a lot of people whos girlfriends think dubia are beetles

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lol! They still look like damn roaches to me!

or you could say they are big rolly pollies!!! hahaha

I don't think I would feed an adult veild chameleon every day. Most of us feed the adults every other and especially females cause you do not want to overfeed as it can cause them to produce eggs more. Do you know about the females beiing able to lay eggs even though they are not mated? I feed my adult cham every other day about 6 feeders. That is just me.

experience

Well im in college and have shared a dorm with muh roomy and my "our", mascot of room 214, ambilobe Syd for few semesters now. When I first showed my roomy Syd he was so impressed he didn’t care all that much about the bugs, although he did express how unpleased he would be if he found any crawling around the room. Show you’re roomy the cham, get em all warmed up to the idea, then explain the bug situation; don’t stink, don’t fly, don’t climb, no noise. Show em or don’t show em up to u.

Firstly before you make it public that you have a cham in your room you need to look up your schools bylaws on pets in dorms. Most schools have a 10gal tank max and others have an only "fish" policy, and most would certainly have issue with insects in your dorm in fear of infestation. My school happens to be all the above, but my RA and I are cool so he doesn’t care. So basically become bf's w/ your RA and if he/she is a chill RA, buy him/her a 12pk and you’ll be set.

I would suggest keeping dubias in a 10gal tub tucked away DEEP in your closet, up high if possible. So that nobody goes rummaging and finds its contents. Never ever let anybody know you have a colony of hundreds or thousands of roaches or the wrong person may find out and then you’re screwed. idc what kind of bug it is, but if a person who don’t like bugs ends up seeing your bugs, they will automatically think it’s a monster cockroach from the bowels of NYC that is attempting to eat them, specially dubias because adults get rather large, and then u magnify that by your colony size, see where I’m going? But keep that as your staple food and your biggest secret.

Because chams require variety, once a week or so I'll go buy a couple dozen crickets and feed them with the dubias. I keep the crickets in a Qt sized wonton soup container I got from yummy yummy chinese delivery. I keep this out of general sight as well, out of sight out of mind, but occasionally somebody will ask what they eat. It's a lot easier to show and/or explain a couple crickets in a small lidded container than thousands of roaches. People seem to be more acceptable of crickets than roaches, I think it has a lot to do with jiminy cricket. And for sake of insanity, rip or cut the males wings off. The males r the ones without the sticks coming out there ass. Nothing is more annoying than chirping crickets and your roomy wont hate you as much. Whenever theres a reptile expo ill go and get silkies or something as a treat. Usually have them around here every other month.

A couple nice benefits of having a cham at school, free gutload and great ice breaker/conversation piece. Just take some salad, fruits from the DC. They usually have a good assortment of things. If you’re a dude then having the cham is like having a puppy with the girls and if you’re a girl then… come on what kind of guy wouldn’t be fascinated by your cham?

So that’s the basics on how I do things, gL in school.

i keep my dubia bin around 85-90.

I do know that females can become gravid with infertile clutches. My veiled is about 7.5 months old now, what sort of feeding schedule should I give her? Currently I feed her 6 adult crickets every day, with the occasional waxworm treat. Also, LIzards, how do you keep your bin heated? Do you use a light? If so, wouldn't that draw attention to it? Thanks for the advice, your situation there sounds awesome.

Also, LIzards, how do you keep your bin heated?


maybe use a electric heat pad underneath the bin.

Is that what you use?

i dont i just keep mine at room temp and they do fine. iv had them for 2 weeks and i already have plenty of little nymphs. but thats what alot of people do. something like this, maybe a smaller one.

http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...and-rocks/-/zoo-med-10-to-20-gallon-heat-pad/

or one from wal mart that has a dial on it.

I have a male panther, being of different species and sex I’m not positive about your cham. I think a long time ago I read feed daily till they’re a year then every other day after that. Use the search button to make sure, that thing provides all the info you can ask for. For better results select advanced search then under keyword search titles only. I kept lateralis until last week, I traded them for the dubia, they're essentially the same thing. For heating I use a small zoomed heat pad on a dimmer. When I first hooked it up it reached 107ish degrees. <-- way to high. They’ll do their thing at low temps, 70-80, but they thrive like crazy at 85-90, throw some orange slices in there with the other gutload, they love that. If u don’t have a sustaining colony yet don’t feed them off for awhile. Get a few roaches now, 1 male – 3 female, or something, and just toss them in a corner till u leave for school. Feed them of course.

I would keep Superworms. They are easy to maintain, don't stink, don't make noise and won't creep people out as much. Just keep them in a tupperware or bucket with some substrate. Throw in a carrot or letttuce to feed them. If they fall out of the bucket, they are also easy to catch. They will be easier to hide too.

Crickets = Stink, Noisy, Easy to escape
Silkworms = Mulberry may be an unpleasant smell for a roomate.
Roaches = Although, they are quiet and don't stink, they may creep out your roomates and can escape.

oh and i keep supers in a dif qt container. but u shouldnt use supers as a staple.

iLik3LIzards said:

oh and i keep supers in a dif qt container. but u shouldnt use supers as a staple.

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I agree with this. Supers should not be a staple. But in your case, I would only keep supers in your room in bulk. You could incorporate crickets as a staple with this. But I would only recommend buying a small amount at a time. Maybe buying only enough for 1 or 2 feedings. That way you don't have to keep them around long. In the long term it is more expensive. But you will not risk getting caught, having escapees or having them stink up the place.

Thanks, guys, this is all great info. How many roaches do you generally give at an every-other-day feeding?

Jakama said:

Thanks, guys, this is all great info. How many roaches do you generally give at an every-other-day feeding?

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If it is a Dubia Roach. I give one adult female as a feeding. Females are huge.

iLik3LIzards said:

Well im in college and have shared a dorm with muh roomy and my "our", mascot of room 214, ambilobe Syd for few semesters now. When I first showed my roomy Syd he was so impressed he didn’t care all that much about the bugs, although he did express how unpleased he would be if he found any crawling around the room. Show you’re roomy the cham, get em all warmed up to the idea, then explain the bug situation; don’t stink, don’t fly, don’t climb, no noise. Show em or don’t show em up to u.

Firstly before you make it public that you have a cham in your room you need to look up your schools bylaws on pets in dorms. Most schools have a 10gal tank max and others have an only "fish" policy, and most would certainly have issue with insects in your dorm in fear of infestation. My school happens to be all the above, but my RA and I are cool so he doesn’t care. So basically become bf's w/ your RA and if he/she is a chill RA, buy him/her a 12pk and you’ll be set.

I would suggest keeping dubias in a 10gal tub tucked away DEEP in your closet, up high if possible. So that nobody goes rummaging and finds its contents. Never ever let anybody know you have a colony of hundreds or thousands of roaches or the wrong person may find out and then you’re screwed. idc what kind of bug it is, but if a person who don’t like bugs ends up seeing your bugs, they will automatically think it’s a monster cockroach from the bowels of NYC that is attempting to eat them, specially dubias because adults get rather large, and then u magnify that by your colony size, see where I’m going? But keep that as your staple food and your biggest secret.

Because chams require variety, once a week or so I'll go buy a couple dozen crickets and feed them with the dubias. I keep the crickets in a Qt sized wonton soup container I got from yummy yummy chinese delivery. I keep this out of general sight as well, out of sight out of mind, but occasionally somebody will ask what they eat. It's a lot easier to show and/or explain a couple crickets in a small lidded container than thousands of roaches. People seem to be more acceptable of crickets than roaches, I think it has a lot to do with jiminy cricket. And for sake of insanity, rip or cut the males wings off. The males r the ones without the sticks coming out there ass. Nothing is more annoying than chirping crickets and your roomy wont hate you as much. Whenever theres a reptile expo ill go and get silkies or something as a treat. Usually have them around here every other month.

A couple nice benefits of having a cham at school, free gutload and great ice breaker/conversation piece. Just take some salad, fruits from the DC. They usually have a good assortment of things. If you’re a dude then having the cham is like having a puppy with the girls and if you’re a girl then… come on what kind of guy wouldn’t be fascinated by your cham?

So that’s the basics on how I do things, gL in school.

Click to expand...

This is a good post. I would do what he does, hahaha. Sucks you have to hide it all though.