I have been reading about horn worms, wild caught you cannot feed to chams for possibility of poison correct? If I were to try and raise some then you can, my question is can someone point me to the correct way to start this adventure up? Can you start raising them with wild caught or will the inevitably pass the poison on to offspring or is this so? Any help would be appreciated.

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1.1 Veiled 32 hatchlings ,0.1 Ambilobe,2.0 Jacksons,1 Emma,1 Anna, 1 Nyssa,1 Spidey,1 Sunny

Howdy,

Start here!

http://www.chameleonnews.com/hornworms.html

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See Ya,

Dave Weldon
Panther & Veileds

Book Collection:
"Reptile Medicine and Surgery" 2nd ed. By Mader
"Chameleons - Their Care and Breeding" By Linda J. Davison
"Chameleons - Nature's Hidden Jewels" 2nd Ed. By Petr Necas
"The Panther Chameleon: Color Variation, Natural History, Conservation and Captive Management" By Gary W. Ferguson...
"Thoughts for Food" 3rd Ed. Edited by Ardi Abate
"Understanding Reptile Parasites" By Roger J. Klingenberg D.V.M.

I would just get 1 -2 culture from commercially available kind... raise those worms till adult and then let them breed. You can readily buy the chow in packages to feed them. Mulberryfarms have a great deal, buy 2 get 1 free and buy 4 get 2 free.

http://www.mulberryfarms.com/horn2.htm

Thanx guys.Thia is informative and seams doable. The site doesn't show how to make the cups. Is there a site with easier to follow directions that you know of? I don't have a ,lot of space to do this and my wife will have a cow anyways....haha

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1.1 Veiled 32 hatchlings ,0.1 Ambilobe,2.0 Jacksons,1 Emma,1 Anna, 1 Nyssa,1 Spidey,1 Sunny

I read a little more and may give it a go, well see what happens.

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1.1 Veiled 32 hatchlings ,0.1 Ambilobe,2.0 Jacksons,1 Emma,1 Anna, 1 Nyssa,1 Spidey,1 Sunny

The difficulty in rearing them is getting them to mate. The moths feed as adults and their tongues are up to 3x the length of their body so they hover over flowers to feed and they typically feed at night. I don't recall if I got into mating cages in the article (guess I should look, I wrote it a couple years ago). Be sure to look at some of the links at the end of it for more info. The Manduca Project is great.

Where do you live? They pupate for 9-11 months in the north, but you can break diapause (the quiescent time before emerging as adult moth) which I think I discussed. If you live in the southern regions they will eclose within weeks.

lele

Ren,
Haven't bothered with them for awhile, but ran the whole gamut doing all myself and ultimately decided it wasn't worth it, as too many other food sources were less hassle. However, to help you over a couple of humps. I grew tomato and green pepper plants in 5' tall screen cages in a greenhouse. Worms pupated in about a month (it was warm) in the dirt pots. Breeding was no problem at all, zip nada squat, so I never needed to hang the pics of moths in lingerie . Got thousands of eggs out of a dozen moths. Tore through my tomato plants in two days, then looked at me like I was a big tomato plant. As for making the cups, order a couple dozen worms from the on-line sources, and then mimic their cups. You can easily fabricate more using 32 oz deli cups (check your local deli if you don't order some online) and plastic mesh available from Home Depot, etc. Be prepared to deliver that cow.

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Jim Flaherty
The Chameleon Company, LLC

Hmmm, makes it seem a bit easier yet... still don't think the wife will dig it though, sprung the idea of breeding cockroaches today, almost got my walking papers...... we'll see how it goes Ill keep you all informed, any other easily breed-able feeders? How are the mantids... and also I'm in Ohio so this should make things a bit more tricky.

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1.1 Veiled 32 hatchlings ,0.1 Ambilobe,2.0 Jacksons,1 Emma,1 Anna, 1 Nyssa,1 Spidey,1 Sunny

Ren,

I am the cockroach advocate!
Have the wife talk to me....they are easy and super clean!
Small space requirement...no smell and great meat to shell ratio.
A bit of time involved in establishing the culture.....but so much nicer
than crickets!

-Brad

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

Ren,
I just started a breeding colony of cockroach. They are way juicier than cricket and bigger. Adult don't make any sound (cricket drives me crazy sometimes when 1 -2 adult male escape into the room). Cockroaches are very easy to take care of, same as cricket, a glass tank, some food, some water, some egg carton and thats it. Plus, cockroach, don't stink like cricket. Female give birth to live young, apporximate 30 at a time and they can live up to 4- 5 months in some species once turn adulthood. Easy to establish a breeding colony. Go to this link for some info about them:

http://www.nyworms.com/dubiacare.htm