Football Master
Member
Do you need to gut load your food for your chameleon.
Gut loading
- Thread starter Football Master
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Andee
Chameleon Enthusiast
In my honest opinion no you don't. But that also depends on what you are feeding them year round, if you are raising your own feeders etc etc. I raise my own feeders, except for crickets (I gutload my crickets). However if I raised crickets I would not gutload them. I feed my raised feeders a good and healthy diet of fresh fruits and veggies and a plants based chow that I make myself all year round. I believe if you raise your own feeders and constantly feed them a good diet year round then you don't need to gutload them. They will nutritionally be healthier this way because they will hold onto more vitamins and such in their bodies.
However with bought feeders that you don't raise yourself, you most likely will need to gutload because you don't really know if what they are being fed is nutritionally sound. Therefore you want as much good nutrition you can get just by the stomach to be given to your reptile. You can't change the actual insect in just a few days besides it's stomach contents. But that's better than nothing.
However with bought feeders that you don't raise yourself, you most likely will need to gutload because you don't really know if what they are being fed is nutritionally sound. Therefore you want as much good nutrition you can get just by the stomach to be given to your reptile. You can't change the actual insect in just a few days besides it's stomach contents. But that's better than nothing.
KapitalJ
Avid Member
@Football Master yes you need to gutload all of your feeders. Check the link
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/
@Andee you said not to gutload, but you do... giving your feeders a diet of fruits, veggie and greens is gutloading.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/
@Andee you said not to gutload, but you do... giving your feeders a diet of fruits, veggie and greens is gutloading.
cyberlocc
Chameleon Enthusiast
Well I think its just more so giving them specifically good food before feeding them off. If you do that 2 days before or 24/7/365 it is still the same I think?
Though I am with you 24/7/365 is easier and better anyway
.
Extensionofgreen
Chameleon Enthusiast
I take the approach Andee does. Raising your own feeders put you in control of your pet's nutrition. You're not at the mercy of local pet stores potentially being out of crickets and most of those locations are feeding a corn based chicken feed, devoid of many nutrients, but overly high in others. It's not even equatable to feeding junk food, it can actually harm your chameleon. If you want to take the easy way out, so to speak, buy cricket crack or another sound commercial gut load and supplement with oranges, apples, greens, and items that you have on hand. There's lots of information of what makes a good gutload and what doesn't, though some of it is contradictory and overly analyzed.
I wouldn't feed a cricket from a supplier, pet store, bait shop, or other source, without giving it a minimum of 48hrs to purge its gut and get some sound nutrition in its gut.
I wouldn't feed a cricket from a supplier, pet store, bait shop, or other source, without giving it a minimum of 48hrs to purge its gut and get some sound nutrition in its gut.
Bush baby
Avid Member
Yes, you need to gut load your feeders..ALWAYS. It's the way nature works.
A Lion doesn't eat vegetables,grass, grains, etc but needs the vitamins, minerals, etc found in them to stay healthy, so how does he get them? Through eating the animals that do consumer these things, i.e Gazelles, Bison, etc. Even if these animals have eaten these things their whole life, a Lion that eats a Gazelle that doesn't have these food items presently in its gut, is only getting a FRACTION of the benefit as oppose to eating a Gazelle that has a gut full of fruits, veggies, grain and grass.
It's the same with any feeder insect you feed your Chameleon. Even if it was raised on a healthy diet, it's only a fraction of what the cham needs compared to if it had a belly full of nutritious food. Most feeders are naturally high in Phosphorus, so not gut loading your feeder a high calcium food, to balance the calcium to phosphorus ratio, right before your cham eats it (and before the feeder poops it out), gives your chameleon a high phosphorus food item, which is VERY bad for them.
A Lion doesn't eat vegetables,grass, grains, etc but needs the vitamins, minerals, etc found in them to stay healthy, so how does he get them? Through eating the animals that do consumer these things, i.e Gazelles, Bison, etc. Even if these animals have eaten these things their whole life, a Lion that eats a Gazelle that doesn't have these food items presently in its gut, is only getting a FRACTION of the benefit as oppose to eating a Gazelle that has a gut full of fruits, veggies, grain and grass.
It's the same with any feeder insect you feed your Chameleon. Even if it was raised on a healthy diet, it's only a fraction of what the cham needs compared to if it had a belly full of nutritious food. Most feeders are naturally high in Phosphorus, so not gut loading your feeder a high calcium food, to balance the calcium to phosphorus ratio, right before your cham eats it (and before the feeder poops it out), gives your chameleon a high phosphorus food item, which is VERY bad for them.
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