pinkys

Someone at a petstore tried to tell me that you should feed panther chameleons pinky mice...now, i dont really know much about them, but i have looked all over and heard nothing of that sort....and maybe i made a mistake laughing at him when he said they needed them once a month, but i dont think thats true...am i wrong?

They don't need them once a month, but there are people that say it's not a bad idea to boost calcium a bit. I would say 99% of chameleon keepers don't feed their chameleons pinky's and have great success without feeding them. I personally have never used a pinky and probably wont because I think it is unnecessary.

I don't mind feeding one every once in a while to my chams. They are full of all kinds of good stuff for lots of reptiles. I'm sure they eat anything they see in the wild (including baby Chams ) so I think it is more natural and healthy for them than just stickin to the same bugs everyday. I am sure there are plenty chams out there that would love some pinky meat right now! Once a month sounds like too much to me, MAYBE once every 2-3 months. Everyone has there own opinion on this subject, lets see what other people say..............

I will give my males one or two a year and my females will get one while cycling eggs. Pinkies are just fat globs w/ a little calcium. So I would suggest other things to feed your chams. that are better than pinkies like butterworms, silkworms, hornworms, B. dubias, B. lateralis, and crickets.

there are people that say it's not a bad idea to boost calcium a bit.

Not a great deal of calcium in them, certainly not enough to justify feeding for that reason. Pinkies bones are barely developed at all.
Spot on, mostly fat.

Sir Spiral Tail said:

Someone at a petstore tried to tell me that you should feed panther chameleons pinky mice...now, i dont really know much about them, but i have looked all over and heard nothing of that sort....and maybe i made a mistake laughing at him when he said they needed them once a month, but i dont think thats true...am i wrong?

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As usual, the pet store advice was worthy of being laughed at

Ok, I was just curious, I have only read that they eat insects, but he phrased it like they NEED them once a month at least. I have talked to a breeder and picked out my blue bar...so excited..

i just like variety for my chams. even if it has no significant nutrition value, like flies and pinkies. for all i know, to a chameleon tongue, pinkies taste like the insanely decadent chocolates my mother-in-law brought back from the UK. depriving them of things they find delicious is just mean... as long as the cham can eat the pinky in one gulp. i dont like hearing the pinky die

Pumpkinface said:

i just like variety for my chams. even if it has no significant nutrition value, like flies and pinkies. for all i know, to a chameleon tongue, pinkies taste like the insanely decadent chocolates my mother-in-law brought back from the UK. depriving them of things they find delicious is just mean... as long as the cham can eat the pinky in one gulp. i dont like hearing the pinky die

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I think the food that most closely tastes like heaven to a chameleon is terrestrial isopods.

Im going to have to try those isopods, ill let you know how it goes.

i dont like hearing the pinky die

Why feed live anyway? You cant get frozen where you are?

Also you can feed them small lizards I've read. However I would never feed my cham either as I don't enjoy watching either of those two animals being eaten. Not that it's big enough to take on either atm lol.

Rocky said:

They don't need them once a month, but there are people that say it's not a bad idea to boost calcium a bit.

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According to this thread: https://www.chameleonforums.com/chameleons-eating-pinki-mice-33322/ they say it is not a source of calcium. I made the same mistake of thinking that, but we live and learn.

Red Island said:

Im going to have to try those isopods, ill let you know how it goes.

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Try not to use too many wild caught ones. A few over the life of the cham is fine, to verify it likes them. But then breed your own or buy them from a quality commercial breeder.

Sticks of butter.......

Pinkies are the cham equivalent to a human eating a stick of butter. You can see the big globs of fat through the skin. They have very little bone formation and, consequently, no calcium benefit. As a person who has been an avid keeper of lizards who eat rodents in nature (Varanus and Hydrosaurus species) I am very against feeding of pinkies. The smallest thing I ever feed out was a hopper which has bone structure and actual meat. I bought frozen hoppers by the gross when I kept monitors. I cut up or shredded the frozen hoppers for babies rather than feed them a pinkie. There are plenty of healthy insect treats out their for your chams.

mmmm butter. its comfort food for chams.

I can't be quick to say pinkies are "bad" feeders. I wish someone with concrete data could provide nutritional values for them before writing them off as "fattening" and bad source for calcium. If someone has real concrete data please chime in, but until then here are some values as provided by The National Agricultural Library (USDA) that offers some data that leads me to believe it's not as bad as we all seem to think it is. Please correct me if I am wrong in reading these values.

From: http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/zoo/WholePreyFinal02May29.pdf
Neonatal Mice (Under 3g)
Data based on Dry matter

Crude Protein: 64.2%
Crude Fat: 17.0%
Ash: 9.7%
KCal/g: 4.87
Vit A IU/kg: 35,533
Vit E IU/kg: 52.7
Calcium: 1.17%
P: NA
Mg: 0.11%
Na: NA
K: NA
Cu mg/kg: 19.2
Fe mg/kg: 181.3
Zn mg/kg: 82.5
Mn mg/kg: 0.2

Not necessarily an every day feeder, but not as alarming as some would believe them to be. I would also be curious to see any sort of information on chameleons eating bird hatchlings, which I suspect to also be high in fat. It's hard to believe that as a tree dwelling animal, the chameleon would pass up on hatchlings in the wild. But of course I defer this to people who actually have field data.

i have a 15 inch ambilobe could he eat those?

Dwinger said:

i have a 15 inch ambilobe could he eat those?

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Could he? Yes.

Does he need to? No.

If any, I would say that pinkies are excellent source of Retinol. (not for fat or calcium)..
and to say, pinky is just a glob of fat is a bit overstatement, imho.

Is it necessary to feed your cham pinky once a month? probably, not... and, it is also in my opinion that the feeding frequency might be too much for a chameleon.

Do realize: feeding it too often can raise a lot of health problem knowing how much protein and Retinol your chameleon take from that feeder.
I do not see problems feeding it once in every blue moon.

Then again... your chameleon will be completely fine, even if he never eat a pinky in his life, provided that you take care of him well.