A Fun Feeder Thread

[brooklynelizabeth]

While having a discussion over dinner my Husband had some interesting questions for me, I consider myself a fairly experienced Cham keeper at this point along with a 6 year old iguana etc.. so i was bothered i didn't have a good answer... so instead of doing the internet search i figured i would ask my fellow forum members.
Steve's Question: "Lambeau eats like what 10-15 crickets a day, is that the normal for chameleons"
I said: "Well many young chams eat that many depending on the size of the crickets, when Lambeau gets to be a full adult he will most likely eat less, and every other day, its not like he eats that much every day, some days he eats like 8 or so, a lot of chameleon books and sites will say the staple is around 10-15 for juvenile chameleons"
Steve's Response/Question: "that seems silly as i highly doubt chameleons in the wild can come up with that many bugs in a day, i bet wild chams get half that if not less and dont get food everyday, aren't they opportunistic feeders"

I didn't have a good answer, do wild chams really eat that much every day, or do we make adjustments with the diets to compensate what they would be getting in the wild. basically he stumped me...what do you guys think?

 

[fluxlizard]

Have you ever walked outside in the summer and not seen bugs everywhere? LOL

Maybe you guys are city slickers- you need to take a vacation someplace warm and rural in the south.

Then imagine what it would be like even deeper into the tropics.

I'm joking, but seriously- I'm not even too far deep into the south and we have bugs freakin everywhere crawling and buzzing and flying around in the summer when I am out trying to work in the garden or yard.

 

[brooklynelizabeth]

Have you ever walked outside in the summer and not seen bugs everywhere? LOL

Maybe you guys are city slickers- you need to take a vacation someplace warm and rural in the south.

Then imagine what it would be like even deeper into the tropics.

I'm joking, but seriously- I'm not even too far deep into the south and we have bugs freakin everywhere crawling and buzzing and flying around in the summer when I am out trying to work in the garden or yard.

Lol far away from any city, we live in Northern Maine, as rural as it gets, lol.. you do make a valid point , but to be honest, my folks have a home in Georgia, on lake Thurmann and i feel i never see bugs, but them anoles must be eating something lol..

 

[CauseNAffect]

brooklyn elizabeth..... I live in manhattan, how r u gunna rep the BK when u live in Maine, lol. hmmmmm

 

[Olimpia]

I've never been to Madagascar, but I've been to Central and South America and if you go into the jungles there is stuff everywhere to eat, if you eat insects, small lizards, small birds, etc.

Might they get a lot of food every single day? Probably not, but most of the time they probably do alright.

 

[DavidBuchan]

You don't get a lot of fat wild animals, that's for sure (they'd be eaten, lol). Even in my English city garden in summer there are enough passing insects to feed a Chameleon.....he would only need to catch one fly every half hour and he could go to bed early every day. Tell your Steve that Chameleons are better hunters than he's giving them credit for.......

 

[fluxlizard]

I put a little more thought in to this as I was out with my lizards today.

Flies and bees are the top 2 food items found in the stomachs of wild chameleons. Both of these could be ambushed by a chameleon with a little careful selection of location which could be almost accidental (chameleon notices bug, eats it, sees another stays and eats it as well and so on). Say a bit of bird poop or dead animal in a bush or flowers providing locations for hunting.

The other thing- I am too lazy to google it and see what the current thinking is, but years ago I know that scientists thought that chameleons had special glands in the corners of their mouth that secreted something that flies were attracted to. I don't know if research since the early 90s has disproven or confirmed this theory but it is another thought about their hunting strategy.