A lesson learned

[Reddogzz]

The only two petstores on our island ran out of pinhead crickets, none had waxworms or fruit flies. We were already trying to raise our own fruit flies but they were still in larvae form. I ordered feeders online but, all it took was two days (one night) for eight active and healthy looking baby chameleons to die of starvation. The lesson to be learned here is to start raising fruit flies for your babies right away, and not depend on a petstore for food.

The only ones who made it were the babies that ate the fly larvae. I am not sure that is even healthy for them, but we don't have another option until we get the feeders in the mail, unless they are able to eat baby superworms.

 

[MelissaB]

Where are you located? Maybe someone on here lives nearby and has some spare fruitflies or pinheads to get you by.

 

[Lpsouth1978]

I am sorry to hear about your loss. Fly larvae are actually a VERY good source of food, assuming they are an appropriate size. The larvae are actually high in Calcium and have a great calcium to phosphorus ratio. Hopefully the other feeders arrive soon.

 

[Lovereps]

Ohh, that is awful.

I know I had a very tough time when temperatures in my area were staying about 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
No one could ship any feeders because it was too cold.
Fortunately, I was able to get some feeders locally after calling frog breeders and fruit fly breeders.
Typically people who breed frogs also need fruit flies.

 

[Reddogzz]

We live in Hilo HI.


there are two that are really weak, I included them into the 8 because although they can walk still and look around, they wont eat or drink, they look to only have a few hours left unless they eat.

 

[Reddogzz]

UPDATE: w/ questions

of the two that were barely hanging on, I managed to get one to open its mouth and hand fed it 4 fruit fly grubs. A couple hours have passed and it looks better than it did before, but its still not hunting.

it was already not eating for two days, how many fly larvae is it going to need to satisfy its daily req + its malnutrition?

Since I had to force feed it, should I give it some time before trying to feed it that way again? ......or is it more important that it gets all its nutrition immediately, and attempt to force feed it again? :-(

 

[kinyonga]

Could you not put some fruit in a container to attract insects? Feeding them wc insects would be better IMHO than starving them to death. Do you not have aphids or other little insects in your garden or a field near your place?

 

[Reddogzz]

Could you not put some fruit in a container to attract insects? Feeding them wc insects would be better IMHO than starving them to death. Do you not have aphids or other little insects in your garden or a field near your place?

I thought we could but we haven't had much luck with it, we have had containers of fruit outside and inside the house for several days and there isn't anything crawling except for the fruit fly larvae. Most of the baby chams ignored the larvae.

 

[junglefries]

If you add 200-250 hydeii to your culture, baby flies can happen a lot faster. I start off with about 40-50 at most, allowing for a 2 week period. That way the culture is viable for longer. I also keep one alive at all times, even when not expecting. In the long run, it is cheaper. Normally, with babies, I keep 6 cultures at a time.

 

[Reddogzz]

If you add 200-250 hydeii to your culture, baby flies can happen a lot faster. I start off with about 40-50 at most, allowing for a 2 week period. That way the culture is viable for longer. I also keep one alive at all times, even when not expecting. In the long run, it is cheaper. Normally, with babies, I keep 6 cultures at a time.

I am not familiar with the term 'hydeii', and google says its a furniture and gun stock coating...

UPDATE: It ate the fly larvae hours ago but it just threw them all up :-(