are pinky mices bad or good .

[luckyleo]

I have a female vailed chameleon she about a year old .she had a clutch of eggs on 09/27/14. and i am wondering if a pinky mouse would be ok too feed her . i been hearing alot of positive and negative feeling about this and just trying to get the right answer to this feel free to let me know what you think.

 

[chameleons59]

I heard that it is useless to feed a pinky to your Cham unless they are skinny. This is because pinkys don't have calcium. Im no expert so I would wait for another post

 

[luckyleo]

Ok thank you

 

[SIRCHAMELEON]

NOOOOOOO

Pinky's have very little nutritional value... They can't find Pinky's in the wild, not natural and not good. They are basically little blobs of fat... its like feeding children hamburgers everyday...

 

[camimom]

nope.

too much protein in them.

 

[fluxlizard]

They are basically little blobs of fat... its like feeding children hamburgers everyday...

OK, so this and the calcium comment have my curiosity up.

Not for chameleons. In my thinking, pinkies are not needed and are relatively expensive anyway compared to insects.

But if these sorts of statements are true, then how in the world do snakes get the stuff they need to grow and thrive out of them? Snakes need calcium also, and most species of snake feed on pinkies until they grow large enough for fuzzies and hoppers and small mice, etc. Snake growth also requires calcium- it isn't lizards only who have bones...

 

[Lazy Boy]

I didn't need to do much research to hear a lot of people say pinkies have way less calcium then the adults.

 

[Bush baby]

OK, so this and the calcium comment have my curiosity up.

Not for chameleons. In my thinking, pinkies are not needed and are relatively expensive anyway compared to insects.

But if these sorts of statements are true, then how in the world do snakes get the stuff they need to grow and thrive out of them? Snakes need calcium also, and most species of snake feed on pinkies until they grow large enough for fuzzies and hoppers and small mice, etc. Snake growth also requires calcium- it isn't lizards only who have bones...

A pinkie that is being weened on it's mother's milk has calcium in it's stomach…from it's mother's milk.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

A pinkie that is being weened on it's mother's milk has calcium in it's stomach…from it's mother's milk.

Have you seen the size of a pinky stomach? It is very, very small. A few drops of milk. And calcium is not the only thing in milk so that contribution is quite low. And since the bones of a pinky are primarily cartilaginous there is not much calcium there either. Snakes seem to have much lower calcium requirements than other reptiles, which is why you don't hear about MBD in snakes. Fewer appendicular limbs to require calcium probably has some influence there.

There is no reason to feed pinkies to chams - a complete diet is easily obtained through gutloading insects and does not present the risk of excessive protein, which can tax or damage the kidneys.

 

[luckyleo]

thanks for all the input

ok sounds to me like its not a good idea to feed cham pinkys so ill just stay with feeding her worms and grasshoppers