Baby mealworms
- Thread starter jeffro
- Start date
EazyBaKe0vEn
New Member
I have actually. Though I only would feed your Cham a very limited amount because they are high in fat or hard to digest due to Chitin "the hard exoskeleton".
fluxlizard
Avid Member
I do too. They are fine as part of a varied diet.
You can get small superworms at Greatlakeshornworm.com. As the cham grows, they grow, so buy 1,000 and you are set for MONTHS!!
Nick
Nick
xanthoman
Avid Member
must know
baby mealworms , probably not the best feeder, but if you must use them, use ones that are freshly molted, they are less exoskeletal, and more like a skinny maggot. im not a big fan of hermetia illucens [too expensive(black solderfly larva aka calci worms)], but, they are a great starter food for montane neonates/sorry about the title , i changed the post after reading all of the previous ones, and it wouldnt let me edit the title , (i was going to ask if that werners had a clutch, but i see its 2.0)
baby mealworms , probably not the best feeder, but if you must use them, use ones that are freshly molted, they are less exoskeletal, and more like a skinny maggot. im not a big fan of hermetia illucens [too expensive(black solderfly larva aka calci worms)], but, they are a great starter food for montane neonates/sorry about the title , i changed the post after reading all of the previous ones, and it wouldnt let me edit the title , (i was going to ask if that werners had a clutch, but i see its 2.0)
Clifford
New Member
The woman I got my chameleon from used baby mealworms as part of the diet she feeds her baby chameleons. She uses a lot of different bugs, and says that's the best thing for chameleons. Anyhow my cham, once one of her babies, is a middle-aged adult and in good health, so his early diet clearly did him no harm 
he still gets mealworms now and then, as a treat. They can be gutloaded much like superworms.
he still gets mealworms now and then, as a treat. They can be gutloaded much like superworms.
fluxlizard
Avid Member
In his panther chameleon book http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Panther-Chameleon/Gary-Ferguson/e/9781575241944 ferguson found that mealworms gutloaded some nutrients better than crickets (sorry too lazy to look up exactly which vitamin(s) - get the book and read for yourself- its a good book), crickets gutloaded some nutrients better than mealworms, and he used both together for a nutritionally complete diet for his group of panther chameleons that he kept and bred over generations in a lab setting.
There is nothing wrong with mealworms when used as a part of a varied diet. They've gotten a bad rap. Zillions of leopard geckos produced by some of the pioneers in their breeding have gone baby to breeding adult producing good healthy babies for many many generations over 30 years time on a diet of 100% mealworms. Many of the adults fed this way have enjoyed lives spanning decades (20 or 30 years).
I don't recommend that- variety is much better for the lizards and probably essential for chameleons. But mealworms have an undeserved bad reputation IMO. Including them as one limited part of a varied diet is probably more often a good thing, not a bad one.
There is nothing wrong with mealworms when used as a part of a varied diet. They've gotten a bad rap. Zillions of leopard geckos produced by some of the pioneers in their breeding have gone baby to breeding adult producing good healthy babies for many many generations over 30 years time on a diet of 100% mealworms. Many of the adults fed this way have enjoyed lives spanning decades (20 or 30 years).
I don't recommend that- variety is much better for the lizards and probably essential for chameleons. But mealworms have an undeserved bad reputation IMO. Including them as one limited part of a varied diet is probably more often a good thing, not a bad one.
pssh
Avid Member
Mealworms aren't recommended here for much more that the occational once or twice a month treat because they are known to impact chameleons because of their hard shells. Too much chitin. People recommend superworms more because they are nutritionaly silmilar to mealworms but dont have as hard of a shell. Mine prefer supers anyways.
fluxlizard
Avid Member
Yeah. Like I said- part of a varied diet would be the key thing.
IMO a cham that is impacted from eating mealworms has problems before it eats those mealworms though.
I use supers and mealworms both occasionally as well. I mostly use roaches- faster to grow and keep up with demand and gutload...
EazyBaKe0vEn
New Member
I personally treat meal worms as I would wax worms and feed them to both of my Chams sparingly. I look at it like eating Burger King or McDonalds. Yea it's good and all but you really do not want to eat that regularly because it is so fating same as the meal and wax worms. But, once in a while it's not going to cause any harm so long as you are getting all your other nutrition from something healthier elsewhere. I also do NOT recommend a strict Superworm diet for Chams a single diet and only lead to trouble.
