can chams eat tomato worms?

[backwood fred]

i was wondering if my chams can eat tomato worms? or would it be a bad idea to feed them?

 

[Syn]

Chameleons commonly eat hornworms - another name for the tomato worm. However, if the tomato worms are fed tomato leaves, this can make them toxic.
If you feed them mulberry leaves and raise them yourself, you could feed them the tomato worm.

 

[backwood fred]

thank you so haw do i make them non toxic?

 

[Syn]

By not feeding them what makes them toxic.

 

[backwood fred]

well i found a buntch in the garden eating on the tomato plants should i feed them mulberry leafs for a while then feed them or not even bother with them

 

[nosytrish]

I would avoid feeding anything wild caught to your cham. Even though you may flush out the tomato toxicity with mulberry leaves, you can never be sure that the worm does/doesn't have harmful parasites that can kill your cham. This goes for all wc bugs.

Hope this helps,

Trish

 

[smackey]

Here is a thread about various wild caught food that is toxic and isn't:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/what-wild-caught-food-toxic-42666/

Also there is a debate about if you should or shouldn't feed wild caught bugs to your chams.. It seems to be pretty split 50/50. There are multiple threads about it in the food forum. I personally feed mine wild caught all the time and they love it. It is unknown if there are more parasites in wild caught bugs vs. farm raised.

 

[backwood fred]

thanks for the help