cham food

[watersam]

so i was wondering about the chams diet. i will have one in about 2 or 3 weeks and i want to make sure i have my facts right. i plant on feeding my cham crickets gut loaded with mustard greens, carrots, and celery sticks (if anyone has any more good suggestions please feel free to say so). as far as a calcium supplement goes i know i need to provide it with calcium but how often do i need to give him calcium with D3 and when should i just give him something like herptivite or another multi vitamin? is it ok to give my cham just normal crickets if i just want to give him a snack if i have him out? m probably just over thinking it but i just want to be a good chameleon owner. any tips from the experienced community is more than welcome thanks a lot

 

[Andee]

The whole supplement thing depends on what kind of cham you are getting. So obviously the question I am getting at is what kind are you getting XD?

Anyway, for gutloading you want some dry gutload in there as well. Wet gutloading is great, (I suggest you throw some fruit like oranges and papaya in the gutload of veggies you already have thought up for more moisture for the little bugs that way you are sure they are getting enough water and have less die offs) but dry gutload is a great way to get drier frass from the insects (which helps with cleaning) and it's a way to get some proteins into your bugs. My gutload is simple, alfafa, some unsalted/raw nuts and seeds, spirulina, cranberries (unsweetened), brewer's yeast, dried coconut, bee pollen.

Also your cham is likely not going to eat if he's outside of his enclosure. Or if he will eat it's likely not going to be something as normal as crickets, it will probably be worms. But you can't just feed him crickets, he will get bored and refuse to eat. Chams need a variety in their diet just like we do, crickets and roaches make good staple feeders, but also they need soft-bodied worms in their diet, like butterworms/silkworms/hornworms... no mealworms or waxworms. Superworms are ok now and then. There's also mantids (not the most practical feeders), stick insects, and locusts/grasshoppers. I've never been able to find katydids, no matter how much I search >.<

Good luck with your new little one ^^

 

[watersam]

thanks for all the great feed back it helps a lot. im getting a panther chameleon but sadly cant decide between a blue bar ambilobe or a nosy faly. decisions decisions

 

[SMCNARY]

so i was wondering about the chams diet. i will have one in about 2 or 3 weeks and i want to make sure i have my facts right. i plant on feeding my cham crickets gut loaded with mustard greens, carrots, and celery sticks (if anyone has any more good suggestions please feel free to say so). as far as a calcium supplement goes i know i need to provide it with calcium but how often do i need to give him calcium with D3 and when should i just give him something like herptivite or another multi vitamin? is it ok to give my cham just normal crickets if i just want to give him a snack if i have him out? m probably just over thinking it but i just want to be a good chameleon owner. any tips from the experienced community is more than welcome thanks a lot

Have you checked out the resources link at the top of the page ? It contains lots of good information for how to keep a chameleon. That will answer most of your questions and is the best place to start.

BTW you are not over thinking it!!!! You need to do your homework before you ever get a chameleon and have EVERYTHING ready and tested as well or you will not have one for very long.

 

[watersam]

oh thank you for forwarding me to that it was very helpful. so my next question is the calcium supplement. it is going to be a panther chameleon and i was thinking i would feed him calcium dusted insects 5 days a week and use a multi vitamin dusting once a week and go natural the last day and give him calcium with D3 once or twice a month as i read to much D3 can build up in their system and cause complications. thank you for all of your help with my multitude of questions. it is much easier to get a straight answer from someone without having to sift through all the crap in the internet

 

[Andee]

For panther chams the schedule I use is a multi-vitamin twice a month, calcium with D3 twice a month and just plain calcium at every other feeding. ^^ My boy is doing well on this, no signs of MBD and I've had him for 12 months now, most people tend to use this kind of schedule. Healthy and happy chameleons are what we are after so ask and over think especially in the beginning because it is a steep learning curve. I already learned the hard way not to use halogen lights even though they last longer it's not worth it. Ryker ended up getting severely burned because of my halogen bulb and he wasn't even screen climbing. So the whole reason behind me telling you this is to tell you to be aware of everything when you get your baby.

On the note of which baby to get I personally like the Nosy Faly babies but blue bars are amazing too. There have been some really amazing babies lately.

Oh just so you know there are some feeder I go without dusting, like soft bodied high in calcium worms. Such as silkworms/hornworms/phoenix worms/butter worms but the ones I do dust are super worms/crickets/roaches/stick bugs.