Chameleon Food disupute

[ChamChiefin]

Well hello there fellow chameleon enthusiast, I believe that this will be my first time posting on this forum ever. I actually just got a veiled chameleon from my local reptile show, he maybe she(I know how to tell gender just haven't taken a look yet), is at the age of about 4-6 months. My question for you guys is what are some really good feeders? I am very interested in breeding my food for my chameleon, with the exception of crickets ha. So I was thinking either Dubai roaches, fruit flies, or horned worms? I really like the fruit fly idea, but i am afraid that the flies will not be big enough at maturity. Also I have raised dubai before and was stumped on how to clean their cage :/

 

[camimom]

Well hello there fellow chameleon enthusiast, I believe that this will be my first time posting on this forum ever. I actually just got a veiled chameleon from my local reptile show, he maybe she(I know how to tell gender just haven't taken a look yet), is at the age of about 4-6 months. My question for you guys is what are some really good feeders? I am very interested in breeding my food for my chameleon, with the exception of crickets ha. So I was thinking either Dubai roaches, fruit flies, or horned worms? I really like the fruit fly idea, but i am afraid that the flies will not be big enough at maturity. Also I have raised dubai before and was stumped on how to clean their cage :/

fruit flies are only fed to bitty babies. like neonates. At 4-6 months old, he/she is now too big to really get anything frm them, crickets are good, but if you dont want to breed them, dubias are good as daily feeders. worms while good, are not for daily feeding.

 

[ChameleonsInMyHouse]

Well hello there fellow chameleon enthusiast, I believe that this will be my first time posting on this forum ever. I actually just got a veiled chameleon from my local reptile show, he maybe she(I know how to tell gender just haven't taken a look yet), is at the age of about 4-6 months. My question for you guys is what are some really good feeders? I am very interested in breeding my food for my chameleon, with the exception of crickets ha. So I was thinking either Dubai roaches, fruit flies, or horned worms? I really like the fruit fly idea, but i am afraid that the flies will not be big enough at maturity. Also I have raised dubai before and was stumped on how to clean their cage :/

welcome to the forum and congrats on the new chameleon! hope you find all you are looking for here and use the site to grow in knowledge yourself.

some great feeders are crickets and dubias roaches. crickets and roaches will be a main portion of its' diet, but is important of course to include a variety. super worms are great and can be used as a portion of the staple diet, but be careful as super worms are high fat insects and can cause impaction if consumed too many. Other greats and can be given as treats in greater portions are silkworms which are great for extra natural calcium, and horn worms which are great for extra protein. butter worms are a great high calcium insect along with pheonix worms but i've never fed them off, so i wouldn't recommended any feeding amount for them.

wax worms are useless, do not use unless you have a really skinny chameleon. they are just a high fat worm with no nutritional value really. use sparingly.

as far as breeding goes, i'm not familiar with any feeder breeding experience, but from what i've read hear, crickets and dubias roaches ( your main staple ) are easy to breed.

hope this helps, and again welcome

[EDIT: make sure that the food item is of appropriate size for the chameleons size and age

 

[JohnnyD]

The way we clean our dubia bins is to use a second bin. You can pick up the egg crates and place them into the new bin. Then you can dump the remaining frass, dry food particles, and roaches into a colander and shake it until all of that falls through. Dump the remaining roaches from the colander into the new bin and your good. If you want to change out your egg crates, do the same thing but bang the crates on the side of the new container until the roaches are all off of the crates then disgard the old crates. Strain out the roaches and the slop from the bottom of the bin using your colander and dump all of your roaches into the new bin with the new egg crates.

 

[Trundy]

Johnny has excellent advice there.... he's been a big help to me getting my colony started...

I say go the Dubia route.. you really can't miss....


Johnny.. how often are you changing your egg flats?

 

[JohnnyD]

Every 3 months or so.

 

[ChamChiefin]

thanks guys....by the way, would a clamp light with a basking lamp of some sort supply the correct amount of heat. Or would the light be bad?

 

[JohnnyD]

You could use the clamp fixture with a ceramic heating element. The roaches are active (eating, breeding, etc...) in the dark. The more dark you can provide, the better.

 

[serenitystarlite]

Hi! Did you get your cham from the Cheswick show?

 

[ChamChiefin]

Hi! Did you get your cham from the Cheswick show?

hahaha yes i did....small world

 

[sandrachameleon]

Well hello there fellow chameleon enthusiast, I believe that this will be my first time posting on this forum ever. I actually just got a veiled chameleon from my local reptile show, he maybe she(I know how to tell gender just haven't taken a look yet), is at the age of about 4-6 months. My question for you guys is what are some really good feeders? I am very interested in breeding my food for my chameleon, with the exception of crickets ha. So I was thinking either Dubai roaches, fruit flies, or horned worms? I really like the fruit fly idea, but i am afraid that the flies will not be big enough at maturity. Also I have raised dubai before and was stumped on how to clean their cage :/

Welcome.
This link will take you to a fairly comprehensive list of the feeder options:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html
Dubia are great for all ages. Turks are great too
Fruit flies are only adequate for young / small chameleons
superworms are easy
silkworms a bit more work but worth it
indian walking stick insects are easy
terrestrial isopods are easy, but it takes a good while for the colony to be established.

For cleaning dubia, every month or three I take all the adults and put into a clean bin, most of the nymphs too that are hiding /holding onto the egg crate or whatever. THen I sift through the fraz to pick out the remaining nymphs. And I compost the remainder.

 

[serenitystarlite]

hahaha yes i did....small world

Cool, I was there. I got a female nosy be from Craig. He gave me a huge discount

 

[Jolanda01]

Food

Hi All, I am new to this forum. Although I had my reptiles for quite some time now. My cham was underweight untill I started giving him mice pinkies.

 

[DavidBuchan]

Hi All, I am new to this forum. Although I had my reptiles for quite some time now. My cham was underweight untill I started giving him mice pinkies.

Hello, and welcome to the forum - is he back on normal food now? What kind is he, and how old?

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Hi All, I am new to this forum. Although I had my reptiles for quite some time now. My cham was underweight untill I started giving him mice pinkies.

I really hope that is a very rarely used feeder for him/her. Too much protein can cause gout in chameleons. It is very painful for the cham and a hard issue to treat once its developed. Great alternatives for skinny newly imported chams are: hornworms, silkworms, dubia, or even waxworms on a limited basis. Crix of course can be offered after weight gain is noticed...

 

[mikeduner]

Why are dubias so expensive? how many does a cham eat a day, how many do i need to buy to have a constant feeding stock for a single male veiled?