colored crickets?

[chendy]

so i have read from multiple sources that chams enjoy lime green colored bugs. i had this idea to mix some calcium supplement powder with food coloring.
i know its a bit weird but my cham wont touch his crickets, maybe i could fool him
and i seriously doubt that it would do him any harm.

 

[Justin Ward]

so i have read from multiple sources that chams enjoy lime green colored bugs. i had this idea to mix some calcium supplement powder with food coloring.
i know its a bit weird but my cham wont touch his crickets, maybe i could fool him
and i seriously doubt that it would do him any harm.

yeah i wouldnt try that, but thats just my common sense, i dont know if it would physically harm your cham but its a pretty absurd idea...chams enjoy bugs in general, so just try another feeder like roaches, silkworms, hornworms

 

[Elizadolots]

Hey, why not? If I were going to do this I'd first mix the calcium with the food coloring then let it dry out completely before use.

Food coloring is fairly innocuous.

Let us know if it has an effect.

 

[chendy]

i know it is a bit ridiculous lol

 

[PeriTanz]

hmm..

I would be careful using food coloring personally even tho it is fairly benign to us. This is just because i am extra cautions and chameleons are way smaller than humans. My idea would be to dye the dust with chlorophyll drops or something as long as its not chlorophyll from parsley or something else containing oxalic acid. Either way tho i would also mix it with the dust and let it dry. gl

 

[panthercham]

Food coloring is fairly innocuous.

Not true....synthetic and artificial food dyes and petroleum based food dyes are currently under scrutiny and testing for hyperactivity in children and have been for a while.

Stick to a variety of feeders and if you want lime green bugs then get horn worms. Most chams like any bugs or worms that wriggle no matter the color.

 

[Elizadolots]

Not true....synthetic and artificial food dyes and petroleum based food dyes are currently under scrutiny and testing for hyperactivity in children and have been for a while.

Stick to a variety of feeders and if you want lime green bugs then get horn worms. Most chams like any bugs or worms that wriggle no matter the color.

You have a point. I sort of like the organic dying method.

I'm just saying that it's not insane to consider dying the calcium.

 

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

Red dyes cause cancer in everything I've researched, yellow 8 causes infertility in men..

Don't use food coloring. Period. It's not worth any chance.

 

[nonnatus]

The locusts I get here in the UK are a really pretty yellow/green stripe colour, maybe investigate locust varieties before you start messing around with chemicals - imagine the colour of the poo for a start

 

[Trace]

Get a hold of some Spirulina and dust your bugs in that. Spirulina is chock full of vitamins and minerals which are good for your animal, it is completely natural and the feeders turn an irresistible green colour.

 

[chameleonoobie]

There is a fishing worm that is sold as a Nitro worm, in which the night crawlers are dyed green by feeding them food coloring for a few days before sale, and another process where they coat them with a phosphor to make them really glow under water. The food coloring they use for the worms is D&C Yellow No. 8, which is obviously approved for human foods. In this case they are colored from within, not stained on the outside. There is a lot of room for experimenting to produce green bugs that chameleons would probably prefer. But there have been a lot of chams successfully raised and reproduced without them, too.

 

[jdog1027]

Get a hold of some Spirulina and dust your bugs in that. Spirulina is chock full of vitamins and minerals which are good for your animal, it is completely natural and the feeders turn an irresistible green colour.

You beat me to it- This what I was going to suggest. I actually have done this in the past, but it doesn't really create a 'lime' green, more like a dark forest green. But either way, I would use this method before I would try the food coloring method.

 

[chendy]

im digging that idea trace im going to need to get more info and research on that product,
not sure who mentioned the poop color factor but YEAH it would look strange haha

 

[ijmccollum]

what about powdered parsley?

 

[sdheli420]

Red dyes cause cancer in everything I've researched, yellow 8 causes infertility in men..

Don't use food coloring. Period. It's not worth any chance.

yeah doesent mt.dew shrink the testies in men?? lol

not sure if my cham is addicted to the sticky toungues farm berry flavored stuff..but sometimes..to get her to eat i have to get a part of it white..then she goes right after it..so i know they relate colors to taste at least..

 

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

It wouldn't surprise me if it did.

 

[Lizardlover]

Spirulina is great, Im glad Trace suggested it. I use it for my chameleons. Its a bit expensive but it lasts a while.

 

[Bruno]

You know what the air we breath everyday is going to kill us but we still breath it in everyday

 

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

^ We can't help that. We CAN help with not eating or feed bad food dyes.

 

[Leroux2008]

Just curious.... whats Spirulina