Crickets or Silkworms?

[Tiff04468]

My family will be getting out first (panther)chameleon in the next couple of weeks....

We've been doing the drive to town and buy crickets once a week thing..... no silkworms available.

We have other critters that would eat either (frogs, tortoise, turtles).

I'd like to order in bulk, maybe even breed.

My instinct tells me the silkworms would be easier.

Questions:

What is easier to deal with?

What is easier to breed?

Where is the best place on the East Coast to order from? Shipping from California is as costly as the bugs themselves.

I appreciate any info, opinions, etc.!

 

[BriAlme]

On the east coast for crickets Lazy H Bait. For silkworms Coastal Silkworms both are in FL.
As far as breeding, I find it easier to order them as needed.

 

[brandon1]

My family will be getting out first (panther)chameleon in the next couple of weeks....

We've been doing the drive to town and buy crickets once a week thing..... no silkworms available.

We have other critters that would eat either (frogs, tortoise, turtles).

I'd like to order in bulk, maybe even breed.

My instinct tells me the silkworms would be easier.

Questions:

What is easier to deal with?

What is easier to breed?

Where is the best place on the East Coast to order from? Shipping from California is as costly as the bugs themselves.

I appreciate any info, opinions, etc.!

From my experience Silkworms are easier to deal with and breed. They don't smell real bad like crickets tend to. They only downside is that the Silkworms are very delicate and you should always wash your hands before messing with them. The first time I tried Silks I was very clean with them and had hardly any die out of a group of 250 eggs. I order from smallpetfeeders.com. The prices there are good and if you have any questions Dave will always help you out.

 

[Chameleon Loco]

Feeders

Crickets are alot cheaper but they smell alot and need to be gut loaded while silkworms come with the food are easy to take care off and I have never heard of a cham going on a silkworm strike while a cham going on a cricket strike is alot more common only con to silkworms is that they are very expensive

 

[Goldenarcher1328]

My family will be getting out first (panther)chameleon in the next couple of weeks....

We've been doing the drive to town and buy crickets once a week thing..... no silkworms available.

We have other critters that would eat either (frogs, tortoise, turtles).

I'd like to order in bulk, maybe even breed.

My instinct tells me the silkworms would be easier.

Questions:

What is easier to deal with?

What is easier to breed?

Where is the best place on the East Coast to order from? Shipping from California is as costly as the bugs themselves.

I appreciate any info, opinions, etc.!

First off, Welcome to the Forums! You've come to the right place! I'm Dan, Its a pleasure to have new faces on here! If you need anything feel free to ask, i'm generally on here every day at one point or another.
My girlfriend Lauren is also on here ( andallthatjazz) Feel free to contact us if you need anything. Also, great to have another east coast member! where are you from?

Now, to address your question.
I have never had the opportunity to set up silks however i have heard nothing but praise on them. I have however heard that silk worms are super delicate and if one dies, you whole colony could crash, i have heard that cleanliness is of the utmost importance and that they eat constantly, which therefore means they constantly produce waste.

Crickets are also a good feeder when supplemented. I use Repashy's Calcium Plus on a daily basis as it is formulated ( from what i've been told lol) to have the perfect ratio of nutrients and calcium as to not over supplement our chameleons. Crickets do smell when not cared for properly, if you clean out the dead ( get a small brush, a mini dust pan, and keep them in a fishtank and its super easy to clean the dead) and keep on hygiene you should be fine.

Other great feeders are Phoenix worms, Some people claim them to even heal/reverse certain medical problems. They have a good Calcium to Phosphorous ratio and are an excellent feeder. ( Purchasing my colony today)

Mealworms and superworms are low in nutrition and should be fed as a treat, not as a sole staple.

Here is how i feel about feeders. ( this is mine from another post on nutrition)
"My veil eats crickets, Dubia roaches, Superworms ( 1 every few days) and veggies ( every day, grazing off and on) as his typical diet. Other things such as phoenix worms and other insect feeders are rotated in and out of the diet.

In my opinion, the best way to look at it is like this.

Lets say your favorite food is Chicken. You eat it in the morning, at lunch, and at dinner.

You eat this way each and every day. While you may be getting filled up, all you are receiving is a constant supply of the nutrients in the chicken. You slowly begin to run out of vitamins and nutrients not found in the chicken and become sick because all you are getting is from that one, constant food.

Yes this is why we have dusts and supplements. However, i feel that this is no substitution for a varied diet.

Try to switch up the foods slightly every now and then as well as using a well rounded base feeder."

So, what i feel to be the best for a chameleon, a cat, a dog, anything that eats food is to feed it a varried diet. This can be as simple as saying...
Sunday: Crickets, Veggies
Monday: Dubai Roaches, Veggies
Tuesday: Phoenix Worms, Veggies
Wednesday: Silkworms, Veggies
Thursday: Partial fast for a day, Veggies
Friday: Crickets, Veggies
Saturday: Hornworms, Veggies

( Just made this up on spot to give an example of a varied diet, not sure if this exact schedule would work out seeing as i would need to check the nutritional values of each feeder.)
Note, Each week they have the same schedule yet they get a varied diet.

Come up with a good chart for your feeding schedule based on the species, age, size, eating habits and any other concerns you feel you should take into consideration when feeding. Make sure you feed appropriately, You wouldn't feed the same number of crickets as you would something larger or smaller then a cricket. Use common sense as to not over or under feed your chameleon. Also, When called for ( See https://www.chameleonforums.com/supplementation-mbd-1-a-2451/ ) make sure you use appropriate supplementation.

Hopefully this helps you out some! Good luck and welcome to the forums!

 

[Goldenarcher1328]

Tell us how it turns out!

 

[Tiff04468]

Thank you all for the information.

I think we will start out with crickets and see how that goes....

We live in Maine, so seems options are a bit limited

We are anxiously awaiting our Panther, coming from Bruce at Chameleon Paradise. Just need the weather to warm up a bit for shipment.

I will be sure to post some pictures once he arrives.

And, I have no doubt, I will be back with more questions.

Tiffany