Day without food vs. Day of bad food

[SilverWolf]

We've been having a serious ant problem here. Not that there aren't great ideas and everything, but this isn't a post about how to get rid of the ants. I am asking about what to feed my jackson chameleon.

When I woke up, the small cricket container I have with the gut load for my chameleon, I found it infested with ants. The gut load bad, and the crickets dead. So I had to clean it all out. Now I have plenty of other crickets, but the rest are just kept alive with dog food and water. I don't think that 4 and a half hours is enough for the gut load cubes I have to thaw, be eaten by the crickets and work its way through their digestive systems so that they have some nutritional value. I very well could just give him 4 - 6 crickets from the larger containers that are eating the dog food. Or, I could just make sure he is drinking water and wait to feed him tomorrow.

What do you think?

 

[millerman6401]

If it's just a day without food it shouldn't be too bad.

 

[Kath44]

How old is he? I don't think the dog food is a great idea to be gut loading with. Kath.

 

[SilverWolf]

How old is he? I don't think the dog food is a great idea to be gut loading with. Kath.

As stated, it is not a gut load. The ones eating dog food are kept separately, and it is just to keep them alive. The ones that are going to be fed to my chameleon have the gut load in a separate container that was raided by ants.

 

[ridgebax1]

If it were me I would feed all the crickets the better gut load rather than the dog food and water. The premise behind gut loading is you are what you eat and the crickets getting a sub par diet are going to be sub par insects; I made my own gut load following one of the recipes on Sandrachameleon's blog almost a year ago and still have a bunch left. I froze most of it and only took out what I needed for my bugs as I used it up. It is not that expensive to just feed all crickets a quality diet. But again this is just my opinion and not based on any research data.

 

[SilverWolf]

If it were me I would feed all the crickets the better gut load rather than the dog food and water. The premise behind gut loading is you are what you eat and the crickets getting a sub par diet are going to be sub par insects; I made my own gut load following one of the recipes on Sandrachameleon's blog almost a year ago and still have a bunch left. I froze most of it and only took out what I needed for my bugs as I used it up. It is not that expensive to just feed all crickets a quality diet. But again this is just my opinion and not based on any research data.

That's all well and good, I'm glad it works for you. But for me, having a thousand or so crickets, I am not going to feed all of them the gut load that I made. Because not all of them are going to be fed to the chameleon, and the gut load would then just be wasted. Using the gut loading method that I do, I save a lot of time, money and I can be sure that these certain crickets are eating it in time for them to be fed to the chameleon. And thankfully, incidents like this today with the ants, don't happen very often and especially won't when the autumn season comes around.

 

[junglefries]

The dogfood is high in protein, which is the natural cricket diet. It will curb cannibalism, also. I feed my breeding roaches Iams cat food, in order to promote growth and curb wing eating. I understand your reasons, and I get your question. I think some here are missing your point. Food is only valid in your cricket for 24hrs. Waiting that period is okay, for not feeding. Chameleons do go without food in the wild for short periods of time. There isn't someone constantly feeding them. Just give the feeders lots of water and appetizing food.

 

[SilverWolf]

The dogfood is high in protein, which is the natural cricket diet. It will curb cannibalism, also. I feed my breeding roaches Iams cat food, in order to promote growth and curb wing eating. I understand your reasons, and I get your question. I think some here are missing your point. Food is only valid in your cricket for 24hrs. Waiting that period is okay, for not feeding. Chameleons do go without food in the wild for short periods of time. There isn't someone constantly feeding them. Just give the feeders lots of water and appetizing food.

Thank you for understanding properly. XD Yes I concluded that it's best just let him go without any food just for today. I suppose I just wanted other people's opinion. Tonight I will be sure to put the crickets for tomorrow in the small cricket container I have with new gut load, and put them in the "ant proof zone."

The dog food and water gelatin crystal thingies are only for the surplus of crickets outside (which are never attacked by ants, interestingly). I am always sure to provide a good gut load for the insects that are going to be fed to, Tricky.