Diet

[AACblackout]

Every day this week I introduced new feeders and they liked them all. I give th 5-10 crickets every day 4-7 dubias everyday and 3-4 silkworms everyday 1 hornworm every other day. For 1.1 Ambilobe at 4 months of age does this seem like an appropriate diet? If not how can I improve it

 

[ridgebax1]

I think that as long as these bugs are properly gut loaded, this is a fine menu. Juveniles grow quickly and should be allowed to eat as much as they want. He or she will kind of let you know when it gets to be too much food as there may be left overs. Once Omar got older there would be days that he did not eat at all or maybe only a couple bugs but then the next day would eat everything I gave him. An important thing to remember is to remove the left over bugs in the evening even if you cup feed as they will need to be re-gutloaded so they will be nutritious for your animal. You do not need to offer a variety like that on a daily basis but switch them up each day. One day crickets, next day hornworms etc. But there is nothing wrong with giving them different bugs daily like you are doing. You also may want to switch up the quantity of horns and silks. For no other reason than horns grow much faster than silks and with your guy being only 4 months old he may not be able to handle the bigger horns. Nutritionally horns and silks are similar so that would not be an issue. Another bug you may want to try is phoenix worms (hermetia illucens); they are black soldier fly larvae; They come in a bedding similar to supers and mealies and are OK to feed directly to the cham, but I always took mine out of the bedding and put them in another container and fed them fruits and greens. They got significantly bigger this way and were better nutritionally with this type of gutloading. I would scoop out a spoonful or two of the muck they made, rinse them off and feed to the chams. If you use warm or even hot water to rinse off the muck they were much more active in the feeder dish. I got mine from rainbowmealworms on ebay. You can get 300 for under $21 and the customer service is outstanding. Also butterworms make a nice treat and are better nutritionally than supers or mealies. I never fed supers or mealies but many keepers do without issue, I just don't think they are worth it. There are several vendors that are sponsors here.

 

[AACblackout]

Is the silkworm chow you get from coastal tge same thing as gut loading. My crickets and mydubias get guy loaded.

 

[Lazy Boy]

Yes gut load for silks and horns is chow. You can feed them greens and a few other things to but silkworms must have at least 50% mulberry chow or fresh. I give my silks fresh mulberry only and worry about gut loading the other feeders.