different food

[Miss becky]

i have a 5 month old veild his diet at the moment is meal worms, wax moths and their larvae,black and brown crickits and hoppers. he loves all of them except his crickits really but i was wondering is there more that i can give to him insects, fruit, veg etc.?

 

[Tygerr]

There is quite a variety of feeder insects that is available commercially these days: cockroaches, locusts/grasshoppers, phoenix worms/soldier fly larvae, houseflies, goliath worms, silkworms, superworms.

When you can find them, chams also enjoy getting butterflies, praying mantids, pillbugs, and other assorted bugs. But if you're going to use any wild-caught bugs, make sure you get them from an area where they don't use any poisons/pesticides, and also make sure the insect isn't poisonous to the cham (you can post pics on here for members to identify the bugs).

Some Veiled chams will accept fruit and veg, but most of them will just ignore it. They're more likely to take a bite out of a leafy green veg than a fruit (which is another reason to keep live plants in a Veiled's cage - trying to eat fake plants can be hazardous to their health). But they are primarily insectivores, so don't worry about them not eating fruit and veg.

The most important thing is that you continue to feed them a variety of insects, and make sure that you GUTLOAD the insects properly before you feed them to your cham.

 

[dodolah]

i have a 5 month old veild his diet at the moment is meal worms, wax moths and their larvae,black and brown crickits and hoppers. he loves all of them except his crickits really but i was wondering is there more that i can give to him insects, fruit, veg etc.?

hi Miss Becky,
There are lots of insects that you can give him that are actually better than the diet you provide for him.
Mealworms and wax worms are not so good nutritionally.
I always say that giving wax worm to your chameleon is equivalent to giving one big fat juicy MacDonald burger to your kids. (they are okay to do once in a while, but definitely not everyday, yeah?)
Perhaps, that is one reason why he always refuse to eat crickets. I'm guessing that wax worm is much much more tasty than crickets.
Kinda like a kid who refuses to eat healthy food after tasting the delicious junk food.

Crickets and Hoppers are better (provided that you gutload them and sprinkle some supplements on the insects).
Silkworm, Hornworms, Phoenix worms, stick insects, house flies, Dubia roaches, super worms, and butter worms are all great feeders.

You can also give your chameleon fruits and veggies as supplementation (not as the main diet) provided that he will eat them. I'm guessing you have veiled or panther?

a good vegetable for your cham is dandelion leaves.

Hope that helps

 

[Miss becky]

right so i'll deffently cut down on his mealworms and supply better insects he allways has hoppers the trouble is i'll buy a box full and in two days they're gone if i put some in his cage he will go hunt and eat every single one lol.The pet store that i go to dont really supply alot of different insects but they do have stick insects so i'll grap some of thoose as i've kept them before and they consantly bread.And im glad you say dandiloin leavs are good for him cause my garden is over run with them and i kno theres nothing on them so thats brilliant.
yea i have a male yemen cham and he has fake plants in his viv hes never tried to eat them.But im planning to build him a flexarium soon and i'll put real plants in there.
so what fruit would be ok to feed him i know the fruit i have in the house at the moment is banana,strawberry and kiwi could i just take a chunk of one of them up to let him eat?
and i dont think i will let him eat any thing thats outside as theres loads of slugs snails spiders in my garden lol

 

[kinyonga]

You can give your veiled greens (dandelion, kale, collards, curly endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrot, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, celery leaves, etc.) and a bit of fruit (apple, pear, berries, melon, etc.) I tend to stay away from banana. Sliver or cut the fruit and veggies into suitable sizes. Greens and fruits can be impaled on the branches.

These same veggies and greens can be used in the gutload for the crickets.