dubias as main meal?

[Williams7165]

I'm new to chams....Some people i'v talked to said that crickets should be the main diet for chams. I have a veiled chameleon (2mo old maybe?). Can dubias be the main diet for them instead of crickets, and if so at what age can they eat the nymphs? or are dubias only there for variety?

Thanks

 

[TreeTopChameleons]

I have heard of a lot of people using the dubia roaches as the staple diet for their chams. The ease of breeding, lack of smell, and noise are just some of the benefits to switching. I would recommend varying the diet with other soft worms, but I think most people would say dubia's make a fine primary source of nutrition for your chameleon. I personally have no experience with feeding dubia's so I cannot comment on their sizes and when to feed them off. I'm sure someone will chime in here soon enough with their dubia experiences!

 

[Bush baby]

I've recently switch to dubias after raising my 1 year old Jackson's primarily on crickets. Now that he's on dubias, he absolutely refuses crickets!

I concur with adding soft bodied worms to the diet as i've noticed that my cham poops less frequently now that he's eating dubias probably due to their harder shell's and longer digestion time.

 

[camimom]

I primarily feed dubias. I personally feel that they are better than crickets.

 

[Williams7165]

Thanks for the responses!

Still curious....how small are nymphs, and when would you recommend switching to them? How old does the cham need to be?

 

[Big Gulp]

I have a crap-ton of dubias because my little guy won't touch them. As soon as I put them in the feeder cup, they just sit there. He's not interested at all.

 

[drift141]

I feed my guy 1/2-3/4in dubias and he gobbles them up. He hasn't taken them from a cup yet. I don't let them free range because they hide well. I also feed him crickets and an assortment of worms. I turn the crickets loose in his enclosure, so he doesn't get lazy...

 

[ridgebax1]

My cham will not eat dubias if I put them in a dish because they just sit there! If I put one on one of his branches he eats it but like the previous poster I won't free range them. I don't want escapees in my house and they do hide successfully.

 

[sandrachameleon]

I'm new to chams....Some people i'v talked to said that crickets should be the main diet for chams. I have a veiled chameleon (2mo old maybe?). Can dubias be the main diet for them instead of crickets, and if so at what age can they eat the nymphs? or are dubias only there for variety?

Thanks

personally, I'd like to dissuade you from having a "primary" or "staple" diet. Instead, you want to provide VARIETY. I encourage you not to have any single type of feeder prey make up more than 20% and certainly no more than 50% of your animals diet. So, offer BOTH crickets and roaches PLUS as many other appropriate bugs as you can.

 

[exoherppy]

I have a colony of dubias which my veil and panther chams refuse to eat as staple. They are too used to crickets. My veil will occasionally take a dubias only I feed with my hand or a tweezer. It seems like it will only strike if it has a clear view of dubia's "face".

Thankfully my bearded dragon switched over to dubias without issue.