Dusting Wild Caught Bugs?

[carol5208]

I was curious if you have to dust feeders like moths and such with calcium if they are out in the wild before you feed them?. I have been having a few problems with my Romeo being a picky eater. Got him to eat crickets for a few days after 7 months or so of trying and now he wont touch them again!! He is driving me nuts. anyways, he will eat supers like crazy but that is not the only thing I want to feed of course. He did eat a big silk today but that is after three days of trying!! He ate a moth that somehow got into my patio so I went out last night and caught a few by my light. I gave him a pretty large one this morning and he did eat it. I was just wondering about the calcium dusting. I have some silk cocoons waiting to hatch. I will feel more comfortable feeding those off instead of wild but I am trying to change up the feeders for him cause I think he is getting bored with everything besides those damn supers!!!. Thanks for your input!!!

 

[jrh3]

10 times out of 10 they wont turn down a moth. also hornworms are real appealing to most chameleons because they seem to like green color. For picky eater go with lots of movement and green color. I have dusted w/c bugs in the past, seems to work great.

 

[Bernie]

Will he not eat locusts either, Carol?

 

[carol5208]

I have not tried those and don't even know where you get them in the states. Anyone????

 

[Rob G]

I've been wondering about the locusts myself. I'm in iowa and these things are usually everywhere but living around hundreds of cattle and crop fields I have very little trust in the wc bugs in my area. Google search came up with nothin.....

 

[Texas Panther Man]

If your gonna feed locusts/grasshoppers your gonna have to catch em and then set up a breeding colony. Or just gut load them and feed em off the next day. I havent tried to breed any yet. I just dont have the time and patience to breed hoppers. Maybe if I retire I'll have the extra time. lol

I have dusted hoppers in the past when I had an ambanja that wouldnt eat anything except hoppers & katydids. Same rule applies as dusting reg old crickets.

 

[sandrachameleon]

I dont bother to dust wild caught feeders. Of course they dont make up a large portion of my chameleons diets.

Moths are low in nutritional content - offer sparingly.

You cant buy locust in the states as they are an agricultural pest. You can catch grasshoppers in the summer if you have access to parks/fields away from roads, homes, industry.

Have you tried butterworms? Stick insects? Terrestrial isopods?

 

[kinyonga]

Some moths are quite fattening too...
https://www.chameleonforums.com/fat-moths-butterflies-their-caterpillar-forms-2032/

Read this?
http://www.animalarkshelter.org/animal/CIN/ContentMgmt.nsf/Nutrition/$first?OpenDocument