Ellioti food

[Iguania]

Hi, I recently bought a pair of Trioceros ellioti. I mailed the seller to ask how often I should feed the fruitflies and he told me that I should stop it and if I continue feeding only fruitflies for some more days inte could be very dangerous. Is that really true because other small chameleon species can eat mainly FFs, right? Of course different insects and variation is the key to succes, I have started a firebrat culture and have also just started breeding Indian stick insects and soon it will be an isopod culture as well.

Edit: I also have mealworms at home for my other lizards but I'm worried that it will be to hard to digest for them. I am able to buy crickets but pinheads are hard to get here and when it's avaivable it's very expensiva, almost the same price as adult crickets.

 

[fluxlizard]

I don't know- I've never tried to use fruitflies as a long term staple. I have never heard of this and have used them as part of a varied diet for baby chameleons for many years. I've never tried to use them as a primary diet for a small species like ellioti for long periods.

But maybe I can offer a little advice about the mealworms and pinhead crickets.

I feed even newborn baby chameleons baby mealworms for one part of a varied diet. Chameleons are like most other insect eating lizards- there is nothing about them specifically that would make mealworms more difficult for them to digest compared to some other insect eating lizard. Personally, I feel (and my experience has been) that if the lizard is otherwise healthy and in a healthy environment where it's digestive system is functioning normally, mealworms are not difficult for insect eating lizards - including chameleons- to digest. So if you culture your own mealworms and can select appropriately sized individuals for your ellioti to eat, there should be no problem.

Pinhead crickets are pretty easy to make. Get 50-100 adult crickets and make your own pinheads to save money. I use plastic sandwich boxes with damp vermiculite for the adults to lay eggs in for a day or two and then incubate them just as I would most lizard eggs- about 84 f with a lid on. A week or two later and pinheads will hatch out.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Id agree that variety in prey is important. Fruit flies aren't hugely nutritious, so I wouldn't use them as a staple/primary feeder. Even my dart frogs get a range of prey.

Some alternative small prey options:
bean beetles
baby silkworms
terrestrial isopods
baby mealworms (as part of a varied diet, these are not a danger at all)
baby superworms (easy to breed your own)
pinhead crickets (buy 10+ adults, mostly female, keep them in a bucket with a small container of damp sand for a few days (then feed off the adults to another pet), put a lid on the small sand container with a couple pin holes, put the small container of damp sand on top of your UVB tube fixture (warmth), and in a short time you will have "free" pinheads)
young termites
grain moths
nymphs of smaller cockroach types

 

[Iguania]

Okey, so it isn't life threatening for them to feed on mostly FFs and some mealworms until my pinheads hatch? I already have some boxes which it probably are eggs in and they will hatch in approximatly 1week. I am able to buy some pinheads until then also and will do it but it's good to know that they don't get bad because of feeding on FFs that short amount of time.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Okey, so it isn't life threatening for them to feed on mostly FFs and some mealworms until my pinheads hatch? I already have some boxes which it probably are eggs in and they will hatch in approximatly 1week. I am able to buy some pinheads until then also and will do it but it's good to know that they don't get bad because of feeding on FFs that short amount of time.

a week or two on fruit flies with a few mealworms will not kill them.
Make sure you are dusting the flies appropriately with supplements.

 

[CarlC]

Are these baby or adults? If they are babies you'll be ok for a couple of weeks. If they are adults they would need to eats hundreds of fruit flies each day. Even the commonly kept Brookesia and Rhampholean species need a varied diet. Do you have any local pet store that could supply you with small crickets until yours are hatching. Firebrats are a great food but take some time to build a good supply.

Carl

 

[Iguania]

They are almost adult, yesterday they got about 10 crickets that was 0,5 cm so this day they won't get anything. I will start new FF cultures and I will buy more crickets from my local petshop. I recently dicovered that one of them has something red in the poop, it started yesterday and I will supervise it for a couple of days but it's probably nothing.

 

[CarlC]

The ellioti I kept really liked houseflies also. Good you found some larger crickets.

Carl

 

[Iguania]

But when I feed with crickets at that size, with how many should I feed and how often, each day, every second day? They aren't really adult, they are about 2,5" SVL.

 

[sandrachameleon]

enough that there is slow weight gain and growth. there is no rule to this, every cham grows differently. you have to watch and monitor and adjust accordingly.
given these are not adults, you are likely safe to provide roughly as much as they can eat withint about 5 minutes, a couple times a day.

you may find this blog entry useful: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...s-day-required-maintain-chameleon-weight.html

 

[CarlC]

Like Sandra said. I feed young adults as much as they will eat in a few minutes. I feed several times each day every day. They will let you know when they have had enough.

Carl