Feeding only once a day??

[SmaugDragonofErebor]

I have a veiled chameleon and at the pet store they told us to feed her twice a day. (she is aprox 3mo old) once in the morning and once at night. I was reading care resource located on this site and it says "Chameleons should always be fed in the first half of the day to give them time to bask and digest their food properly." So does that mean I should only feed her once a day? She likes to eat out of a feeding dish that is held in place with magnets so she goes up to it and eats in the morning (shortly after waking) I notice her going back to look for food around noon and again later in the evening. So I was feeding her 3x a day (morning, noon and night) should I stop? Also I want to see if anyone feeds their cham fruits or veggies if yes what kind? Thank you!! She has been eating lots of meal worms and leaving the crickets??? Don't know why.....

 

[Mijah139]

For a young chameleon is isnt a bad idea to feed them whenever theyre hungry as long as proper nutrition is used. Veiled chameleons do eat foliage in the wild and captive ones are know to eat fruits and veggies. You should read Sandra's blog on nutrition. Hopefully she will chime in with a much more experienced answer.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Ive always fed babies 2-3 times a day, as much as they can eat within about 5 minutes each time. Do aim to have the last meal of the day at least 2 hours before lights out

she is eating the mealworms because they are fatty. don't give her mealworms and she will eat the crickets. try to have mealworms make up less than 20% of her diet, and crickets up to 50%, with other feeder prey rounding out the rest of the diet.

 

[PoshPenny]

Sandra this will sound crazy, if it does sorry, but do I gutload the mealworms like crickets? When they are babies? I found a link you posted on another thread on gutloading larvae but it gives me an error when I click it.

 

[sandrachameleon]

its a good question - not crazy

unlike crickets, mealworms aren't easy to gutload, but yes they will eat many of the things crickets will eat.... carrot, squash, apple, dandelion....

here's some links (hopefully which work) that give some ideas.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/443-superworm-substrate-gutload-one.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...just-crickets-roaches-gutload-everything.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html

 

[SmaugDragonofErebor]

its a good question - not crazy

unlike crickets, mealworms aren't easy to gutload, but yes they will eat many of the things crickets will eat.... carrot, squash, apple, dandelion....

here's some links (hopefully which work) that give some ideas.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/443-superworm-substrate-gutload-one.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...just-crickets-roaches-gutload-everything.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html

Thank you for this post. I never really thought of gutloading my mealworms.