Food to feed?
- Thread starter Campy
- Start date
westcoastchameleons
New Member
chameleons will and can sometimes get tired of eating the same food over and over.you can feed him multiple types of worms, roaches, and other insects, and you shouldnt only use mineral!you should use calcium with d3, and herptivite.
I believe Minerall I has both calcium and D3 in it....but contains no other vitamins.
As for variety....although crickets are an easy insect to gutload and dust and a chameleon can live on a diet of mostly crickets, variety gives the chameleon different trace elements that he might not get from crickets and mimics nature more closely.
As for variety....although crickets are an easy insect to gutload and dust and a chameleon can live on a diet of mostly crickets, variety gives the chameleon different trace elements that he might not get from crickets and mimics nature more closely.
westcoastchameleons
New Member
westcoastchameleons said..."NO D3!" in response to me saying "I believe Minerall I has both calcium and D3 in it....but contains no other vitamins."
I looked it up and the following site says..."Vitamin D-3 is included in the MINER-ALL I product, but no other vitamins are added"
http://www.miner-all.net/frequent.htm
There is a Minerall I and a Minerall O....Minerall O (outdoor formula) has no D3 but the indoor one (Minerall I) does.
Vitamin D3 from supplements will build up in the system...but vitamin D3 from sunshine or UVB exposure (where the light doesn't pass through glass or plastic) won't...so its important not to overdo the vitamin D3. I only dust with a D3/calcium powder twice a month.
I also dust with a phosphorous-free calcium powder a couple of times a week. Insects have a poor cal./phos. ratio and dusting with calcium helps correct the imbalance.
I dust with vitamins (with a beta carotene source of vitamin A) twice a month...and I gutload all my insects with appropriate and nutritious diets before feeding them to the chameleons. Although there is some controversy over whether chameleons need preformed vitamin A as part of the vitamins, it is definite that preformed vitamin A can build up in their system while vitamin A from beta carotene sources can't.
Appropriate basking temperature is important too because chameleons need the heat/warmth to be able to digest their food...thus absorb the nutrients.
Keeping my veiled chameleons the way I do, the females live for over 6 years and the males live much longer than that. They reproduce good healthy babies. I have almost 100% hatch rate and a 95% survival rate at the age of two months.
Hope this helps.
I looked it up and the following site says..."Vitamin D-3 is included in the MINER-ALL I product, but no other vitamins are added"
http://www.miner-all.net/frequent.htm
There is a Minerall I and a Minerall O....Minerall O (outdoor formula) has no D3 but the indoor one (Minerall I) does.
Vitamin D3 from supplements will build up in the system...but vitamin D3 from sunshine or UVB exposure (where the light doesn't pass through glass or plastic) won't...so its important not to overdo the vitamin D3. I only dust with a D3/calcium powder twice a month.
I also dust with a phosphorous-free calcium powder a couple of times a week. Insects have a poor cal./phos. ratio and dusting with calcium helps correct the imbalance.
I dust with vitamins (with a beta carotene source of vitamin A) twice a month...and I gutload all my insects with appropriate and nutritious diets before feeding them to the chameleons. Although there is some controversy over whether chameleons need preformed vitamin A as part of the vitamins, it is definite that preformed vitamin A can build up in their system while vitamin A from beta carotene sources can't.
Appropriate basking temperature is important too because chameleons need the heat/warmth to be able to digest their food...thus absorb the nutrients.
Keeping my veiled chameleons the way I do, the females live for over 6 years and the males live much longer than that. They reproduce good healthy babies. I have almost 100% hatch rate and a 95% survival rate at the age of two months.
Hope this helps.
Campy
New Member
well thanks for everyone tryin to help... but im still lost on what I should use.... I have Miner-All I.....
it has Calcium, D3, Manganese, zinc iron copper iodine cobalt magnesium and selenium....
the ingredients are as follows:
calcium carbonate, dextrose, zinc sulfate, maganese sulfate, magnesium oxide, D-activated animal sterol iron sulfate, copper sulfate, elhyione diamine dihydiodide, cobalt sulfate, sodium selenite, iron oxide, natural flavours.
and the following trace elements from natuarlly grown aquatic vegitation
sulfur,aluminum,silicon, copper, bromine, barium, tellurium, vilrum, sodium, lanthanum, uranium, neodymium, cerium, titanium, etc etc etc . there is a lot of tehm so 'll just stop there...
is this what i need or do i need more... the person at the pet store told me to use this and use it everyday for about the first 6-8 months, then go every other day...
and previous post about no D3 . i thought that it needed D3... seeing as all reptiles need to have sunlight . which we are not giving them...
it has Calcium, D3, Manganese, zinc iron copper iodine cobalt magnesium and selenium....
the ingredients are as follows:
calcium carbonate, dextrose, zinc sulfate, maganese sulfate, magnesium oxide, D-activated animal sterol iron sulfate, copper sulfate, elhyione diamine dihydiodide, cobalt sulfate, sodium selenite, iron oxide, natural flavours.
and the following trace elements from natuarlly grown aquatic vegitation
sulfur,aluminum,silicon, copper, bromine, barium, tellurium, vilrum, sodium, lanthanum, uranium, neodymium, cerium, titanium, etc etc etc . there is a lot of tehm so 'll just stop there...
is this what i need or do i need more... the person at the pet store told me to use this and use it everyday for about the first 6-8 months, then go every other day...
and previous post about no D3 . i thought that it needed D3... seeing as all reptiles need to have sunlight . which we are not giving them...
Zerah Morris
New Member
Campy,
You are correct your cham does need D3. Supplements designed for chameleons being housed in outdoor enclosures will not generally have D3 because of the animal’s exposure to natural light. Conversely supplements designed for animals housed indoors will have trace D3 to ensure that the cham has what it needs without the natural exposure.
That said there is no substitute for natural sunlight and you should strive to provide several hours a week to your cham as weather permits. In addition you should use specialized lighting sources altered to emit UVB indoors.
Supplementation is a very controversial subject and unfortunately there are no easy, right answers. Any information that people distribute here is at best speculation based on experience and at worst regurgitated info they heard or read from someone claiming to breed chams.
I can tell you what I do and what works for me but it is only opinion.
I make great effort to provide as much natural exposure and wild caught bugs as possible. I do not supplement heavily or regularly. Instead I choose to gut load the prey insects with QUALITY commercial gut loads like WER and RSH, and then provide fresh vegetable matter as well. In addition I use a pure calcium dust on a basis and schedule that does not show up as white in the animals feces. I am not referring to urates here but the actual fecal matter will start to have a white tint to it if too much calcium is dusted, too often.
If you are going to rely on supplements my opinion would be to buy every available quality supplement on the market and use them on a rotational basis and VERY sparingly. Watch for signs of edema and observe normal growth trends etc. RSH in my opinion produces the only supplement suitable for any type of daily use. It is designed to be an extremely "light" source of vitamins and minerals. It was vet formulated for the express purpose of providing near natural daily levels of the necessary "goodies". More like the cham would consume in the wild while foraging on various insects and plants. The product line also is divided by lowland and montane, a very important distinction when we start looking at supplements.
Again this is opinion based on what has worked for me. There are others here that have invested a great deal of time into studying the chemical processes that are responsible for absorption, delivery and use of these supplements and they can walk you through the science if you are interested. I make no warranty expressed or implied as to the accuracy, or completeness of this information. In the end you must do the research and decide what you think works best for you and your animals and then observe and be reactive.
You are correct your cham does need D3. Supplements designed for chameleons being housed in outdoor enclosures will not generally have D3 because of the animal’s exposure to natural light. Conversely supplements designed for animals housed indoors will have trace D3 to ensure that the cham has what it needs without the natural exposure.
That said there is no substitute for natural sunlight and you should strive to provide several hours a week to your cham as weather permits. In addition you should use specialized lighting sources altered to emit UVB indoors.
Supplementation is a very controversial subject and unfortunately there are no easy, right answers. Any information that people distribute here is at best speculation based on experience and at worst regurgitated info they heard or read from someone claiming to breed chams.
I can tell you what I do and what works for me but it is only opinion.
I make great effort to provide as much natural exposure and wild caught bugs as possible. I do not supplement heavily or regularly. Instead I choose to gut load the prey insects with QUALITY commercial gut loads like WER and RSH, and then provide fresh vegetable matter as well. In addition I use a pure calcium dust on a basis and schedule that does not show up as white in the animals feces. I am not referring to urates here but the actual fecal matter will start to have a white tint to it if too much calcium is dusted, too often.
If you are going to rely on supplements my opinion would be to buy every available quality supplement on the market and use them on a rotational basis and VERY sparingly. Watch for signs of edema and observe normal growth trends etc. RSH in my opinion produces the only supplement suitable for any type of daily use. It is designed to be an extremely "light" source of vitamins and minerals. It was vet formulated for the express purpose of providing near natural daily levels of the necessary "goodies". More like the cham would consume in the wild while foraging on various insects and plants. The product line also is divided by lowland and montane, a very important distinction when we start looking at supplements.
Again this is opinion based on what has worked for me. There are others here that have invested a great deal of time into studying the chemical processes that are responsible for absorption, delivery and use of these supplements and they can walk you through the science if you are interested. I make no warranty expressed or implied as to the accuracy, or completeness of this information. In the end you must do the research and decide what you think works best for you and your animals and then observe and be reactive.
Zerah is absolutely right about there being no substitute for natural sunlight. I live in a climate where over half the year the chameleons can not be put outside....so I use UVB and supplement with D3 to make up for the lack of sunlight.
Zerah is also right that supplementation is a controversial subject...and what I try to do is tell people from my experience what has worked for me and also give some reasons based on what I have learned/studied for why I do what I do.
I am not a professional breeder although I do produce offspring from my creatures and some of them do get sold because I can't possibly keep them all. I breed for several reasons....it helps me learn how to hatch different species, I feel that if they can reproduce here with me and the hatchlings can grow into healthy adults that also reproduce, I must be doing something right. I might not be truly keeping them like nature does...but well enough.
Like Zerah said I can tell you what I do and the results that I have doing it, but its only my opinion.
Zerah...you said this so well...its exactly how I feel... "I make no warranty expressed or implied as to the accuracy, or completeness of this information. In the end you must do the research and decide what you think works best for you and your animals and then observe and be reactive".
Concerning supplementation....I told you what I did and the results. Zerah gave you information too...you have to make the ultimate decision.
Zerah is also right that supplementation is a controversial subject...and what I try to do is tell people from my experience what has worked for me and also give some reasons based on what I have learned/studied for why I do what I do.
I am not a professional breeder although I do produce offspring from my creatures and some of them do get sold because I can't possibly keep them all. I breed for several reasons....it helps me learn how to hatch different species, I feel that if they can reproduce here with me and the hatchlings can grow into healthy adults that also reproduce, I must be doing something right. I might not be truly keeping them like nature does...but well enough.
Like Zerah said I can tell you what I do and the results that I have doing it, but its only my opinion.
Zerah...you said this so well...its exactly how I feel... "I make no warranty expressed or implied as to the accuracy, or completeness of this information. In the end you must do the research and decide what you think works best for you and your animals and then observe and be reactive".
Concerning supplementation....I told you what I did and the results. Zerah gave you information too...you have to make the ultimate decision.
