How many crickets per day?

[jadeaudio]

OK I just bought a Senegel Chameleon about a month ago and now I am a Chameleon junkie. I catch flies with a fishnet outside to feed to him and feed him about 5 crickets a day. He can eat nonstop.

In a couple days I am picking up a 1 year old Ambiole Panther Male and a 9 month old nosy b Panther female from someone with separate cages and such. He says he feeds them 8 to 10 large crickets each a day.

So basically my question is how many and how often do you feed your Chameleons? I basically want to know if there is a max and a minimum to be safe. I don't want to over feed them and I don't want to feed them not enough either. I'm gonna have to mix it up a little too with other foods because once on get these two the cricket fund is not going to be cheap. The Senegel is tiny and do not know how old he is. I cannot imagine how many these big Panthers can consume.

 

[CleanLineChameleons]

To be honest they are all different. I have had some males eat close to 20 to 30 every two days and others will only eat like 10 at a time. Just a ballpark is about 15 a day for males (skip a day here and there) and 10 for a female (skip a day here and there).

Make sure to gutload those little guys.

-chris

 

[jadeaudio]

Thanks for the info. What do you use to gutload them. Currently I throw in carrots and such in there and they eat it up. I tried a potato, but that didn't go like the carrots do. I do use supplements on them.

 

[CleanLineChameleons]

I like using dark greens with some grains (cereal or oats normally). Carrots are good, but the potatoes are super starchy = fatty. Probably not the best gutload. Try romaine or collards.

-chris

 

[kinyonga]

Male panthers seem to need a lot more crickets than a male Senegal does. You should be able to tell when the chameleon is looking fat and realize that you need to cut back.

I gutload/feed crickets with a wide assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, celery leaves etc.).

IMHO, a phos.-free calcium powder should be dusted on the insects before they are fed to a chameleon at most feedings to make up for the poor ratio of calcium to phos.

I dust twice a month with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene source of vitamin A and twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder lightly.

 

[sandrachameleon]

If you want to see what my panther chameleons eat, check out the Food Diary section of my blog. Most entries are what adult males are eating, but I think I've put in a few of the female food logs too.

 

[jadeaudio]

Awesome info guys and gals. Much appreciated. So if I feed them silk worms and meal worms they don't require as many crickets? I have to mix it up because crickets are not cheap even if I mailorder them in. Locally every month there is a reptile expo show that a dealer sells 1000 crickets for $13.50. I am gonna have to go for that deal, but hopefully that'll last because regular pet shops charge $1 for 10.

 

[kianna2118]

I get my crickets for 20 for $1.00 . If you get worms order form mulberry farms. They are a good reasonable price and you get the there shipping fast.

 

[kade]

feeing jacksons chameleon?

I have had a jacksons chameleon for about a week. I've done a lot of research and read a lot of posts on here. Mine is an adult male, but I would say is probably full grown. A lot of people on here have said that adults should eat around a dozen crickets every other day. So far mine will only take about 2 ever other day. Is this normal? I know I could try feeding him a variety, but just wanted some other peoples insight. People with adult to sub adult male jacksons, please help

 

[Hugh Wahl]

I free range feed my panthers and they usually eat 10-12 crickets a day. I try to have food available at all times. I've heard of chameleons gettin "fat", but I personally haven't seen it in free range feeding. I guess all that chasing down crickets I kinda a workout. . I'll also switch it up and give him three or four superworms here and there and an occasional horn worm.

 

[Lovereps]

Kade, that is a reasonable amount for him to eat.
My adult Jackson's xantholophus will seldom eat on 2 consecutive days and will only have one to at most 3 crickets on the alternating days when he does eat.
The majority of chams that posts are about are Veiled and Panther chams, which are much larger than Jackson's.