Mealworms ok?

[Artangel5]

Hello, we just got a male jackson chameleon. When we were at the store buying him we were trying to get crickets and mealworms for him. When we got to the counter the lady said "oh no you cant give him meal worms. He cant digest them and he will die." From everything i have read so far mealworms seem like a good thing to feed them. Is this true? The chameleon is decent sized so he is not a baby.

Thanks. Also whats the easist way to feed the chameleon crickets. We have our crickets in a small plastic aquarium, but how do we count out 3-4 and put them in his cage?

 

[chefboyardee]

"oh no you cant give him meal worms. He cant digest them and he will die."

thats a bit drastic

mealworms are pretty devoid of nutrition, and high in fat and chiton, so they should really only be a treat/fed on occasion. As long as the cham is well hydrated then the impaction risk isnt as severe as some people make it to be. superworms are a better option, as they're a bit easier to gutload and lower in chiton, but should still only make up a third or less of a chams diet.
Dubia roaches (or other feeder roaches) and crickets are super easy to gutload so they're used the most frequently as a "staple" feeder.

if you can train him to cup feed, that will be the easiest way to feed him

 

[Artangel5]

Ok cool, i thought it sounded a bit drastic. We will look into super worms.
What is cup feeding. Is it as simple as it sounds? Pour food into a cup (not too deep not too shallow) and have him eat out of that?

 

[chefboyardee]

Ok cool, i thought it sounded a bit drastic. We will look into super worms.
What is cup feeding. Is it as simple as it sounds? Pour food into a cup (not too deep not too shallow) and have him eat out of that?

again, variety is the key, but if you do get supers make sure they are actual superworms (z. morio) and not just "giant mealworms" (t. molitor), which are just regular mealworms artificially induced to grow to a large size

cup feeding is pretty straight forward, but some chams dont take to it right away. search the forums for some different strategies

 

[Artangel5]

Thank you very much!

 

[juice28]

thats a bit drastic
if you can train him to cup feed, that will be the easiest way to feed him

yea i agree, that sounds a bit drastic

cup feeding is easy and honestly.. at least for me.. i didnt have to really train mine lol they just saw bugs moving in a cup(i used a betta cup form petco and just taped it up so its not clear) and went for it..only took a couple times and now they know that when i go to the cup....im putting something in it and the go check it out. you said the cham is a pretty good size? how big is that and how big is the cage? we love pics lol

i free range my crickets 5-9 at a time and i have one of the big cricket keepers(to the veterans, yea i know i know...lol) but ill just shake a tube in a bag with some calcium and i let them crawl out onto the screen, they seem to go up when i do that and hang out at the top seams of the cage. the chams have a field day chasing them down, its awesome to watch them hunt and it makes them exercise a bit for their food which i think is good and my big cages are 24x24x48.

my chams caught on extremely quick that when they see me go for the bag food is coming and they move to a good spot to see where im going to let their dinner out at...lately ive just been tossing a cpl in at a time b/c theyre so used to the bag that they get really close now and try to shoot through the bag while its in my hand lol