No crickets ever??? Silkies???

[AB EskimoC]

So here's the question. I know the nutritional value of both insects Crickets and Silk worms. Ive seen the superiority in silkworms but also know the importance of having a vast diet. With all the stories of bad "batches" of crickets that carry parasites and such and how they are less healthy than silkworms for my Cham to eat, would it be wise to say goodbye to cricket's all together and use Silkies as my staple??? I know the main reason to want to stick to crickets is the fact that silk worms cant be gut loaded as nutritiously but if I am gut loading Superworms and can start ordering hissing roaches to use for now on as well which I am assuming I can gut load... would never using crickets again be wise?? So silkies as a staple with less calcium dustings than my cricket past, superworms often, hissing roaches often, horn worms and Phoenix worms.... the occasional dragonfly or Mantid??? Is there any reason this would be bad??? I would like to know because I am considering it... My only concern is that since my Cham doesnt like veggies on their own, if i used Silkies as a staple (less often than its second most given and gut loaded food... roaches possibly) would there be nutritional issues???? Is this the reason people dont tend to drop crickets ever anyways??? lol Im just curious... Thank you!

-Brian

 

[AB EskimoC]

They smell like hell and escape and are annoying!!!!! https://www.chameleonforums.com/images/icons/icon8.gif And I don't trust them! But I would ONLY ever consider dropping them from my Chameleons life if I had proof of my theory being correct... I would NEVER make a choice for my Chameleon that was negatively detrimental to his livelihood. Thank you everybody!

-B

 

[carol5208]

My chamelon quit eating crickets altogether about 2 months ago maybe longer I guess. I have been feeding him the silks and then some supers also. I cannot do Roaches. Just cannot. Mentally cannot handle them. They creep me out so bad. So that is what I have been giving my cham and he seems to be doing fine. Crickets and silkies are very close in nutritional value if you check it out. The downside is yes, they cannot be gutloaded because they basically only eat mulberry. I gutload my supers with veggies and fruits as I did my crickets. I even tried to reintroduce crickets about 2 weeks ago to my guy and he just turned away. I am going to get some hornworms also, but they are rather expensive and you don't get many. This is just what i have been doing and it works for me! Also tried some waxworms. As far as it being wise, maybe not, but in my case I don't have a choice. There have been people on here who have starved their chameleon into trying to get them to eat crickets and I am just not going to do that. Take a look at my pictures of my chameleon, he seems pretty healthy looking to me.

 

[AB EskimoC]

Hey, thank you Carol : ) That makes me feel better. I understand the not wanting to handle roaches thing as that would, Id assume be quite common among the general population. And yes, I looked through your album and yes very healthy looking indeed! Eskimo (my Ambilobe) doesn't want crickets anymore and I did starve him for a little bit but couldn't take it anymore. Im going to keep doing the silkie thing and super worms (gut loaded well of course) and see if i can notice any decrease in his every day.

Thanks again!

 

[sandrachameleon]

I personally dont think ANY feeder should be a staple, instead prefering as wide a variety as possible all the time. No one feeder should make up more than 20% of the chameleons diet, IMHO.

That said, There's no reason silkworms cant be a main part of your chameleons diet. Silkworms CAN be gutloaded with things other than mulberry (dandelion leaves, for example).

But you cant make soft bodied larva the only thing in your chams diet. You do need to include some "roughage" chinton. Superworms could provide that.

Supers however are quite fatty. For that reason, They should not be a primary feeder.

So you'd be better off with roaches and crickets as your feeders alongside silkies. Or a mix of supers, roaches, crickets, silkies and more - like butterworms, terrestrial isopods, flies, phasmids...

 

[AB EskimoC]

Thank you... all your words are into consideration guys. I will make sure to keep posted what his diet turns into... Its been primarily crickets, super worms and silk worms... but I may just find a beetle or roach person and rid of crickets. : )

 

[reptoman]

Thank you... all your words are into consideration guys. I will make sure to keep posted what his diet turns into... Its been primarily crickets, super worms and silk worms... but I may just find a beetle or roach person and rid of crickets. : )

Dubias are the way to go if you dont want the smell of crickets. They gutload easily and breed like crazy. If you give yourself about a month to let your colony get going they are a self sustaining food source. No chirping either which is another annoyance with adult crickets. The only downside is that they do not free range well at all. If you cant hand feed them you have to cup feed. If you try and put one in the cage it will run to the first dark spot and park there so usually the cham wont get it unless you let him know you have it first. I usually put them on the screentop of the cage one at a time and let my panther pick them off. Other than that, I cup feed dubias.

 

[AB EskimoC]

Another splendid bit of insight. Ill let ya'll know what I do. : )

 

[growing zoo]

kevin, my veiled turned his nose up at crickets about a month or so ago. I give locusts, butterworms and wax as a treat, have just ordered some silkies and cant wait to try them.

 

[VeiledOwner87]

the reason why your chameleons have stopped eating certain insects like crickets, is because that is all it has been fed (at the pet store, supplier, and most likely when you first got him), the moment you offered the animal something else, it was a whole new taste and attraction. that is why, like Sandra said, it is so important to feed a wide variety of feeders. no one feeder should be a staple, but of course some feeders may make up a larger amount of a diet. but that doesn't mean you couldn't and shouldn't offer another type of feeder in with it's meal at a feeding. I usually do a few crickets and a couple dubia roaches at a feeding. or i will do a solid horn worm and silkworm feeding, vice versa.

it isn't uncommon for the keepers to be grossed out or intimidated by certain feeders, but it is one thing you should really try and break away from. chameleons can be picky and that isn't a good thing in my opinion, they need the variety to sustain health, sustain an appetite. a chameleon can go on a hungry strike from a certain feeder, and if nothing else is offered, or if nothing is in interest to him because he's a "picky" eater, it can lead to anorexia and death.
on the other hand, the keepers can be picky on which feeders they "feel" comfortable handling, and "feel" comfortable" keeping in their house. in my honest opinion, i can only gently say suck it up. do the research on how to properly contain the insect, escape proof your cage, and even get down to using tongs instead of bare hand handling. it is also manageable to keep the feeders outside in the garage (if conditions allow it)

certain insects sometimes need to be gutloaded with different gutload ingredients. as stated earlier, a silkworm will only eat silkchow, a hornworm will only eat hornchow, roaches survive better with higher protein gutloads (bee pollen, dried kelp, cereals and oats)
therefore, different feeders have different nutritional values, and when gutload with different things, have different added nutritional values.

just my opinion, but i hope it encourages to use a wider range.

 

[carol5208]

the reason why your chameleons have stopped eating certain insects like crickets, is because that is all it has been fed (at the pet store, supplier, and most likely when you first got him), the moment you offered the animal something else, it was a whole new taste and attraction. that is why, like Sandra said, it is so important to feed a wide variety of feeders. no one feeder should be a staple, but of course some feeders may make up a larger amount of a diet. but that doesn't mean you couldn't and shouldn't offer another type of feeder in with it's meal at a feeding. I usually do a few crickets and a couple dubia roaches at a feeding. or i will do a solid horn worm and silkworm feeding, vice versa.

it isn't uncommon for the keepers to be grossed out or intimidated by certain feeders, but it is one thing you should really try and break away from. chameleons can be picky and that isn't a good thing in my opinion, they need the variety to sustain health, sustain an appetite. a chameleon can go on a hungry strike from a certain feeder, and if nothing else is offered, or if nothing is in interest to him because he's a "picky" eater, it can lead to anorexia and death.
on the other hand, the keepers can be picky on which feeders they "feel" comfortable handling, and "feel" comfortable" keeping in their house. in my honest opinion, i can only gently say suck it up. do the research on how to properly contain the insect, escape proof your cage, and even get down to using tongs instead of bare hand handling. it is also manageable to keep the feeders outside in the garage (if conditions allow it)

certain insects sometimes need to be gutloaded with different gutload ingredients. as stated earlier, a silkworm will only eat silkchow, a hornworm will only eat hornchow, roaches survive better with higher protein gutloads (bee pollen, dried kelp, cereals and oats)
therefore, different feeders have different nutritional values, and when gutload with different things, have different added nutritional values.

just my opinion, but i hope it encourages to use a wider range.

very well said, but I ain't "sucking it up to feed roaches"!!! Sorry!!! lol!!!

 

[Miss Lily]

My female will eat whatever I offer her! However, my older male has only ever eaten a cricket once when I first got him (almost a year ago). He is so suspicious of anything new - he won't even look twice at Dubias, whereas my female almost inhales them! I can only get Tommy to eat locusts, silkworms and waxworms. He's such a fussy l'il man!

 

[Ricardo]

Just think about dubia roaches as the are "papaya beetles"

I used to give my cham ang geckos dubia, supers, locusts, crix and waxworm as treat. Unfortunately we haven't got horn or silkworms, but if we had i would give them too! Every animal have a favourite feeder i think, at least mine are have

Dubias are easy to breed, as said above, and in other threads on this forum. Supers and waxworms are easy to keep and breed too.
Mantids here (1 species live here) are endangered, so under protection, so cant feed them up legally. Maybe try some stick-insects

Greetings

Ricardo

 

[alvora]

Have you considered using lightweight garden gloves and the super big tweezers accompanied by a bandana around your mouth and nose?

I'm not squeamish but I think having barriers between you and the creepy crawlies might help.

 

[carol5208]

Have you considered using lightweight garden gloves and the super big tweezers accompanied by a bandana around your mouth and nose?

I'm not squeamish but I think having barriers between you and the creepy crawlies might help.

Honestly, I have a serious issue with roaches, as we call them cock roaches in florida or some people call them palmetto bugs, and I am like they ARE roaches! Dubias, whatever names they have aka they ARE roaches to me! I mean I literally have some kind of phobia like people who do not want to get on an airplane!

 

[VeiledOwner87]

ROACHES AREN'T EVEN BAD YOU SISSIES!!! LOL i actually kind of think dubias are cute

 

[VeiledOwner87]

ps. im only kidding of course! you folks aren't sissies <3

 

[Miss Lily]

I will admit that I AM a total sissy when it comes to those awful Dubia! Lol! You should've seen me the day I bought the last lot home! The so called 'mediums' were humungous! I made such a fuss at transfering them to their bigger tub! EWWWW! Gave my daughter a good laugh though - she thought it was hilarious! If it wasn't for the fact that the shop was busy I would've made a fuss and got them switched for small ones, lol! Didn't want to look stupid so I brought the icky things home with me!! They just make me shudder, oh, and they smell! Dunno what's worse really, them or the crix, lol! At least Dubia can't jump though!

 

[VeiledOwner87]

I will admit that I AM a total sissy when it comes to those awful Dubia! Lol! You should've seen me the day I bought the last lot home! The so called 'mediums' were humungous! I made such a fuss at transfering them to their bigger tub! EWWWW! Gave my daughter a good laugh though - she thought it was hilarious! If it wasn't for the fact that the shop was busy I would've made a fuss and got them switched for small ones, lol! Didn't want to look stupid so I brought the icky things home with me!! They just make me shudder, oh, and they smell! Dunno what's worse really, them or the crix, lol! At least Dubia can't jump though!

whhhhattt?? dubias are know NOT to smell!!!! but this is a pretty funny post i must say lol. i guess it's just genetic that boys love bugs haha

 

[carol5208]

ps. im only kidding of course! you folks aren't sissies <3

yes I AM a sissy!!!