Pillbugs?

SaintJimmy

SaintJimmy

Avid Member
Oh my god. Somewhere on here I read that isopods are good for chams.

I have a HUUUUUUUUUUUGGEEE abundance of these EVERYWHEREE!

If I were to catch them wild, breed them, ect, how much of his diet could be of isopods? I'm planning on eventually varying his diet more and more so he doesn't go on a hunger strike (currently I am only using the staple feeder.. crickets.. :().

Any advice on isopods in general? Especially rollie pollies.
 
OH my god LOL! i wasn't sure what an isopod was and i looked it up online and it brought up a huge rollie pollie and it scared the living s*** out of me! then i realized you were talking about the insect. LOL!

Don't ask my why i felt the need to share...
 
purplebiotch said:
OH my god LOL! i wasn't sure what an isopod was and i looked it up online and it brought up a huge rollie pollie and it scared the living s*** out of me! then i realized you were talking about the insect. LOL!

Don't ask my why i felt the need to share...
Click to expand...

Hahaha! Hilarious :D

Lovereps said:
Here are a couple of links with great isopod breeding info and other feeder info written by longtime chamkeeper Sandrachameleon:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...orcellio-pillbugs-woodlice-rollie-pollie.html

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html

In the meantime, you can mailorder various feeders from a number of places and forum sponsors including: http://www.mulberryfarms.com/
Click to expand...
I won't be needing to order any. I'm reading up on those links now. :)
I just heard you leave one side of the tupperware they live in with some leaves, bark, ect, and dirt damp, and the other side dryer, and they will breed. I will stick some carrots in there for them to eat once it decomposes.
I want to breed them on my own for free lol
 
are you sure those will be free from pesticides and other nasty things humans kindly share with the nature around them?
I think you will need to wait a couple of generations before you can safely feed them to your chams. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere:)
 
stalincat said:
are you sure those will be free from pesticides and other nasty things humans kindly share with the nature around them?
I think you will need to wait a couple of generations before you can safely feed them to your chams. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere:)
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I will not be feeding him the pillbugs directly from nature, don't worry! :)

I have a big bag of moss and coconut dust from when I made the mistake of buying substrate, so I will likely get a big frog cage from my mom's house (already have it) and then put the baby polies in there with the coconut dirt and some moss, along with some bark and leaves and the like. I will wait about 3 generations or more.

We use NO pesticides, neither do any of our neighbors (except for Doug.. hes a big gardening freak except he uses pesticides) so yeah.

Also the parasites issue. I will breed them so that there are less ugly parasites.
 
sounds like you know what you are talking about. Good luck to you sir!
I have a breeding colony in a box. I've no idea what are they doing there though. May as well go and check on them now
 
stalincat said:
sounds like you know what you are talking about. Good luck to you sir!
I have a breeding colony in a box. I've no idea what are they doing there though. May as well go and check on them now
Click to expand...

I have no experience, but I've read up tons today. :p

Check on them pillbugs!
 
I would like to add on to his question could these be used as a staple feeder? I'm not sure if they're gutloadable...
 
purplebiotch said:
I would like to add on to his question could these be used as a staple feeder? I'm not sure if they're gutloadable...
Click to expand...

I read that they can make up anywhere from 30%-40% of the chameleon's diet and will eat whatever is left in the cage pretty much. Advice is to throw any veggie scraps from dinner in there, let them decompose and have the little pillbugs eat it. I also heard to throw your chameleon's shed skin in there. Gross, but it was on sandra's blog, so I'll trust it.
 
purplebiotch said:
Ok that works great I will use isopods and crickets from now on!
Click to expand...

I would also use something else as well, like the occasional pheonix worm or mealworm for variety, but other than that, just whatever else is good.

I am really starting to push for variety (because even I, myself.. am getting tired of crickets as my chameleon might be lol)
 
SaintJimmy said:
I will not be feeding him the pillbugs directly from nature, don't worry! [...] I will wait about 3 generations or more.
Click to expand...

that will take awhile, and I think its unnecessary.

Just collect your originals from somewhere as clean and far from people /industry as possible. once you get babies, remove the old ones. When big enough you can use the first generation offspring - I certainly did - no ill effects. This depletes your stock of course so unless you had ALOT you might want to restrict how many you feed off from that first generation. or do like I do - each spring I collect females full of babies, keep them in a container separate from my main colony, wait for a couple weeks after the babies emerge, remove the original wc females and dump the babies into the colony.
 
sandrachameleon said:
that will take awhile, and I think its unnecessary.

Just collect your originals from somewhere as clean and far from people /industry as possible. once you get babies, remove the old ones. When big enough you can use the first generation offspring - I certainly did - no ill effects. This depletes your stock of course so unless you had ALOT you might want to restrict how many you feed off from that first generation. or do like I do - each spring I collect females full of babies, keep them in a container separate from my main colony, wait for a couple weeks after the babies emerge, remove the original wc females and dump the babies into the colony.
Click to expand...

Oh okay! Thank you. I read somewhere to wait a couple gens.

I will use separate containers too. Thanks Sandra :)
 
purplebiotch said:
Thank you!:D:D:D

Also Sandra i know on your blog you say it shouldnt be more than 40% of a chameleons diet but could i use them as a staple feeder?
Click to expand...

Actually, I think I suggeset TIs be no more than 25% of the chams diet, unless a lot of the rest of the diet is soft bodied.

IMHO there should be no such thing as a staple feeder.
I would not use any single feeder/prey choice as much as 40% and certainly not more than that.
 
SaintJimmy said:
Oh okay! Thank you. I read somewhere to wait a couple gens.
I will use separate containers too. Thanks Sandra :)
Click to expand...

If you are ultra patient, you can wait, but I dont think it necessary. Any heavy metals in the original wild caught ones will not pass to the babies if you remove (and return to the wild) the old/original ones before they die. And you're using substrate that isnt bad so there will be no build up.
 
sandrachameleon said:
If you are ultra patient, you can wait, but I dont think it necessary. Any heavy metals in the original wild caught ones will not pass to the babies if you remove (and return to the wild) the old/original ones before they die. And you're using substrate that isnt bad so there will be no build up.
Click to expand...

I can be patient but I'd rather not!

Thanks for the advice yet again :)
 
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