Pinky Mice?

[finchsesuster]

Alright, I'm new to this. I haven't brought my chameleon home yet, as I am still researching. I just saw a few sites that said veiled chameleons like to eat pinky mice....but that was it - no details.

So what? Do they? Should they? How often? And is this in addition to crickets or instead of?

Thanks in advance for your time and expertise

 

[JonathanF]

Ususally pinkie mice are given to bigger species or adult males so you dont have to worry about giving one to a potential right away. Ive been keeping chams for a few years now and none of them have ever eaten one.

I guess if he would eat one, he wouldnt need to eat for at least two days. Ive read that its good to give them pinkies but not all the time.

 

[neil nosy be]

Hi

As jonathanF stated pinky mice are given to larger species(ie. panther,veiled,parsonii etc)I feed my large male panther chams once a week with these in addition to there usual food ie. crickets.I also have a colony of common geckos which i also feed once a week. Pinky mice are packed full of nutricion, i just hold the pinky by the tail wiggle it about and zap,the gecko's i let run loose

Neil

 

[JonathanF]

Hi

As jonathanF stated pinky mice are given to larger species(ie. panther,veiled,parsonii etc)I feed my large male panther chams once a week with these in addition to there usual food ie. crickets.I also have a colony of common geckos which i also feed once a week. Pinky mice are packed full of nutricion, i just hold the pinky by the tail wiggle it about and zap,the gecko's i let run loose

Neil

Common geckos heh? Thats a good idea, Im always looking to buy other lizards for my cham to eat. At first I thought of something like those little anolis but I can never find anything that isnt WC and full of diseases.

Was it hard to start a gecko colony? or expensive? If you can PM me and tell me more I would really appreciate it.

 

[finchsesuster]

Thanks for the info on the pinkie mice. I appreciate it.

What I 'd like to know now is, how do you feed your chams? Do you hold the crickets for him or let him hunt them in his cage?

I've seen both methods and read about both, but I'm not sure which is best. Also, I assume the older chams would be the ones to hunt their own food instead of being fed, right?

 

[JonathanF]

When they are babies i would sometimes place all the bugs in a feeding dish(deep enough so they cant escape) I did this to make sure my little guy ate and that the criquets werent just hiding about.

I think you should use the free range idea, letting the bugs loose and let the chameleon hunt them, its more natural and better exercise...

The hand feeding is really just to impress you friends

 

[finchsesuster]

Well neat! That's great to know. Thanks.