Please help my cham ate a wasp!

[carol5208]

That is an awesome Cham by the way in the picture but its a no go on the spiders for me. I could not even look at one without freaking out. I guess if he got one while I had him outside now I know it would be ok, but the thought of capturing one and feeding it to mine.....spiders just scare the crap out of me.

 

[Bokaru]

Wow! Thats a pretty big wolf. I would be afraid of it throwing a defensive bite while your chameleon was reeling it in or starting to eat it. I don't feed my chameleon spiders for that reason, but I have seen where a lot of people do feed chams spiders with no ramifications. Bet they're pretty tasty.

Jannb was talking about one of their chameleons eating a big bumble bee. It could have been a male carpenter bee. The cool thing about them is they have no stinger! I have actually fed one to my Senegal, but decided to avoid any further bee meals and recommend avoiding it since it may desensitize your chameleon to bees. And I know around my house at least, I have way too many types of bees for my Peppers to decide they they all look good.

(Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_carpenter_bee)
(http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/carpenter-bees)

 

[Bokaru]

About eating the wasps, it must be something they do normally in nature. Otherwise natural selection would have selected against such behavior. In other words the rate of survival must be quite high.

I would imagine that many species of chameleons have built up an immunity to most stings and bites. Mine stays away from brightly colored butterflies and wasps. He will refuse to eat wasps even if I present them by hand (with the stinger clipped) and anything in my hand is almost immediately gone when it comes to feeding. He even tried to pull a nail out of from between my fingers when I was working on a part of the cage once.

Im very glad about the butterflies though. I figure a monarch would be pretty dangerous, and if he keeps clear of wasps, that's just one less worry for me.

Back to back posting... whoops

 

[Chameleon Company]

Wow! Thats a pretty big wolf. I would be afraid of it throwing a defensive bite while your chameleon was reeling it in or starting to eat it. I don't feed my chameleon spiders for that reason, but I have seen where a lot of people do feed chams spiders with no ramifications. Bet they're pretty tasty.

Jannb was talking about one of their chameleons eating a big bumble bee. It could have been a male carpenter bee. The cool thing about them is they have no stinger! I have actually fed one to my Senegal, but decided to avoid any further bee meals and recommend avoiding it since it may desensitize your chameleon to bees. And I know around my house at least, I have way too many types of bees for my Peppers to decide they they all look good.

(Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_carpenter_bee)
(http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/carpenter-bees)

LOL .. in good humor. I have probably fed 30-40 of the biggest wolf spiders to prime sires before. As I said, just a few days ago, I fed a big female to my nicest Nosy Faly sire. I have seen chameleons eat many lesser spiders with gusto !

We are fortunate that as reptiles go, chameleons are smart. Ladybugs are an interesting study. The scoop seems to be that they will cause some indigestion with chameleons, and as brightly colored bugs, are avoided. As most of us keep our chams in screen cages, I have seen a cham show enormous interest in a lady bug when on the outside of the screen, such that the cham only saw the basic buggy underbelly. But then, when able to view it from above, said "nope".

They never cease to amaze