Roaches

[Kaylaaabrown]

How do you know when you Cham is ready for a roach? I found these medium roaches but I'm not sure if they are too big for her to handle. She's gotten bigger but still a baby.

Any thoughts? I did my best to include some photos to help decide if they are okay to feed.

 

[NERVOUS]

I think as long as the food item is smaller (in width) than the distance between your Chameleon's eyes it's safe to feed.

NOTE: You should wait for someone with expertise to chime in and validate what I've said above.

Good luck!

 

[ChamDE86]

The rule of thumb is no wider than the width between your chameleons eyes. That rule can be slightly stretched with soft bodied feeders such as hornworms, silkworms, etc. I'm not sure what I am looking at, but are those roaches alive?

 

[Kaylaaabrown]

Yes they are alive. Rule of thumb for length or width? They are pretty small but so is she. I'd say the Majority of them are slightly longer than the distance between her eyes.

 

[MSMorgan]

How do you know when you Cham is ready for a roach? I found these medium roaches but I'm not sure if they are too big for her to handle. She's gotten bigger but still a baby.

Any thoughts? I did my best to include some photos to help decide if they are okay to feed.

Kayla, Nervous is on the right track. The food item you want to feed (length) should roughly be the distance as measured between you cham's eyes. If bigger, they could get stuck in his/her throat causing all sorts of nasty complications. No harm in going a little smaller, but if they're roughly the correct size, then give it a shot to see if he'll eat em. Let us know how it goes.

 

[JGuinan007]

I think they are Petco Spotted roaches (really Dubia roaches) medium 24 count they should be gut loaded with fresh veggies like mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion leaves, collard greens, escarole lettuce, papaya, watercress and alfalfa. I would also throw in a little water soaked sea sponge to keep the roaches hydrated in the store they probly haven't gotten water at the store. Your looks like it could eat small dubias I would pick out the smallest one and see how your cham does with that 1st have tweezers on hand to pull the roach out if your Cham is having issues getting it down. My Doughnut eats large dubias all the time and they are a bit larger not by much than the space between her eyes. The only time she had an issue was with a full grown adult with wings I had to use tweezers to try to rip it out of her mouth, Doughnut would not let it go and ripped the roach into peices that went down easy.

 

[repdog]

For a baby cham small roaches are the better way to go. But yes the width of the eyes is rule of thumb. I breed roaches and the babies are what I feed to my baby cham. Yes before feeding the roaches they should be gut loaded.

 

[MSMorgan]

1st have tweezers on hand to pull the roach out if your Cham is having issues getting it down. My Doughnut eats large dubias all the time and they are a bit larger not by much than the space between her eyes. The only time she had an issue was with a full grown adult with wings I had to use tweezers to try to rip it out of her mouth

Tweezers? It's much easier to just ensure that the nymphs (smaller roaches) are the appropriate size. No one wants to possibly injure their cham. with an instrument,plus, I would think the cham. would be fearful of the tongs/tweezers in the future.

 

[alphakenc]

Tweezers sounds like some dental work.
Yall find that hairy roach leg yet

 

[firehawk0285]

Like everyone has said. Length of space between the eyes. Go with smalls. Discountdubias.com has them super cheap