Supplimenting tiny chameleons

[animallover27]

Hi! A friend of mine got me three pygmy leaf chameleons for my birthday and they are eating like little horses but I was supplementing my veiled and my panther today and realized I had no idea how to dust fruit flies or what to gut load them with. I am going to get some 1/8 inch crickets but still, that is really tiny, but at least those I can gut load with my regular cricket food. I'm curious to find out how the rest of you deal with that problem for hatchlings or other tiny chameleons.

Thanks!

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

If your pygmies are adults then fruit flies are too small for them. I use 1/4" crickets for mine and they gobble those down just fine. Here is the dusting schedule I use for pygmies: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/pygmy/

 

[animallover27]

Great - thanks! I think they are sub-adults, but basically the reptile show she got them for me at had 1/2 inch crickets and fruit flies, so I ordered some 1/4 inch crickets from Big Apple and they will be here tomorrow. I just got the chams on Sunday. Thanks for the supplement schedule! These little guys are much cuter than the big chameleons, I must say. They don't have that sort of suspicious look my panther and veiled always have!

 

[animallover27]

I'm glad to see the temperature requirements too - I'd found all sorts of different ones online and I'm going out of town on business for a few days week after next so I'd like to have the temperature perfected before then . . .

 

[sandrachameleon]

I dust fruit flies and bean beetles and other small prey without any trouble. Put a little supplement dust in a container. dump in flies. swirl, swish and shake to coat the flies. tap container on edge to dump out flies into enclosure.

gutloading fruit flies isn't easy,
but you can gutload other small prey like baby silkworms, crickets, terrestrial isopods...