Varied diet?

[yojon3000]

okay so ive had my veiled cham maybe 3-4 weeks and ive only been feeding him crickets. i know im supposed to feed other food but how and what do i do.

what do i feed cause i always read "mealworms are bad" or "worms arent the best" so what could i feed thats easily available

and how. right now i feed like 8 crickets a day
so if i buy some other feeders do i feed those with the crix or random days for a varied diet?

 

[FranPhilip]

okay so ive had my veiled cham maybe 3-4 weeks and ive only been feeding him crickets. i know im supposed to feed other food but how and what do i do.

what do i feed cause i always read "mealworms are bad" or "worms arent the best" so what could i feed thats easily available

and how. right now i feed like 8 crickets a day
so if i buy some other feeders do i feed those with the crix or random days for a varied diet?

I just bought some silkworms, my chams go CRAZY for them and they arent bad for them as mealies and supers can be potentially problematic

 

[JRchameleons]

https://www.smallpetfeeders.com/presta/

Pheonix worms are high in calcium, low in fat, and are excellent feeders to use every few days for a growing cham. Silkworms, butterworms, hornworms, and roaches are also great feeders to use.

 

[sandrachameleon]

okay so ive had my veiled cham maybe 3-4 weeks and ive only been feeding him crickets. i know im supposed to feed other food but how and what do i do.

what do i feed cause i always read "mealworms are bad" or "worms arent the best" so what could i feed thats easily available

and how. right now i feed like 8 crickets a day
so if i buy some other feeders do i feed those with the crix or random days for a varied diet?

I aim to have no one feeder prey choice make up more than 20% of my chameleons diet. Mealworms are not "bad" unless your chameleon eats too many of them. They are fine to add now and then, to spice up the choices. Even better are butterworms, silkworms, roaches, stick insects, terrestrial isopods... here's a link to a list of many feeder options and info about each: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html

Yes, you can offer a few crickets plus a few of the other bugs each day, or you could rotate /randomize - example: crickets day one, alternate bug day two, a different non-cricket bug day three, back to crickets day four, yet another type of bug day five...

If you want to see what I feed my panthers, have a look at the food diary here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/food-diary/ The principle is the same young or old, but here's a direct link to a blog entry where I detail what I fed some youngsters one month: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/358-october-prey-diary-nosy-babies.html

 

[LLLReptile]

I aim to have no one feeder prey choice make up more than 20% of my chameleons diet. Mealworms are not "bad" unless your chameleon eats too many of them. They are fine to add now and then, to spice up the choices. Even better are butterworms, silkworms, roaches, stick insects, terrestrial isopods... here's a link to a list of many feeder options and info about each: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html

Yes, you can offer a few crickets plus a few of the other bugs each day, or you could rotate /randomize - example: crickets day one, alternate bug day two, a different non-cricket bug day three, back to crickets day four, yet another type of bug day five...

If you want to see what I feed my panthers, have a look at the food diary here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/food-diary/ The principle is the same young or old, but here's a direct link to a blog entry where I detail what I fed some youngsters one month: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/358-october-prey-diary-nosy-babies.html

This, this is an excellent response to that question. There are tons of options, and mealworms are just one of them. The only time they genuinely cause an issue is when an animal cannot bask at a high enough temperature to digest them properly, or when fed exclusively or too often.

Think of it like you eating steak. Steak's not bad for you, right? But if you ate nothing but steak, you'd start experiencing some problems of your own, right? Now, a chameleon's diet and our own are very different, but you get the idea.

So add some mealworms to the diet, and start looking around for places to find other types of feeders as well. There's always options if you look hard enough!

-Jen