Weird eye and ants???? :-/

[michaelwl]

Fred is doing really great in his new environment and looks pretty happy! Just a few q's?

Yesterdat after we fed him he started to rub his eye on a branch, but the eye he was rubbing looked so weird and bulged. I took him out to inspect but then it was in its original state so a guessed it's just something he does when he scratching his eye???

Are ants a hazard in his enclosure? I bought some "reptile friendly" insecticide but that didn't bother the ants too much.

Any body got any comments on reptile friendly insecticides? It says on the bottle made from natural oils, biodegradeable and reptile friendly.

We also got Fred some meal worms (the guy at the pet store and someone else has told us that u need to break off their heads before feeding them to the chameleon) but then they stop moving and Fred doesn't go for it. We managed to give him one by feeding him the decapitated meal worm with crickets... Any ideas?

Fred is a male Juvenile +- 8month old Flap neck

 

[Tygerr]

They often rub their eyes to clean them. This happens most often during watering/misting. The eye bulges out, and they do a kind of blinking too.
As long as it goes back to normal, and there isn't any swelling or sign of infection, it should be ok.

As for the insecticide: if it's biodegradable and reptile-friendly, then chances are it's not really potent enough to do anything about ants, particularly in the long-term.
And the more harmful insecticides are not a good idea around your chameleon (not good around pets in general), so you have to go for more low-tech solutions (like the feet of the cage in water, etc.).
There was a thread on here a couple of months back where they discussed this problem at length - do a search for it (if I find it again myself, I'll come back here to post a link).

There are some false stories out there about mealworms being able to chew through the chameleon's stomach, and that's why people suggest taking the head off. Provided the chameleon is large enough (and I think he should be at 7 months), and provided he has enough basking time for good digestion, I don't think mealworms should pose your cham any problems. Feeding them live and intact should be fine.

 

[Jordan]

Mealworms are not great feeders but are good for throwing a little variety.

I have switched to something a little different. The mealworms are so cheap around here, if I could only get them to gut load better, sometime later I found this link. Now I do not know if you would want to try this with a smaller chameleon but a good size (at 8 months that should be good) one should have no real problem.
www.chameleonnews.com/year2003/oct2003/mealworms/mealworms.html
I am no insect expert so I had reservation of feeding beetles to my chameleon. Mainly based on the hard, big shelled ones we have around my area. These did not turn out like that and are great feeder.

 

[Tygerr]

I tried the darkling beetles after reading that article too: my cham ate one or two, and has refused them ever since.
He really is a fussy eater.

The mealworms themselves on the other hand, he gobbles up in seconds. But as you said Jordan - hard to gutload, so I stick to crickets mainly.

Waiting for a shipment of roaches to try something different...