Wild grasshoppers??

[Goggles]

With summer coming I'm wondering if it is safe to feed my veiled cham wild grasshoppers.
I have an acre with a little less than half of it being garden. I use no pesticides on the lawn or garden, so I'm really just worried about parasites.
With one scoop of a pond net I could get 20 small hoppers. Still gonna do the crix but I'm trying for some variety.

Terry

 

[Chameleonboy]

I don't think it will be to safe. Mabe you can breed the wild ones and feed off their babies.

-Clemonde

 

[Goggles]

I was thinking if I caught them early in summer and feed them for awhile..
Cool weather here might slow down parasites in spring??

Terry

 

[sandrachameleon]

Every summer, I use wild caught grasshoppers, collected on a fallow hay field that's part of an organic farm. I am confident these grasshoppers dont come into contact with pesticides (at least no more than storebought vegetables that I feed to bugs in the winter do).

I have only once recently had any chameleon get a parasite. It is just as likely, especially given the timing, that the worms in that case came in with store bought crickets.

There is risk with using wild caught insects. I feel the benefits outweight the risks for me. Only you can determine if this is right for you and your chameleon.

 

[Goggles]

Thanks Sandra.
Just wanted to vary his diet a little and have an abundance of these available.
Also get a pile of hookworms every summer but never had a use for them.
They demolished my tomatoes
Terry

 

[sandrachameleon]

Thanks Sandra.
Just wanted to vary his diet a little and have an abundance of these available.
Also get a pile of hookworms every summer but never had a use for them.
They demolished my tomatoes
Terry

Dont use anything that has munched your tomatoes. Tomatoe leaves are toxic for chameleons.

 

[Goggles]

What do members feed their hookworms? I thought they only ate tomato leaves?

Terry

 

[sandrachameleon]

Wild ones eat tomatoe leaves. Those sold as feeders are fed an alternate source of food, some kind of chow similar to what silkworms get.