wild insects

[wendymileon]

I was wondering if anybody may know if it is okay to feed wild insects to your chameleon? I live in southeast Texas and right now we have june bugs which are like beetles also fireflys ect.

 

[zoedefelice]

I live in Florida and if your from here you know about the love bugs, does anyone think it would be safe feed them to a cham? and Wendy, ive heard as long as you dont feed them too many winged insects they should be okay, im sure you could look for a more specific list online.

 

[Stanly]

Well first make sure the insect is safe (not poisonous), I know fireflies are deadly to bearded dragons so unless you have other info I would assume they might be for chameleons as well (best to err on the side off caution), I'm not sure about june bugs but they have a pretty hard exoskeleton and I seem to recall hearing there is something about them that is a deterrent to most predators (I think it's something about their taste)

Grass hoppers and what we call locust in texas (the ones that leave their empty exoskeletons behind on trees) are good feeders, just make sure they are from a pesticide free area (might be best to keep them a day or two to gut load and be sure they're pesticide free)

 

[Stanly]

I live in Florida and if your from here you know about the love bugs, does anyone think it would be safe feed them to a cham? and Wendy, ive heard as long as you dont feed them too many winged insects they should be okay, im sure you could look for a more specific list online.

Well I'm not sure about love bugs I know hardly nothing eats them so I'm guessing there's a reason, that's another I wouldn't risk.

As for winged insects I've never hear that, in fact being a tree dwelling lizard it's fairly safe to assume a larger percentage of what they eat in the wild is winged insects (along with spiders and other climbing creepy crawlers), again it's important to make sure it's not poisonous, but chameleons seem to love flying insects, as for how often you should feed them I would say it depends on how nutritious they are and how well they can be gut loaded.

I also hear most love spiders, tho even more care should be taken here to make sure that 1) it's not a highly poisonous kind (like black widows or brown recluse) and 2) that it's the appropriate size and doesn't pose a physical threat (remember most spiders are predators and even some of the none poisonous ones can inflict a nasty bite)