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RE: alternative feeder insects

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Posted by: Calparsoni at Thu Feb 18 09:50:38 2010  [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Calparsoni ]  
   

It's probably not a viable option for you right now but one of the best feeder insects out there for chameleons is grasshoppers. You will want to get them from a pesticide free area and if you live in Fl. as I do you will want to avoid S.E. lubber grasshoppers as they are highly toxic. If you know of someone who raises stick insects those work as well just check up on what species you are using as once the common species here in Fl. is pretty toxic (it throws off a substance from its tail that has been known to blind people.). I do have a friend however who breeds panthers and outstelletts. He raises his own feeder insects and he uses several different types of stick insects for feeders among other things. I have also had excellent luck with butterflies and moths. Obviously monarchs aren't a good idea but I have used just about every species of swallowtail I can find (except one particularly rare type I find here in fl.-unsure of the taxonomy of it but I don't see it often so I leave it alone.), I have used the cabbage moths as well as the yellow sulphur wing ones (whatever the species is I'm not sure ...I'm not a lepidopterist.) I have not used the zebra longwings you find here in Fl. because I know the larvae feed on passiflora vines which are toxic, however I have utilized Gulf fritillaries for years with no problem and I recently found out they utilize passiflora vines as well. I am worse with moth taxonomy than I am with butterfly taxonomy but when I lived in upstate N.Y. I used every type of moth I could find and never had a problem with them. Here in Fl there is not as much moth diversity as there is in the northeast but I still use a few moths when I find them. There is a type of moth here whose larvae feed on Oleander plants and I am pretty sure the adults are one of the hummingbird type moths (like I said not a moth taxonomist) so I have avoided them entirely. There is another type of moth here that has a large amount of pink on its wings (warning color.). I once saw a documentary on fl insects and they show a spider actually trowing one of these moths out of it's web due to how distasteful they are. I figure anything so bad that a spider won't eat it is not worth the bother for chameleons so I leave them alone. I mention them however as they are one the more common moths you find here.


   

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