Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am wondering if there are large flightless or wingless fly cultures (house fly size). I have some of the real small ones. I have made a fly trap that works, but I was thinking it would be an easier target if the flies could not fly. I need to get my chameleon to eat on his own. I have been force/hand feeding my chameleon. My first chameleon died because it never started eating and I did not want the same to happen to this one. All I have to do to feed him is to touch his mouth after he opens up just put the cricket in his mouth. How many crickets can a chameleon eat in a day for a 5 month old?

Mark

Also I was wonder what the number stands for before the animals people have listing in the signatures?

I have heard that there are flightless house flies. I am not positive however because I have not been able to find them anywhere on the internet last I checked. Good luck finding them. If you are only feeding him flies, you might want to try some crickets. They are available almost anywhere and are easy to gut load. Roaches and silkworms are even better if you only have one cham to feed. If your chameleon isn't eating on his own, it is because of stress. Try not to handle him, and let him settle in; they are display animals and not meant to be held; like fish. The number before the animal is the amount of them they have. The number before the period is male and after is female. So if I was to say I have 1.2 panther chameleons, it means 1 male and 2 females. Sometiumes you will see 2 periods, such as 1.2.3 chamelens. That means 1 male, 2 female and 3 with the sex unknown.

Ank-Inc.
Adam.

I have found a little bit more information on them. There are flightless houseflies. They are called TER flies. They are engineered by a scientist in Europe form what I understand. One of my friends is working out the details on importing them from Germany, but they don't live too long, so getting them into the states alive is the trick. They are going to be quite expensive, but if you are interested, email me at: jodi.w@netzero.com. I have a feeling that this isn;t what you had in mind however. If I were you, I would just stick wit crickets, roaches, silkworms and superworms, and feed houseflies, butterworms and other insects as treats.

Ank-Inc.
Adam.

is this the same cham with the back leg problem you mentioned earlier? What was your reason for force feeding in the first place? This was the breeder who was not able to tell you sex, age, etc., right? I have to wonder if he gave you good husbandry advice. If you list your cage setup here we can do a bit of troubleshooting to see if he is getting all he needs (basking temps, gutloaded feeders, supplementation, humidity, water intake)
There are setup questions are on the link below you may find helpful.
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she is on the loose!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

It is not really force feeding. He opens his mouth and I just put the cricket in, I do not force his mouth open. I have crickets loose in the cage. But I think the cage it just to large and the crickets can hide. So I now have a cup with some crickets without back legs crawling around the cup. He is stalking them as I type, slowly moving closer to the cup.

But the reason I was/am doing it was to keep him alive. Yes this is the same chameleon with the back leg thing. Which now he is way better. I lost one chameleon because she did not eat, and I was not going to loose this one too. I got them from different people.

I think if I get another chameleon I will get a male veiled. I do have another nice cage that needs a tenant. I also will be letting go my 2 baby alligators I caught in about a month or less. So I will be down 2 pets.

the cup feeding is better so he doesn't get used to being hand fed and gets lazy about shooting his own food.

Before you get another you might want to figure out what the problem was with your last one and why this one does not seem to be eating and has that back leg issue. How is your setup? Temps, etc.?

The only thing I can add about the limited back leg use is that Luna did the same thing when she developed MBD. Not saying this is what your guy has, but taking a look at your supplementation, etc. might be worthwhile. Just my opinion

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she is on the loose!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet