Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After reading my last post, I decided to pick up a pinky at the local pet store. But I am not sure and I am just wondering if it is worth it to give to him. I also wanted to mention that he just got off some meds of baytril for a respiratory infection....could health play a part in how he responds to it? Would the extra nutrients help, or would they hurt?

As soon as my veiled is big enough, i will be feeding it pinks (and that's not too far off).

read your cham. if it's overall health/behavior seems to decline, don't feed it pinks. otherwise, wild chams eat whole animals, mostly smaller reptiles rather than mammals, but whole animals all the same.

of course, i may be wrong and despite being successfull with my cham(raised her from a hatcling/neonate and is doing great), there are far more experienced keepers on this forum.

provide the choice for the chameleon to get as hot and as cool as it likes and i think you should be fine.

I am not an expert either but your cham should be fine eating a pinky. The two major things to be aware of like was said in the earlier post is; Size, if it is big enough to handle a pink, and two; if the cham has the right temps to digest as it will me a little more work for the cham than crickets or roaches. I think that it is a rule of thumb whith any reptile that you should offer more of smaller prey when they are sick. It is harder on the body to digest a larger item.

Will and I chat sometimes, and had a conversation regarding CBC and WC chams. The just that I got from it was....

Wild chams are used to a variety of foods from the beginning of their life. Because of this, they are able to process the different types of bacteria, proteins etc that come with those food sources.

Captive breed chams on the other hand, are used to the staple diet provided by crixs, worms and perhaps vegitation. These foods usually present without those pathogens that "wild prey" harbor. With your cham coming off of an illness, it makes me cring to think what would happen.

Why are you considering this food type? Captive chams can easily be satisfied (and grow well) with the above mentioned "staples". Is your cham skinny? Does it not eat the other foods provided?

I guess, because of my bad luck, I just want to state my opinion.
Yes, it could have been a coincidence that Pudge became ill after the Pinky. Why did I feed it? Probably because I believed someone else. She was fine with the other food.

I am sure that there has been plenty of success with this type of feeding regimin. My philosophy...don't fix it if it ain't broken. I know that I am not an "expert", but experiences tend to embed!

Good Luck

Kris

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2.1 Black Labs Tucker, Raider and Lacey
1.0 Lepoard Gecko Kumar (Another lost pet RIP and party on with Harold!)
2.0 Horses Smoothie and Rocky
1.0 Husbands (he puts up with me)
1.2 Kids-Trevor (congrats c/o 2006), Logan and Rylie
1.1 Ferrets Tank and Ellie (The fun fuzzies)
1.1 Veiled Chams Squiggy and Pudge (may she RIP)
0.1 Snowflake Cornsnake Lucky

Yeah, he didn't even eat it. I guess thats good, seeing as I was worried about it. He just stared at it, and at first was looking to take a go at it, but then once he investigated it a little more, realized it wasn't a meal. I guess it worked out for the better. Has this happend to Anyone else?

yea that is a good point, and exactly my philosophy: if it aint broke, dont fix it

but i hate keeping crickets and if the pinky's go over well and the cham's health does not suffer, i will only feed him pinks.

i already have her eating frozen/thawed crix in a feeder cup (i keep the crix in a freezer in ice cube trays which makes them last longer, i dont have to take care of them, and they dont stink.

(individually frozen pinks are, well, already individually forzen and i gues we will see how the chame does)

as soon as i get a camera i want to post some pics of her

I never feed my chameleons pinkies. I doubt very much that a chameleon would come across a pinkie in the wild. I know that we can't feed chameleons the same thing that they eat in the wild, but we should at least try to find things in the same categories that they would eat in the wild or at least be able to digest.

It was suggested to me to feed a sick Parson's chameleon some pinkies to cut down on how long it took to hand feed him insects. After a week or so of feeding him some crickets alternating with a pinkie...he threw up the whole lot. The crickets were well on the way to be digested but the pinkies hadn't even been touched.

This site gives another of the reasons why I don't feed them pinkies...
http://www.mythicalchameleons.com/vetcases.htm
"Gout is not uncommon in chameleons that are fed pinky mice on a constant basis or crickets that have been gut loaded solely with high protein foods like cat or dog food."

Here are some other comments on feeding pinkies to your chameleon (part of which I agree with, and part of I'm not sure about)...
http://www.[url ban].com/forums/archive/index.php/t-12522.html
"Mice are rarely a part of a chameleons natural diet. They are very high in protein (which may contribute to edema and/or organ dysfunction). They require specific enzymes to digest properly that chameleons do not have. Mammal bones are more difficult to digest than those of birds (larger species - such as Parson's can be fed finch hatchlings). Mice also may have natural flora in their gut that may cause intestinal problems in your cham."

"I've never fed pinkies to my chams. I see no reason to do it - and several reasons not to. A wide variety of insects is more natural. Strive for 4-5 kinds of bugs."

"If you insist on feeding pinkies - I wouldn't do it more than once a month."

Just my two cents worth...

grrr looks like i may not be givin him many pinks after all

You think crickets smell bad, wait til the chameleon starts crapping digested meat.....
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

What humane thing should I do with this pinky?

It will die in a couple days. You can wack it hard enough for an instant kill, or you can give it to a snake owner that might have small snakes. Although they will probably wack it and then freeze it for a later feed.

My job title is essentially "Rat Wacker"... the things I do for money.
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CANADIAN SILKWORMS

Hahahhahaa, today I cleaned out the tank of a 30" Cay Caulker Boa and pick out its poop after a meal of 3 mice. This poop was bigger than a poop from a german sherperd canine. Craziest animal poop I had ever seen from a small snake.

Then again... think about those poor souls that that keep african rock pythons (28' length), and what they have to clean up.
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CANADIAN SILKWORMS