Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just reading the post about other food items and the idea that Chameleons (and any other types reptiles, for that matter) may become bored of some repetitivley offered food items. It makes sense, just thinking about eating the exact meal with the exact supplementation day after day. I have been keeping herps all of my life, yet but by no means am I an expert. I was just entertaining the idea of other food items, such as pinkies, feeder mice, hornworms, butterworms, silkworms ect. I never see these offered at the local petshop, so I never have done much research. I have even heard that Tums calcium is a good source of alternate calcium and other nutrient. "If it ain't broke, dont fix it" may seem to be my case, but I was just seeing if anyone has any good ideas. Thanks!

All those insects can be great for chams. You have to look around, but you can get them from several online suppliers, not your normal pet shop. Carolina Biological Supply (supplies for schools) has quite a few insects you can start colonies from. The mid sized roaches and large cultured houseflies are good feeders too. Pink mice are not all that great. It's not a natural prey for chams, and even if your cham is large enough to eat them they are fatty, calcium deficient if they are hairless, and a huge meal to process. Some keepers of melleri and parsoni have offered their chams nestling birds as they can be a good source of zinc. I know one parsoni keeper whose big male would shoot hummingbirds out of the air if they got in the greenhouse.

There is a great little book written by the old Chameleon Information Network (CIN) called Thoughts for Food that describes how to culture and feed many types of insects. Kammerflage Kreations may sell it. Well worth it!

Years ago when I had my Parsons I used to occasionally give them sub-adult zebra finches (or whatever you call young fiches that can fly but aren't quite full grown.). I would wait until one of the chain-type pet stores was running a sale on them usually $7-$10 and get some. They took them like candy, it was kind of freaky to watch. I know that these are hard to get this time of year for most people but if you can find a pesticide free place to collect grasshoppers they are an excellent alternative food source as are moths and butterflies.

A variety of insects does (IMHO) make for a healthier, happier chameleon.

Most decent petstores that sell insect eating lizards are going to have multiple types of feeder insects for sale. Certainly all the pet stores I frequent have, at the very least: butterworms, mealworms, kingworms, crickets, and waxworms. The better places also have silkworms and hornworms.

All of these are also easy to get on-line. Bait shops will often have these too. Same with phoenix worms (soldier fly maggots) - though I dont like those.

Silkworms are pretty easy to raise from eggs. Mealworms and kingworms are easy to raise yourself starting from with just a handful. Wood sows are also easy to raise (get some wild caught that are pregnant to start your colony). Roaches are easy to care for and are easy to gut load - but not always easy to get (depends on the laws of your country, province or state (consider going onto an insect forum and finding a local breeder). My chams love roaches. Stick insects are an even bigger favourite for my chameleons, and they are also very easy to raise.

Grasshoppers are good if you can catch in a safe, pesticide free area and if you remove the hind jumping legs before feeding to your lizard. Caggage worms and some moths are also good - but always be careful about what they were have been eating or could have come into contact with. Some chameleons will even eat earth worms (but usually not red wigglers).
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Sandra
BC Canada

Finally someone else calls them what they are. I've seen the larvae in my mulch pit where I dump my shavings from my rodents for years. I about died laughing when I saw them pop up at reptile shows being called "Phoenix worms". If people knew why they were called soldier flies they really wouldn't use them. I won't use them or the adults and I use lots of bugs that scare a lot other people.