Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I found this stuff in a house plant book. It is called basella, or Ceylon Spinach. People in asia use it as a spinach substitute. Here is a nutritional analisis:
Leaves (Dry weight)
In grammes per 100g weight of food:
Water: 0 Calories: 275 Protein: 20 Fat: 3.5 Carbohydrate: 54 Fibre: 9 Ash: 19
In milligrammes per 100g weight of food:
Calcium: 3000 VitaminA: 50 Thiamine: 0.7 Riboflavin: 1.8 Niacin: 7.5 VitaminC: 1200

It seems like a good food for chaeleons or chameleon feeders. Has anyone used this before? Do you think I should grow this for my chameleon? Thanks, jrbl

Spinach binds calcium making it less available to the cham's metabolism. The spinach may have a lot in itself (it binds it), but it may not be in an available form for whatever eats the plant. But, if it is a good feeder food you would have to supply digestible calcium from other foods. Not sure about all this, but generally spinach is not a key gutload plant for this reason.

It is not really spinach, that is just its name. I dont think it is at all reated to spinach, but you can just use it for some of the same things. jrbl