Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm thinking about getting a chameleon. Out of all the overwhelming care requirements, their food is what worries me the most for now
How do you get enough crickets?
Do you culture them?

I live in El Salvador and my resources might be more (or MUCH more) limited than anyone in the US. So that worries me
...and as does the UVB bulb :-/

Well I buy 1,000 at a time from reptilefood.com. There are a number of online cricket sellers, but I'm not sure how many would ship internationally.

If you can't get them shipped to you, you can always try raising them yourself. There are a number of websites that describe how to do so, and it may wind up being cheaper in the long run, since you won't have to pay international shipping fees.

Hi,

KingSnake has international forums. here is the link for the Central/S. America one. Hopefully they can be of some help to you. Even if you found suppliers in the US the shipping and handling cost might be prohibitive for you.

Good Luck - they are very cool pets!

lele
Ctr/S. Am forum

-----
0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles (Jaida, no name)
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - (still no names)

roaches or superworms or some other local 'bugs'.
I know superworms are from Central America, I'm sure you could get a hold of some tropical roach species that would be much more suitable than crickets.
Perhaps you could get some grasshoppers, some katydids, or something else we're not thinking of up here in North America. I would suggest getting in contact with a local museum, zoo, or local insect society to see what's available in your area. Culturing crickets and roaches is as easy as feeding chicken lay mash and some powdered milk (extra calcium).
Good luck!
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

If I lived in El Salvador, I would keep my chams outside. Then you have the absolute best uvb there is. The uvb lights are just a man-made substitute that's really not nearly as good.

This will make your supplementation easier too. If you use a uvb light, you need to use a calcium supplement that has vit. D3 added to it. This might be hard to get in El Salvador also. When chams are kept outside, you can just dust the insects with calcium carbonate.

For keeping chams outside, you just need to make sure that they can thermoregulate, just like inside. So filtered sunlight is best with cooler shaded areas that they can retreat to.

Buenos suerte!
Joel Fish

available commercially. I wish we did in the USA. See if you can get those in El Salvador. They are a great food source for chams.
Send me some too!
Buena Suerte

I did think about keeping the chameleon outside, I'm sure the weather here is nice enough for one.
The problem is I got a small backyard with a lemon tree that gives enough shade for grass not to grow on the soil... I suppose that means it's not enough for a chameleon?
Go to this address to see a few pictures of my backyard:
http://www.pixelfreak.com/cham/ (very messy! :-/)
I think the third picture shows the better location, would it be ok if the chameleon was there?

About food.
Roaches, moths, katydids, crickets and grasshoppers are very easy to find, but not enough to feed them daily (they could be my variety backup).
Crickets is what they recommend the most and I think I could look into culturing them, in fact I might even get a kick out of that... although, wouldn't they be really noisy?

Hi,

That yard looks like a great potential set-up, if your camera was able to take such a clear picture, then it should be bright enough! It really doesn't need to be all direct sunlight... UVB still goes through leaves and even in the shade. As long as the temperatures are optimal, of course.

As for crickets, yes they can be noisy especially if you want to breed them, but in my humble opinion, they are extremely easy and inexpensive to breed and there is always a way of avoiding the noise, by placing the cricket container in an area where you will not hear them, especially at night when you are trying to sleep.

Also, make sure to give them PLENTY of space, especially vertically so they can't jump out. All you need is one male (they are the ones that chirp) to escape, and they instinctively know to go right under your bed and chirp ALL NIGHT LONG, non-stop... and don't try to catch the little bugger... he stops chirping the minute you move. LOL

Can you tell my husband and I have been kept awake a few nights by one escapee chirping cricket??? LMAO

But I am still convinced that they are the best feeder out there.

Julie, Justin and Frasier.