I did a thorough search on the Internet regarding food intake of Panther Chameleons (all types). Everywhere I looked, they seem to have directed me that they are exclusively insectivores.
Knowing that, I tried to see if they were wrong by trying to feed my Nosy Be Panther some bananas and oranges. Not to my surprise, he didnt even look at them. When offered an insect, he had no problem eating it.
That was then.
Recently, I tried again to pursuade (if you actually can LOL) my Panther to eat a slice of orange.. At first he looked at it, came a bit closer, licked it to see if it was ingestable, and took the biggest bite I have ever seen (almost nailed my finger in the process). I proceeded to give him more and more... SO then I altered fruits.. Banana, mango, and even a grape were all instant hits with him.
TO this day, he gets a good dose of his weekly fruits along with his crickets and worms.
The moral of the story is that Panthers will eat fruits (and sometimes veggies) if offered. Remember that it will take MANY tried to get them to eat them. Once they recognize the fruit, they will love it forever!
Fruits are an amazing source of vitamins and nutrients that any cham will need!
I hope some of you panther owners do start to add fruits to your chams diet.
Vlad.
