Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When I first got my cham I tried feeding him worms (meal, wax, silk) but he just didn't take to them, just stared at 'em lik "eh.", but chased crickets like crazy. It's been a few months so I decided to give it another try and bought a couple wax worms and meal worms again and now he loves them.

My question is is how often should I feed him wax worms? Since they're pretty fatty, I hear. What about meal worms?

And how do you guys take care of your worms? Feeding/bedding and gutloading and things like that. I can refrigerate meal and waxes right?

Oh yeah, He's about 5-6 months old now, Veiled. I wanted to put a little more weight on him also, cuz he's a little thin. Are waxworms best for putting on some weight?

Hate to burst the bubble, but I would steer clear of both wax and mealworms. I do waxworms once in a very blue moon, and don't even touch mealworms. I do on the other hand, LOVE superworms and silkworms. Superworms seem to live forever and are very easy to keep at room temp. Next to no maintenence, and the chams love them. Just make sure you don't let them get exclusive and not offer anything else. I use supers as about 15-20 percent of the diet.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

Waxworms and mealworms are not nutricious but waxies are sometimes used to put weight on very thin chams. I feed them to my cham sparingly for variety. They are very easy to breed, waxies are a bit more time consuming. With waxworms all you have to do is place some in a container with oat flakes, I add ground chicken feed too. Add a potato or orange slice for humidity. The worms will grow and shed several times until they are adults, then they will metamorphose into beetles. Don't throw out any worms that appear dead, when they're changing they remain motionless for a few days and then you'll see they start turning into beetles. When the beetles emerge just leave them there, they will mate, lay eggs and die. Beetles do not eat or drink. After about 2 weeks you will see very tiny worms in the oat mixture. They grow rather quickly.
For waxies buy a few and place them in a container with a secure screen lid. You need a substrate they eat- get bran (all bran cereal will do great), honey and glicerin. Mix 2 cups bran with 1 cup honey and 1 tablespoon glicerin. I like to add miner-all -from sticky tongue farms- when I'm making feed for waxies meant for feeding and not breeding to make them a bit more nutrious. Cook on a double boiler until mix is pasty. Then spread on waxed paper and let it cool. The mixture should be sticky but easy to handle. Place the mixture in the container with the waxworms, this is what they eat. The worms grow very quickly and when adult spin cocoons on the top of the container. In about 2 weeks moths appear, again, moths don't eat. Leave the moths in there and they will mate and lay eggs- wait about 2 more weeks and you'll have little waxies crawling in there. Careful, they can climb all materials and squeeze out through very small holes.
Silkworms are much better for chameleons. Those you order and they come with a special silkworm chow in powdered form with instructions on how to prepare. They can be ordered from Mulberry Farms. Good luck! L*

What about wax moths? Same deal as wax worms. For some reason moths just seem more healthy and less fatty. I guess it's cuz they don't look fat and gummy!

Not too nutricious either, but chams don't seem to mind. he! I feed them too, they really like them. L*

Thanks for the info, Lisette. Another question to ask. Before Waxes spin cocoons what do they look like? Do they turn dark or what? I just got an order of 50 count, since they were really cheap because I got a bulk order of crickets (LLLReptile.com) and noticed that a few of them are alive, but a dark, gross-looking grey color and others have black spots in them (they appear to be underneath their flesh) while others are white and healthy looking. Does this mean their bad or "infected" with something? Or are they just getting old and about to change into moths? They are pretty long, about 1" - 1 1/4" . Should I toss them?