Reptile & Amphibian Forums

theres lots of pill bugs in my lawn right now. we fertilize but dont use pestcides.

would it be safe to feed the pillbugs to my panther?

I wouldn't feed them to them just because i don't know if the chameleon would eat them and the fertilizers might be harmful. What you can do is put some in your cage though. They are great decomposers and will eat all the dead plant material and animals feces. If your looking to feed your chameleon something different turn on your lights at night. At least at my house i get a whole ton of moths around them and go out and collect them in the mourning. My gecko's love them(i don't keep chameleons) but i wouldn't feed them to your cham if you have any knowledge of pesdicides being used anywhere in your are. You can also feed grasshoppers. Both of these food items are great alternitives to crickets, and i feed my geckos on them exculsivly during the summer months.
Matt

What fertilizers do you use? If the fertilizers are from more natural composted matter rather than concentrated chemicals that also contain weed killers you could collect the pillbugs and feed them in a tank for a few days to clear out their gut...probably OK. I don't like leaving insects loose in my cham cages to eat fecal matter. If my cham happens to have undiagnosed infections or parasites (and most chams do have a few at any one time) the pillbugs can ingest them, the cham eats the pillbug and just cycles the parasites. Also bacteria breeding in the feces could overwhelm a cham's immune system if its stress level changes for some reason.

I would just not put the pill bugs in. They live under rocks and old trees and are the types of insects chameleons would never eat. I don't think it would do any harm having them just in the cage because they hide and never come out in the open where the chameleon could get at them but I think it would be best to keep them out of the cage.

i wouldn't feed them because of the fertilizer...even if they were possibly ok i don't think it's worth the risk...leaving a porch light on will attract all kinds of bugs...just stay away from the bugs with "warning" colors (black and orange) or threatning markings (see lele, i'm learning, city boy pfffft!)...i've been using daddy long legs and he loves them...when the sun first starts hitting the fence in the morning they like to sit on it and warm up...any questions about what wild insect to feed just post and the couple of bug experts here will love to answer

...just stay away from the bugs with "warning" colors (black and orange) or threatning markings (see lele, i'm learning, city boy pfffft!)...i've been using daddy long legs and he loves them...when the sun first starts hitting the fence in the morning they like to sit on it and warm up...any questions about what wild insect to feed just post and the couple of bug experts here will love to answer
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

I agree with most of the comments here. Even if the fertilizer does not contain weed killer many are created from totally synthetic material. As was also pointed out pill bugs are not what a cham would come upon in the wild but I know there was a thread further down on culturing pillbugs (didn't read so can't comment).

Pillbugs, snails, slugs, worms are all decompoers and eat detritus (decomposing plant and animal material) so they can build up toxins. You can "clean them out" first but personally don't think it is worth the time or risk (just my opinion)

As for collecting at lights be sure you know WHAT it is that you are feeding. Warning colors, spiny legs, chemical defenses. For instance on the latter I have lots of caddisfly adults flying around but they release an odor when threatened. I do not know if this would hurt my cham but it is not worth the risk. One easy way to check this is to catch it in a jar and after a minute or so open the lid and see if there is any smll - if so, don't feed it.

I would advise that if you are unsure about an insect ask here first

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

thanks everyone for the comments, im gonna pass on feeding off pillbugs