Reptile & Amphibian Forums

With my recent snake additions, I have had plenty of frozen mice and rats around here. I had thawed out a fuzzy mouse the other day that the snake it was meant for didn't eat, so I offered it to my leopard geckos. They took it quickly and 2 of them actually fought over it a bit. I tried the same thing with the big male panthers, and had the same result. The males that normally will eat anything from my fingers took it without hesitation. It wasn't moving (thawed out) but they shot it from my fingers and swallowed it like any other meal. This was pretty interesting to me, since all I had tried before was live mice with my chameleons and leopard geckos.

I don't normally feed mice to the chameleons, but I'm a firm believer that a few times a year is good for them. Compare it to snakes or other reptiles that don't require UV-B. Eating/digesting bones and hair in their prey eliminates the need for UV-B, and the other contents a mouse would have further broaden the range of nutrients a chameleon is getting (when compared to a diet of strictly insects).

I have been able to get a few panthers to eat greens (collareds, red leaf lettuce, pothos leaves, etc) regularly also by offering it to them by hand. I don't spend a great deal of time hand feeding, as with the numbers of chameleons I feed daily it gets time consuming, but several of them have learned to trust what I'm offering them by hand, and eat it no matter what it is. They'll sit on the plant all day, but once I pull off a leaf some of them will take it from my hand no problem. I'm curious if anyone else has done the same things, and noticed this also.

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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

hello tyler,my female vieled is the same way your discribing she will eat anything from my hands. she will agressively approch me when i enter the cage. Even when i have nothing in my hand she will try to aim at it anyway!! As for the mice i feed my female a thawed frozen pinkie before she lays eggs and after to boost her calcium,fat and protien,etc she has never refused them even though they dont move hope you had a great holiday
kevin
chameleon76

Tyler,

My male panther chameleon, Cobalt, has taken one live pinkie I purchased from a show, and occasionally I'll see him munching on his ficus plant. That's about it though, he doesn't LOVE vegi's, he'll just eat them when he thinks no one is looking!
Hey, I also saw you in this months release of Reptiles holding Thor! Congrats!

Michele