Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am beginning the process of creating a terrarium for a chameleon. I once had a veiled chameleon ( a long time ago ) and now I'm interested in the Panther Chameleon. I have purchased a large aluminum screened enclosure..I have gathered info on live vegetation, basking lamps, misting systems, nutrition. My greatest challenge is nutrition. I'm getting mixed messages about what to feed them. I love the idea of feeding live food for hunting skills, but the variety isn't there. I live in Northern, Ontario, Canada. I'm guessing that winter months will be my greatest challenge. Other than gut-loaded crickets and meal-worms....what other suggestions may be given to me to create a variety-diet for my chameleon (which I don't yet have btw) Are you aware of any Ontario, Canada food distributors?

Dubia roaches are a good feeder and you can start your own colony. Silkworms, tomato hornworms, dull colored moths, cultured houseflies are all feeders you can use. Check out kingsnake's Canadian ads to see if there are any suppliers you could use.

Not all of us can get a huge variety of feeders. But, if you gutload your feeders carefully that may be more important in the long run.

In addition to what carlton already mentioned you may be able to get stick insects more readily than we can here in the U.S. a lot of chameleons love them. I once got an oustellets from a guy who fed stick insects to his chameleons quite a bit I had a hard time getting it weaned onto other insects as it seemed to prefer the phasmids over other feeders. Considering that they are parthenogenic and potentially invasive here in fl (not to mention illegal.) I opted away from the phasmids. Being in Northern Canada you may not have such problems. I would also suggest taking advantage of the diversity of any moths, butterflies (monarchs aren't good but most others are quite fine.)and grasshoppers you can get now this will go along way towards helping through the long winter. I faced the same problem when I lived in the Adirondacks in Northern N.Y.. Oddly enough there is a greater diversity of insects there that are useful for feeders than there are in Fl. where I live now. It is much easier to get insects year round here however.