Hey guys, I am not familiar with mice as feeders. Does anyone have any information on what size i can feed my chameleon and how big/old does the chameleon have to be to eat them? How would i gut load them etc? Does anyone feed their chameleon one once in a while? Thanks!
Yes, I have fed my larger chameleons mice in the past. I only feed pinkies that are up to about 3 days old. No gutload.. just mother's milk. A lot of chameleons won't take a pinky willingly. You might want to look into button quail.. they are very productive, and received much better than a pinky.
Where can you usually buy these small birds? can they eat adult ones or do they have to be recently hatched. Do they need gutload? Thanks!
I purchased my initial group as hatching eggs. You can buy a large lot of eggs from www.eggbid.com for a reasonable amount. Expect mixed results, especially now that it is winter. Out of 40 eggs, you may get 20 to hatch because of the impact shipping has on them. 20 is more than enough to start a small producing colony, though. An incubator and a rotating tray are required to hatch out birds, so there is a bit of an investment. I don't feed adults.. they are too big. So are adult mice, in my opinion. Button quail can be very productive.. the females will lay an egg every couple days. You can hold off incubating the eggs for about 10 days without too much harm. They have a short incubation time.. 16-17 days.. and hatch out like a chick, with fluff and ready to eat on its own. They are easy to gutload. They eat pretty much anything, and are about the size of a dime when they hatch. I gutload them.. why waste an opportunity to dump gutload into a chameleon? This is a controversial topic. Many believe that chameleons shouldn't eat anything except for insects. I believe it is beneficial for the animals, but you should really read up on it and decide for yourself. My animals receive a quail about once a month, and gravid/producing females get one twice a month. Heika
Interesting. How big are these Quails? And do you feed them to Veileds? I usually feed my veiled 'fuzzy mice' as opposed to pinkies. He just seems to prefer them. Plus i would think the hair on a fuzzy provides 'the fiber effect' as it does for snakes and aids in cleaning out the intestine. I usually feed mine a 'fuzzy' twice a month.
New hatchlings are only about the size of a dime. Adults are about 4", and too big to feed to chameleons. I feed quail to everything that will take them, including veileds, depending on the size of the animal and the size of the quail I have available.
