I'm sick of crickets! the horrible smell! the annoying chirping! They escape too easily too! I need something else to feed to my veiled chameleon! What about superworms? can they be used as a staple food?
I share your hate towards crickets. They are such a pain in the butt! I am not positive about chameleons but I know that they are one of the best staples for leopard geckos.
lately i have been mixing it up for my veiled. i also hate crickets, they smell aweful! i took a small net and caught grasshoppers and he loves em, i also found a cockroach outside and i threw that into his cage too. pretty much anything i come across i throw in there, but dont feed spiders or any brightly colored insects as they may be harmful/ poisonous. i also feed him superworms when he gets bored of crickets.
I have the same idea. I have a baby chameleon and would love just to feed superworms with an occasional something else. Has anyone done this?
hey guys, I just wanted to share some pics of my cricket keeper. I don't know how you guys keep your crickets so this may be old news to you. My keeper stays outside on my patio. Three times a day I have a computer fan that flows 52CFM run for about 20 minutes. This keeps the crickets from baking in the SoCal sun and keeps fresh air flowing. I also have the fan run at midnight... but thats more of a alarm formyself, telling me I have been up too late and that I should already be in bed. I also have a 100W heat lamp that comes on during the night hours to keep the buggers warm. I can tell they are happy by how much they chirp. I have a life supply of egg crate I purchased from work. If anyone is ever interested in egg crate let me know. After it was done. The inside. I have two fans on the keeper. The fan on the lid is operational and the Side mounted one is currently not in use.
I wouldn't consider feeding superworms to your baby cham until he's much much bigger. From tip of his nose to tip of his tail, Falcor is just over 14 inches (ALREADY!!! AAAHHH!!! He's going to be a monster) and I just started feeding them to him now, though he still much prefers crickets. I would use your best judgement when it comes to supers... I think 14 inches is probably a good time to start feeding supers. Any smaller and you're risking impaction.
Feeding Superworms as a staple is a terrble idea. Not only are they harder to gut load, they are alot harder for your Cham to digest. There have been well documented cases where Veils feed primarily on superworms die with a month or so, for un-known reasons. Crickets are a pain but they are the best staple for your Cham.
Hey Golgo... could you post a link to the cases you mention? I'm really quite interested to read them.
I wonder if he could link those cases. He cant even find out if chameleons can hear. No offense.. actually yea, def link those.
Just so long as he doesn't link cases of supers eating through the cham's stomach, I would honestly be interested in reading it. Falcor only gets them as a treat, but if there are well proven cases that they shouldn't be fed, I'd definately want to read them.
i bought a insect keeper from the dollar store, if i buy medium or large crickets, they can't escape, but if i buy little ones they get out all the time, i have to keep them in my downstairs bathroom, becauswe it's the coldest room in the house, i all ways find them in the toilet,yuck,i hate them too
RE: Re: NO MORE CRICKETS!!!!! I would love to see those well documented cases too. I have kept chams for quite a while now, and have never heard of that. Summoner has the right idea with a cricket keeper. Mine are nowhere near as elaborate, but they are well ventilated and don't stink.
RE: Re: NO MORE CRICKETS!!!!! Neither does mine..My keeper is simply a larger rubbermaid bin with tall sides and about 24 holes drilled in the top for ventilation. After every batch of crickets I have I scrape out the residue on the bottom, scrub it really well and I haven't had a smell problem yet. Now the chirping... I personally like it, it reminds me of home.
Re: RE: NO MORE CRICKETS!!!!! Sorry for the late reply. Don't always remember where i post stuff. Anyhow, i read it in a book: "Care and Breeding of Chameleons". by Philippe de Vosjoli and Gary Ferguson. Great book. Just so you know you have the right one, there's a pic of a Panther Cham on the cover. I got mine from Amazon.com.
RE: Re: RE: NO MORE CRICKETS!!!!! I appreciate your reply. I just checked.. I have that book. Can you tell me what page you found that information on?
Hi.. I just read the paragraph that you referenced. The author actually mentions giant mealworms, not superworms. According to the author, "There have been scattered reports, however, of adult animals going off feed and dying after being fed a diet consisting primarily of super (giant) mealworms for a period of about 2.5 to 4 weeks." This mention was made in regards to veiled chameleons. I would be very interested in seeing a well documented case of death by mealworms. Giant mealworms are the large mealworms sold in pet stores, not superworms. There is a significant difference between the two. Giant mealworms are actually the same as regular mealworms, but they have been treated with an insect growth hormone so that they achieve greater size. The chiton on mealworms is believed to be the source of the problem. In large quantities, some believe that it can create blockages. I don't believe either one should be fed as a staple diet, but of the two, I prefer superworms. I feed all of my adult animals well gutloaded superworms about once a week. One of the really cool things about superworms is that they are really easy to gutload because they eat pretty much anything you put in front of them. The nutritional breakdown of the two: Super Worms Moisture, % 59.37 Fat, % 17.89 Protein, % 17.41 Fiber, % 6.80 Ash 1.20 Ca, ppm 124 P, ppm 2320 CA/P ratio % 0.053 Mealworms Moisture, % 62.44 Fat, % 12.72 Protein, % 20.27 Fiber, % 1.73 Ash 1.57 Ca, ppm 133 P, ppm 3345 CA/P ratio % 0.04
Interesting. At my local Petsmart where i usually buy Superworms, the clerk told me that Giant Mealworms and Superworms are one in the same. He said that the word 'Giant' is just sometimes substituted with 'Super'. I'll look into this further.
They look similar but are actually a different species all together. I found a site on it once.. i'll have to look if I can find it again.
