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How do you feed your chameleons?

R

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Ive got a 1.1 pair of jacksons chameleons, I think the female is gravid. Now, Ive read about what they eat: Crickets, silkworms, butterworms, ect... Yet I could not find anything on how to feed them. So Ive been hand feeding them about 3-4 1/2" crickets a day. I dont think just putting crickets in there would be such a good idea (275 gallon screen cage), or maybe it would be. I just need some help, I havent found any information on how to feed these guys.
 
For crickets I used a cheap large flower pot (the kind without holes at the bottom). The ones I have are about 12" wide and 14" deep. I put some gutload in the bottom and a piece of fruit so they can continue to gutlad until eaten then prop it in the foilage. Of coarse if you are using adults crix some may be able to get out but any that do are usually very quickly eaten by the chameleon.

For worms I just used a pie tin propped in the foilage and placed the worms in it.

Some owners do feed loose crickets in the screen cages, I have as well. The only thing is that if it is mess wire they can chew through it, it is is 1/4" they can get out and the biggest issue is if they hide in the foilage for a few days not eating they become a shell instead of a good food source.
 
Feeding chams...

I use tall deli cups to feed my chams. All of my cages have live plants in them and I either attach the cup to a branch or place it in the bottom of the cage. Any container with slick sides will work (ie. tupperware or other storage container) as long as it is tall enough to keep crickets in. If the container is clear, tape paper around the outside to keep the cham from trying to eat them through the side. Make sure that there is a branch going up to the container close enough for them to shoot the crickets w/ their tongues.

Jeremy
 
Check out some websites, but free-ranging is preferred if your cage is large enough (not recommended for smal cages where the bugs are likely to climb, and chew on, the chameleon at night), as you animal will feed more naturally, which is to say more often, than cup-feeding. Always good to put a fresh piece of vegetable (carrot, spinach leaf, frozen green-bean, etc) in the bottom of the cage nightly if free-ranging. Will reduce the likelihood of nibbles on your cham.
 
I would and do not free range feed any of my reptiles unless they are kept on gutload until eaten.

If the food item is not properly gutloaded the reptile is eating a shell and not much else as you taught me Jim.

I as the average hobby keeper would much prefer to feed well gutload insects by a cup or bucket method than to cheat my reptile of nutritional value.
 
Wendy, I never taught you that free-range feeding is to feed your chameleons "shells". It certainly presents some different challenges, but the insects do not need to have continuing availability to gutload for the system to work. The biggest problem with cup-feeding, while it certainly has advantages, is that not all chameleons take well to it. Approximately 25% take to it poorly, if at all, and 25% only moderately. In a proper free-ranging system, even without gutload available all the time, juvenile chameleons consistently grow faster. This is based on about 4000 comparative observations, give or take.
 
But we all know that they need to be gutloaded and gutload for a cricket last until they "crap it out" so if the insect is not gutloaded it it a shell.

I never had any problems with cup/bucket feeding but Ive never fed imports only CBB and 2 tamataves.
 
I do understand the logic behind a cricket only being as good as what it eats. But it does not become non-nutritious so quickly as to be a shell, and the proof is in the pudding. There's a balance to be struck, for sure, to include not putting too many crickets in at a time. One thing we do here, especially in smaller cages where free-ranging crickets can decide to "gut-load" on the sleeping chameleon, is to put a piece of carrot or spinach leaf in the bottom of the cage. Carrots are not good gutloads, but they do keep the crickets from chewing the chameleon. They may be a source of beta-carotene, a precursor to Vitamin A in many animals, but a POOR source of Vitamin A for your chameleons (sorry Rep-Cal). Chameleons need real (pre-formed) Vitamin A. I don't have the time to explain all now, but did want to dispel the beta-carotene myth with regards to chameleons. Look for a product with Vitamin A palmitate as an ingredient. It is more common in liquid vitamins.
 
If you cup feed your chameleons, you're more likely to see tongue problems. They get close, then shoot. Like lifting weights only halfway, without proper streatching and excercise, muscles don't function properly.

Hunting is also somethign that suffers. If they are allowed to hunt free ranged insects, they expend some energy, excercise their tongues, and exhibit their natural hunting behaviors - and to me, that's part of the reason I keep them, to see their behaviors.

If you throw in bugs, they're likely to eat the majority of them before their gutload is gine. If they eat a few with little or no gutload, big deal. Insects are not empty shells.

In order to keep a good balance, I hand feed and bowl feed some insects, an dthen throw in the rest for free ranging. I've never gotten bowl feeding to work for my deremensis, anyway. After they've been in captivity for a few months, they ignore the bowls.
 
Thanks for the info Eric, its nice to see how others handle feeding and what methods work best for them.

I never had any tongue problems but I bucket fed in a 260 with the branches father up from the bucket.

I can see you pint that if you cup feed close to the cham it gives them no reason to try to get the food.

Thanks for the tips!
 
Eric,
Since bowl feeding and tongue problems have been brought up, I want to throw something out for those keepers who have, or will eventually get, a chameleon that has legitimate tongue extension problems. There can be a variety of causes for this, and not all can be rectified. We often nick-name such animals as "point-blank" because they essentially have to lap up the insects. In these situations, your chameleon can have a long life eating crickets etc out of a deli-cup feeder, 16 or 32 oz. 16 oz deli's are better for the females, for every now and then one will get down in it and not get out. Most know how to hang from their back legs, but no need to risk it. Adult males have no problem with a 32 oz cup. They will hang down into the cup to the extent necessary, and eat like a dog. Superworms presented in a broader sandwich-size gladware container will often help get past this type of handicap. And as I said in an earlier post, once the crickets are 3/8" size or larger, and free-ranging, do put a pice of carrot etc in the bottom of the cage, or they may put a life-long scar on the dorsal ridgeline of your chameleon while grabbing a midnight snack. Your chameleon will sleep right through being eaten. I have seen it about 25 times, especially with smaller caging.
 
Jim, great advise!

A friend of mine suggested a slice of orange in the cage bottom over carrots for the vitamin C is one better than the other or are both OK?
 
Wendy,
Peace. As for carrots, oranges, and spinach leaves (which are cool because they are loaded with good stuff, and small, and you can throw them in a salad yourself). I have to recommend carrots or greens. I have 80 acres of oranges out my back door, and we use to use oranges as the exclusive moisture source for our crickets before we went to sponge-bottom water bottles. We were never happy with our cricket yields, and due to some anecdotal info we got from a couple of cricket breeders, switched off the oranges to the water bottles. Our cricket yields (or cricket survivability to edible size) doubled. Too much citrus makes the crickets too acidic for their own good. You do need to get some vitamin C into your chameleons, but it is in most vegetables in adequate quantities, as well as every major reptile vitamin. I can see citrus on occasion, maybe one day out of 7.
 
Thanks, I have used oranges on a larger percent than carrots in the winter, in the summer I use pears and turnip greens (pear tree in the yard, my parents have a large turnip green garden) how do you feel about pears and turnip greens vs spinach?
 
LOL. Don't ask so many questions ! Any of the greens are fine, turnip or otherwise, although crickets show a preference for collards and spinach over mustard greens, turnip greens, etc. Don't know why. I really have no experience with pears, but could speculate that they might have a more acceptable acid content than citrus. If I had the option, I would always go with vegetables before fruit with crickets.
 
WOW!! I have actually learned alot from you guys reading this thread. There is so much work with keeping chameleons but it is so fun!! I have 3 veileds I have had my oldest one for 2 years and he is still doing great I have changed my crickets diet a million times cause I keep hearing diff stuff about what to gutload them with. right now I am using this food from grubco it is supposed to be a good gutload it is like a hard crumb food ever delt with that? I also have some recipie i want to put together that has everything from babyrice to dry seakelp to monkeychow that I got off a chameleon website I think it was ever heard of that? I have even used baby chicken feed cause i heard that was good? What do you guys use as a primary diet for you crickets most of the days of the week? dragonflyreptiles I do like the way you feed your chams with the big flowering pots that is a good idea I try using deli cups but most of the crickets escape pretty quick. I do hand feed most of the time to know that they are getting some good gut loaded crickets. But most of the time they free range and I usually just leave some of that hard crumb food in the bottom of the cage for them to eat on to help keep them gutloaded.
 
There are a few recipes out there for gut load, I just found it was easier and cheaper to buy it, I use progeckos.com gutload, it has worked really well for me. When I made myown it would up costing more and was probably not as good anyway.
 
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