Authored by Karen Stockman of The Daily Chameleon
Feeding Chameleons a Beginners Guide
Courtesy of The Chameleon Farm
Properly feeding and supplementing chameleons can be challenging and confusing. Between offering a good variety of insect feeders and properly supplementing, it is easy to take shortcuts or miss a crucial component. Unfortunately this can lead to health issues and even death for your chameleon. Chameleons are insectivores—their diet is mainly insects. Unlike other insect-eating species, chameleons rarely eat insects that are not alive. This means caring for prey items is part of keeping chameleons. It also means that all those easy-to-buy cans of dried insects
Definition of Terms
Gut load
This is the food that the feeders (insects) eat before being fed to the chameleons. The nutrition is passed from the insect to the chameleon. Good gut loading items are: healthy greens, veggies such as squash, yams, carrots, etc., as well as a variety of grains and ingredients such as bee pollen, flax-seed, and almonds.
Supplements
Because chameleons in captivity are kept in different conditions than in the wild, they need to have additional nutrients included in their diet. These include calcium
What Chameleons Eat
In the wild chameleons have a much greater variety of insects to eat and those have access to a large variety of fresh vegetation. In captivity they only get what we provide. In most cases that is mass-produced crickets and mealworms.
Mealworms are not food feeders for chameleons, but often people use them, as they tend to be inexpensive and last for quite a while.
Courtesy of The Chameleon Farm
Chameleons need a much larger variety than crickets and mealworms but many people either don’t realize that or can’t find a good variety. Just like people, chameleons need a healthy and balanced diet. Many people talk about a staple feeder–one that makes up the main diet, with a few other insects offered occasionally. While it is easy to rely on one feeder, it is better to feed as much variety as possible and offer at least three to four different feeder insects on a regular basis, if not more.
Dubia roaches
Dubia roaches and super worms are very easy to breed and are quiet and much less smelly than crickets! Silkworms are a bit trickier to raise but it is amazing to watch their life cycle and they are excellent feeders for chameleons, both the worms and moths!
Courtesy of The Chameleon Farm
To offer even more variety, I am currently attempting to raise snails as feeders. Yes, chameleons can eat snails, shell and all, and they love them!
What about the bugs in my backyard?
It can also be fun to go out and catch wild insects for variety. Obviously it is important to be aware of what insects are safe and which are toxic. And yes, insects found outdoors may be exposed to pesticides.
It is likely pesticides would kill them before you caught them but to be safer you should avoid treated areas.You can keep them for a day or so before feeding and gut load them with healthy veggies before feeding them to your chameleon. If they remain alive they are likely safe.
Courtesy of The Chameleon Farm
Many people think that feeding wild caught insects will give chameleons parasites. Yes, they can carry parasites. So can the crickets and other feeder insects raised commercially. Crickets are often raised and kept in dirty conditions. Parasites, mold and disease can result and lead to unhealthy crickets which can transmit parasites or disease to anything that eats them.
Personally, I find the benefits of wild caught insects to be greater than the risks. They are naturally gut loaded and a feast for a chameleon in captivity.
Unlike iguanas and bearded dragons, chameleons rarely eat greens or veggies. Veiled chameleons (C. calyptratus) are known to enjoy greens and fruits but often other species will eat them as well. In addition to greens and shredded veggies, blueberries, bananas and strawberries are popular treats. Occasionally a chameleon may eat leaves on plants in their cage or free range. It is important to use only non-toxic plants for this reason.
There is much debate about feeding vertebrates such as pinkie mice. It’s not a good idea due to the high protein and fat content. For some of the larger species of chameleons it would be okay as a very rare option but most chameleons don’t need them and too many may cause more problems than any benefits received. For anyone who wants to feed vertebrates, again, for larger chameleon species, better options are small lizards and tiny hatchling birds. These are things chameleons will find and eat occasionally in the wild. The key here is occasionally, not daily or even weekly but as a rare treat.
Feeding the Feeders
As mentioned above, the insects fed to chameleons need to be “gut loaded” as this nutrition is passed to the chameleons. It is not a good idea to take the pet or reptile stores word that they are gut loaded. At best, most stores throw in some potato or carrots and that just is not enough. Also, most store-bought gels meant for feeding crickets provide very little, if any, nutrition.
Offering a variety of fresh greens such mustard greens, dandelion greens and others, as well as squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, and other fruits is the healthiest choice. (Fruits tend to mold quickly so be careful to remove any uneaten fruit daily.)
There are a variety of commercial dry gutload that are full of healthy ingredients. Cricket Crack
Potatoes and lettuce are not good to use – they provide no nutrition. Meats and dog or cat food should also be avoided due to the high protein–it’s better to just provide more nutritious greens and veggies.
These greens and veggies provide enough moisture so that water and/or water gels or crystals do not need to be used.
Supplements
Courtesy of The Chameleon Farm
Proper supplementation can be baffling but it is not that complicated. Part of the problem is that there are many products and some are better than others. They often contain many different ingredients in differing amounts so it is important to read the label and understand what you are using. Just as people need calcium for strong bones, so do chameleons. Feeders should be dusted with plain calcium on a fairly regular basis. Some people say daily, some people say every other day; either will work in most cases. It is important to remember, young chameleons and females producing eggs need more calcium than adult males.
One of the problems people often have in supplementing is that most calcium available contains D3. While chameleons do need D3, they do not need it daily and if given too frequently it can lead to toxicity and cause a variety of issues, including death if not corrected. D3 about twice a month is plenty, and not needed at all if the chameleon spends a lot of time outside in natural sunlight.
Chameleons also need vitamins. Again, these come in a powder that is dusted on the feeders about twice a month. Too many vitamins can be just as bad as too little so it is important to be aware of what is in the various powders you are dusting with and not overuse them. It’s important to remember that supplements are just that, a supplement and should not be used in place of a quality diet and proper gut loading.
Fortunately, the importance of reptile nutrition is becoming better understood and many people are researching and sharing the effects of proper, and improper, nutrition on chameleon health, behavior, reproduction and lifespan. This has resulted in a great deal of readily available information on everything from making your own gut loads to raising a large variety of insects. While it may seem that caring for “dinner” is as much work as caring for your chameleon, you will have a healthier pet in the long run by providing the best possible diet.