feeding???????????????

[goincrzy]

This may sound dumb to some but i have to ask, i used to have a veiled chameleon yrs ago. Well i used to mainly keep it on a cricket diet, to make a long story short i had (george) for about 3yrs or so. Awesome reptile very friendly and just awesome to watch. He had gotten an infection in his eye (it blew up) took him to the vet and yeah that was a joke cause mainly the vets here really only know about cats and dogs. I did my best to save him but ultimatly he ended up passing away... So as im think and vistiing the reptile shows again i was thinking about getting another one. Now there were many time with george i would wake up in the middle of the night cause of the crickets he didnt eat yet making noise... So i wa thinking on getting another chameleon but instead of giving him crickets at all i would just feed him meal worm and superworm as his main diet. Now before years ago i was told that was a bad thing cause of the high fat from the worms but is there any truth to this or can i just let him live on worms?? Mainly i cant stand the sound of a cricket anymore even if its outside it drives me nuts!! never was a problem till i was up at 2-3am murdering crickets so i could get some sleep....

Well if anyone can let me know about this id really appericate it cause i would really like to get another one.. But if i have to wait till i get a house with a basement then so be it... I cant stand crickets anymore!
Thanks!

[reptoman]

A better option than supers or meal worms is dubia roaches. They dont make any noise, dont stink like adult crickets, and breed quickly. The adults cannot climb smooth surfaces and the males cannot fly even though they have wings. They are also very easy to gutload before feeding off. If you get another cham you should try those. Let me know if you need any other information on these. I have had a nice colony going for about a year now and it has saved me a ton of money.
FYI - Besides high fat, another reason that supers and meal worms are not good staple feeders is the amount of chitin due to their tough exoskeleton. Overfeeding these can lead to impaction. They are also not as nutritous as crickets, roaches, or grasshoppers. There is some nutritional info at the link:

http://chamownersweb.net/insects/nutritional_values.htm