Chameleon - Diet

Diet

Chameleons generally eat insects, but larger species such as the Common Chameleon may also take other lizards and young birds. The range of diets can be seen from the following examples:

  • The Veiled Chameleon, Chamaeleo calyptratus from Arabia, is insectivorous, but eats leaves when other sources of water are not available. It can be maintained on a diet of Crickets. They can eat as many as 15-50 large crickets a day.
  • Jackson's Chameleon (Trioceros jacksonii) from Kenya and northern Tanzania eats a wide variety of small animals including ants, butterflies, caterpillars, snails, worms, lizards, geckos, amphibians and other chameleons, as well as plant material such as leaves, tender shoots, and berries. It can be maintained on a mixed diet including kale, dandelion leaves, lettuce, bananas, tomatoes, apples, crickets, and waxworms.
  • The Common Chameleon of Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, Chamaeleo chamaeleon, mainly eats wasps and mantises; such arthropods form over three quarters of its diet. Some experts advise that the Common Chameleon should not be fed exclusively on Crickets: these should make up no more than half the diet, with the rest a mixture of waxworms, earthworms, grasshoppers, flies, and plant materials such as green leaves, oats, and fruit.
  • Temperature influences the amount of food eaten.

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