Can Chameleons Eat Hornworms? Debunking the Myths!

Hornworms are common feeder insects. But can chameleons eat hornworms too? Let’s find out.

Trying to figure out what kinds of insects to feed your pet chameleon? If you’re planning to get a chameleon, you might want to arrange for feeder insects in advance, as they eat up as many as 15 insects a day.

You might be wondering about hornworms, given that they are among the most popular feeder insects. Well, chameleons do eat hornworms but wait till your chameleon is at least at a juvenile stage.

Hornworms don’t provide chameleons with enough nutrition when they are babies, and they might be somewhat dangerous too.

What Are Hornworms?

Hornworms are a part of the moth caterpillar family, which means they pupate midway through their life cycle and turn into moths.

Easily differentiated from other caterpillars by the horn on their abdomen, they can grow up to 4 inches and are one of the largest immature insects in the world.

Are Hornworms Poisonous?

Hornworms found in the wild can be poisonous because they consume and store toxins from plants that they eat, such as tomatoes and tobacco.

However, when raised commercially as feeder insects, they’re perfectly safe for your pet to eat.

It is easy to differentiate toxic hornworms from non-toxic ones: if there are no toxins in their body, hornworms are blue. Due to the yellow substance produced by toxins, their color becomes green.

Are Hornworms Good For Chameleons?

Although hornworms aren’t the right food for baby chameleons, they’re an excellent source of nutrition for the juvenile and adult ones.

Well-fed hornworms are among the most nutritious insects and offer ample water content. Let’s get a look at the nutritional value offered by hornworms.

Protein

The body of a hornworm has around 9% protein by weight. While this is a significant percentage of protein, chameleons require about 30-50% protein if they are carnivores and 18-22% protein if they are herbivores. So there are better protein sources for your chameleon.

In the wild, chameleons feed on mealworms, wax moth larvae, and crickets, and these are better sources of protein.

While you can still feed them as an occasional snack to your chameleon, hornworms aren’t a suitable diet for baby chameleons because they need even more protein to support growth.

Fats

Fat is an essential part of the diet of cold-blooded animals like chameleons, as they need it to insulate their body and keep themselves warm.

Each hornworm contains about 3.07% fat, which is low. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, as being overweight can put female chameleons at a major health risk.

Calcium

Hornworms are one of the best sources of calcium for your chameleon. Offering 46.4 mg calcium per 100 g by weight, these worms have the highest calcium content among the commonly used feeder insects.

To help put it into perspective, here’s a comparison of the calcium content offered by different feeder insects per 100 grams:

• Butterworms: 42.9mg
• Silkworms: 34 mg
• Crickets: 14 mg
• Waxworms: 13.14mg
• Superworms: 10.8mg
• Mealworms: 3.28mg

Apart from needing calcium to keep their bones strong, chameleons also lose a lot of calcium while shedding their skin. This is why you may notice your panther chameleon eating its old skin after shedding it – to replenish calcium quickly.

Moisture

The most important part of a hornworm’s nutritional content is the amount of moisture it offers. About 85% of a hornworm’s body comprises water, which makes this feeder perfect for chameleons’ moisture needs.

Chameleons are primarily tropical animals (though some chameleon species, like the veiled chameleons, are found in temperate zones). They are accustomed to high humidity and absorb moisture from the air.

When keeping chameleons at home, you must provide them with a diet rich in moisture to prevent them from dehydrating.

What Are The Drawbacks?

Of course, pretty much every feeder insect has certain downsides, and hornworms are no exception. If you’re planning to feed your pet chameleon hornworms, keep the following drawbacks in mind:

• Toxicity: Both tomato hornworms and tobacco hornworms feed on plants from the nightshade family unless raised domestically with a controlled diet. They absorb toxins from these plants. This can make them poisonous to your chameleon.
• Low protein content: Hornworms don’t offer enough protein for chameleons, especially baby chameleons.
• Diarrhea: Due to the high moisture content of hornworms, your chameleon might suffer from diarrhea if it eats too many of these pests.
• Hornworms bite: Although hornworm bites aren’t painful to humans, they can hurt small animals like chameleons. You should be especially careful when feeding hornworms to young chameleons.

Where Can I Get Hornworms?

Hornworms are quite common at any pet supply store. You can check with your nearby stores if they stock hornworms or simply purchase them online.

Don’t pick hornworms from the wild unless you’ll be using them strictly for breeding purposes, as they can potentially be toxic for your pet.

Most pet supply stores and online sellers sell hornworms in various sizes. It’s best to buy these worms in the smallest available size, as they grow exceptionally fast. In case you purchase large hornworms, you might not get enough time to feed them to your chameleon.

Hornworm Size For Chameleons

When feeding your pet, it’s particularly important to pay attention to the size of the feeder insects. For instance, bearded dragons often have trouble eating big insects and can potentially choke.

However, you won’t face such issues with adult chameleons. The soft body of a chameleon allows it to eat large feeder insects without any issues.

Even if a hornworm is bigger than the space between your chameleon’s eyes (the normal thumb rule for reptiles), it won’t pose a challenge. For juvenile chameleons, you might want to stick to smaller hornworms to be on the safe side.

How Many Hornworms Should I Feed?

Figuring out the right number of insects to feed your chameleon is crucial. Underfeeding can lead to various diseases while overfeeding can cause obesity. The exact number of hornworms that you should feed your chameleon depends on its age and life stage.

Baby chameleons

Baby chameleons have a huge appetite, and you need to feed them regularly – about two to three times a day. During this stage of your chameleon’s life cycle, you should feed it as much as it can eat.

A baby chameleon can eat about 12 to 15 insects every day.

However, hornworms aren’t the right species of feeder insects to feed a baby chameleon. Although your pet can eat a lot at this stage, it mostly needs protein for growth.

The protein content of a hornworm isn’t enough to cater to the nutritional requirements of a baby chameleon. It’s best to feed your baby chameleon with insects that are richer in protein.

Juvenile chameleons

As the chameleons grow about six months old, you can start feeding them hornworms. However, juvenile chameleons still need protein, and hornworms alone won’t suffice.

Apart from hornworms, you’ll have to provide them with protein-rich insects like crickets and roaches. You should bear in mind that their appetite begins to slow down in the juvenile stage.

It’s normal for them to eat less than they used to as babies. You need to feed a juvenile chameleon about 1-2 hornworms, only once a day.

Adult chameleons

Once a chameleon is over a year old, it matures into adulthood. Its appetite drops drastically, and you need to feed it only six full-grown insects every two days. If you wish to feed it daily, don’t give it more than 3-4 hornworms a day.

How To Feed Hornworms To Chameleons?

Wondering whether feeding hornworms to your pet chameleon is going to be hard or messy? Don’t worry; hornworms are easy to use as feeder insects.

You can simply pick up the worms and feed them to your pet by hand. If you don’t feel very comfortable holding the worms, you can use a pair of feeding tongs instead.

If your chameleon is shy or uncomfortable with being hand fed, you can place the worms on a leaf and drop them somewhere within its field of vision. The chameleon will hunt and eat the hornworms by itself as soon as it sees them.

How Often To Feed Hornworms To Chameleons?

Don’t feed your chameleons hornworms too often, as it might cause them an upset stomach. Although the moisture offered by hornworms is crucial to keep the reptiles hydrated, too much water can result in diarrhea or bloating.

Chameleons also hate a monotonous diet and may go on a hunger strike if you keep feeding them hornworms. If you’re feeding an adult chameleon, a couple of hornworms every two days, along with other insects, should be fine.

The Benefits of Gut Loading Hornworms

Feeding your pets with gut-loaded hornworms will help cover their nutrition needs more efficiently. For readers who are unaware of what gut-loading is, it’s the process of feeding live pet food, such as hornworms, with nutrients they lack to improve their nutritional content.

You can feed your hornworms high protein foods to fill up their gastrointestinal tract before you feed them to your pet. This way, you can provide your chameleon with a protein-heavy meal through hornworms.

Can Chameleons Eat Wild Hornworms?

The hornworms in your vegetable garden look like a nice source of free pet food, right? Well, not really. While you can easily find these pests in nature, it’s unsafe to feed your pet wild hornworms.

Both tomato and tobacco hornworms are harmless to chameleons, but only until they feed on something that can make them poisonous.

Hence, feeding your pet chameleon wild hornworms would be a rather bad idea as you never know what those worms may have eaten so far.

Can Chameleons Eat Dead Hornworms?

Unlike some other reptiles commonly kept as pets, chameleons will eat dead hornworms too. However, you should remember that the nutritional value of dead hornworms is much lower than live ones, especially if they have dried up.

Also, in case the hornworm has died from disease, eating it might make your pet fall sick and lead to many complications. It is best not to feed your chameleon a dead worm.

Other Worms That Chameleons Can Eat?

Chameleons are opportunistic eaters and eat almost any worm or insect. This is indeed a good thing, for it allows you to ensure a varied diet for your pet without much hassle. Two of the most common feeder worms for chameleons besides hornworms are:

Superworms

These nutritious worms have a high amount of protein, alongside plenty of minerals and vitamins. This allows superworms to supplement the low protein content provided by hornworms. Feeding your chameleon a combination of hornworms and super worms is a good idea to ensure a balanced diet.

Silkworms

Pet owners trying to ensure a particularly healthy diet for their chameleons may consider feeding them silkworms, as they offer plenty of protein, iron, calcium, and vitamin Bs. Besides being highly nutritious, silkworms also have a low-fat content.

Frequently asked questions

Can chameleons choke on hornworms?

The chances of a chameleon choking on a hornworm are rather low. These reptiles have a soft exoskeleton and a flexible structure that allows them to tackle larger insects. Still, you should be a little careful when feeding big hornworms to young chameleons.

Can hornworms bite chameleons?

Yes, hornworms can bite baby chameleons. Although a hornworm’s bite isn’t painful to humans and merely causes discomfort, it can be a bit painful for a baby chameleon. This is another reason why feeding hornworms to baby chameleons is a bad idea.

What is chameleons’ favorite food?

Insects like flies, grasshoppers, and crickets are a chameleon’s favorite food in the wild. You can even give your chameleon a roach or a cricket once in a while as a treat. However, chameleons also love the other common feeder insects.

Wrapping up

I hope this has answered all the questions you had about feeding your chameleon hornworms. You can always give your chameleon a tasty treat of tomato hornworms – just make sure that you buy them from a reliable source and that you give them as supplements, not as the main diet.