Fish is considered to be one of the best sources of protein in the world, but can chameleons eat fish? Chameleons lack protein all the time because their food is very light and rarely have much meat in them. Can a chameleon eat fish to make up for that loss?
Chameleons can’t eat fish. They have neither the tools nor the expertise to eat fish because they have never encountered fish in the wild. Chameleons live among trees where fish is never found, so they never developed a way to eat it. There is a way you can feed them fish indirectly though.
Chameleons are omnivores that will eat anything when presented, but fish might prove difficult unless it is small enough. Even then, it is unlikely that a chameleon would eat fish because they have no idea what it is. Let’s explore deeper into why chameleons can’t eat fish.
Why Can’t Chameleons Eat Fish?
Sometimes, omnivores don’t just eat everything they see. Not everything is truly available to them because of their natural habitats or lack of tools to eat them. Here are some of the reasons why chameleons can’t eat fish.
Lack of Availability
Chameleons usually come from high mountain forests or hot and dry deserts. These places rarely have any fish, and even if they do, they are hunted by other predators.
This makes it so that chameleons never have the chance to eat fish. Since they never had the chance to eat fish, they would have never developed the ability to eat fish like some animals as cats do.
This puts chameleons at risk of choking on bones or having difficulty chewing fish. It is always said that an animal’s original diet is the best baseline to feed them when domesticated.
Evolution
As we’ve mentioned before, chameleons never had access to fish in the wild. This coupled with the fact that they are arboreal creatures that live on trees makes it so that there was never a need to develop the ability to eat fish.
Animals only evolve to have certain capabilities if their chance of survival is threatened by not having that ability. Hence, chameleons can’t eat fish, not because of the problems with the fish itself, rather they just have never eaten fish before.
Since chameleons have never eaten fish in the wild, and have even rarely seen fish in their lifetimes, they won’t even recognize it as food when you feed it to them. It’s a shame that chameleons can’t eat fish directly.
I say directly because there is a way that you chameleon can still enjoy the many benefits of fish…
How Can My Chameleon Enjoy the Benefits of Fish?
Though chameleons can’t eat fish directly, there is a way for them to be able to enjoy the many benefits of fish. They can’t eat fish but that doesn’t mean that their live food can’t.
If you catch my drift, you’ll know what I’m about to say next. Your chameleon can enjoy the many benefits of fish by simply eating live food that has eaten fish.
Not everything will be transferred over to your chameleon, but most of it will still be intact since the live food absorbs the fish. Some live foods can eat fish directly without any problems, but some will require special care when feeding fish.
Fear not, as stores nowadays sell processed fish that can be used to gut load chameleons’ live food before feeding them. Fish flakes, crushed dried fish, and even crushed dried cat food made from fish can be used to gut load live food.
With that, your chameleon can very easily enjoy the benefits of fish.
The Benefits of Gut Loading Fish for Chameleons
Fish is a very good source of omega-3 fatty acids. These acids are essential when it comes to brain and heart health. It helps to lower blood pressure, which reduces the chance of sudden deaths due to heart attacks or strokes.
Chameleons don’t produce omega-3 with their bodies, which is why they can only be supplemented by foods. You might think that you can just feed them omega 3 tablets instead, like our supplements, but they will most likely just ignore it.
Even if you manage to find a way to cover your chameleon’s live food in omega 3 oils, it will most likely cause a mess, which then troubles your chameleon. The best way is always the natural way, as most experts put it.
Conclusion
Chameleons can’t eat fish because they have never seen or eaten them in the wild before. An animal’s diet in the wild will become the baseline when you decide what to feed when you domesticate them.
That being said, fish do have their benefits that your chameleon should enjoy though. Luckily, you can still feed fish to your chameleon’s live food, which will then transfer the benefits over to your chameleon.
