Audit your feeder shelf. If hornworms are in regular rotation, scale back to twice weekly starting Sunday.
Hornworms are a treat, not a staple feeder.
High moisture, high palatability, low calcium. Two a week is plenty; daily hornworms produce a soft, watery animal who refuses crickets.
Tomato hornworms (raised on hornworm chow, not actual tomato) are nutrient-thin compared to dubia or crickets but extremely tempting. A chameleon offered hornworms daily will quickly stop accepting normal feeders. The result is a hydration-heavy, calcium-poor diet and the kind of stool a vet flags immediately.
Use hornworms as a once-or-twice-weekly treat — most useful for animals coming out of a fast, post-vet recovery, or a gravid female who needs the moisture. Always dust. Never offer more than two adult-sized worms in a single sitting; their water content is enough to throw the day's hydration plan off.
DSQUARED Reptiles — Living Art. Curated Genetics.
From the field notes archive.
The morning baseline photograph.
A single weekly photo, taken at the same hour and angle, will tell you more about your care than any forum thread ever could.
Tightening screen tension on a year-old cage.
After twelve months of misting cycles and live plant weight, screen panels sag in ways that quietly compromise climbing surfaces.
A 72-hour gutload window for dubia roaches.
Dubia gutloads peak somewhere between 48 and 72 hours after the colony moves onto a fresh diet. Here's the schedule we run.