The Puffer Forum

My Chinese Water Dragon loved waxed worms. I was told to only feed them as treats because of the high fat content. His staple diet was large meal worms, black worms (fishing worms!) and FROZEN pinkies. I tried over and over to get him to take feeder fish, but he didn't like them. I raise him from 9" to just under three feet, I had him almost four years. We were moving furniture around (to make room for my discus tank) and someone brushed up against the cage. He escaped last September. You should see the expression on peoples faces when you tell them "um, if you see a 3 foot green lizard, please let us know". Especially our guests who come and spend the night. We have a cat door going out to the garage. He must have felt the fresh air coming from it, went through it and ended up under my pool deck. He didn't make the winter, we found him last week, perfectly preserved, but gone. I felt horrible...I did raise him from a baby, and he was hand trained .

I knnow this is a fairly old post but I was wondering about this:
"chrysalis" = a stage in the metamorphosis of an insect where it is in a hard case and does not move. The transition state between the worm-like mealworm and the beetle stage.

Would it be ok to feed a GSP the beetle version? What does a mealworm turn into anyways?

Mine loves mealworms but only gets 2 of them every 3 days, only twice so far since I haven't had him very long :p Is this ok, not enough, too much?

I'm looking everywhere for pond snails but can't find any, been to 3 stores so far and off to another tomorrow, an Asian Koi shop so maybe I'll have some luck there.
He's eating krill in the meantime and so far I've given him 2 stomatella snails from my reef tank...

I'd probably do it only once a week, plus on special occasions. Mealworms have lots of soft innards but bettles very little, I'd be worried about constipation with the beetle becasue the chiten in the beetle shell is harder and more plentiful than that in the worm.

Mealworms are much too fatty imo to be fed to puffers on a regular basis.

OK Thanks, I'll cut down on the mealworms, is 2 worms a week ok?
I just needed some variety until I can get a source of snails. He loves the stomatellas but I only have so many and since I've taken out 2 from my tank the rest are hiding!

I'd say 2 a week is ok, but only if he's full grown or nearly so. If he's a little tike, keep it to one.

I finally got him measured by comparing to a tape measure, he's 2.5", is that considered a little tike?

They usually grow to 3" or so, so thats a nearly mature fellow

Nick wrote:They usually grow to 3" or so, so thats a nearly mature fellow

I think he said he had a GSP, so its probably quite young actually.

Yes he's a GSP, so I guess 3" is not his full size huh?
by the way, I'm a "she" weez ( Louise ) is a nickname I got from my nieces