Can Jackson's Chameleons Eat Springtails?

Can a Jackson's Chameleon Eat Springtails?

Not as food — a springtail is far too small to register as a meal for a jackson's chameleon. But they belong in the enclosure, and that is the more useful answer.

Springtails are tiny soil arthropods, named for the furcula — a forked appendage folded under the abdomen that snaps down to fling the animal away from danger. That is the spring, and it is why a disturbed culture looks like it is popping.

What Springtails Actually Do

Springtails eat decomposing organic matter, mould and fungus. In a bioactive enclosure — one with live plants and a living substrate rather than paper towel — that makes them the maintenance crew.

• They eat mould before it establishes, which is the single most common problem in a humid enclosure
• They break down waste and shed skin in the substrate
• They keep the soil alive, which is what makes a bioactive setup work at all
• They are harmless — they do not bite, do not damage plants, and do not bother the animal

They are usually run alongside isopods, which handle the coarser material springtails cannot. The pair is the standard bioactive cleanup crew.

Getting a Culture Going

Seed the substrate and leave them alone. They need moisture — a substrate that dries out completely will lose the colony — and they feed on what the enclosure produces. A population takes a few weeks to build to the point where you notice it doing anything.

Will a Jackson's Chameleon Eat Them Anyway?

Some individuals will snap at one if they notice it moving. That is fine and does no harm — it simply is not nutrition at any meaningful scale. Nothing about a springtail population needs managing around the animal's feeding.

More in the springtail collection.

Feeding is one part of it. The rest is in the chameleon enclosure setup guide.