Cham food- Free roaming or in open containers?

[Piraya1]

What does everyone do..

At the minute I'm feeding waxworms from a small dish(which I don't think he touches...), dusted with calcium supplement. Brown crickets in a large glass jar dusted too.

I used to have the crickets free roaming but he rarely eats and they just became so much hassle.

My Last cham was a great feeder and pigged out whenever she seen any food, but this fella's taking the mickey. He's been eating like this since mid decemer when I got him. He's still eating something anyway, as I clean out the odd bit of poo.
He's always been a moody grumpy cham though...

[Raywillard]

yeah i know what you mean i did have the same problem. Free roaming crixs are just a menace so i have them in a jar too. I have a feeding platform where i have the wax worms and various chopped veg. my locust are free roaming since they are not borrowers they then to be quite high up. I also have a veg patch where you'll sometimes fing locust hanging around eating the veg or he will help himself to the veg time to time.

[geo123]

ill be useing tubs to start of with till my chams are adults just so i no there eating well

[CHAMMY]

i sometimes use tubs but he manages to get them himself free roaming.

1 veiled cham

[BELIAL]

all bar a couple are hand fed rather than the other two techniques. the two pairs that are not hand fed (they are too small) are given free roaming crickets. they will be hand fed when they grow. takes time but the benefits are HUGE!

[Mitch]

Hi
All the chameleon sites say not to over feed with waxworms due to a high fat content.
My chams have them now and again for a change and love them to bits. I like to let them change into moths. My chams go nuts for them.
I use deep tubs when feeding my chams. U will always get some escapes though. Shouldnt do any harm to let the odd items free roam. Its a bit of a change for them. Some extra stimulation wont do any harm unless they lay eggs!!
I like to crush the heads of any meal worms before feeding to my chams. They tend to eat them and regurgitate if I dont.
Take care

[daddycool]

I am still new to this, and my yemens are still ickle babies (I've had them for 13 days !! woohoo) and we try to use all the above methods....
We have hand fed some crix and locusts to them, but the insects are so small that it is real hard to do, so we also hold a cup of crix up to the cham and they eat from it, sometimes perched on a finger to do so (so they get used to us), and then leave the cup (actually 3-4 cups each with a 5-6 crix) in alternating places around the viv, below branches, changing locations to keep them from getting complacent, and we let some tiny locusts out into the viv to free roam....we let them out at the top, and obviously they get to the bottom, where we leave food for them and also for the crix that escape

I am concerned though at the number of crix i noticed have escaped to the bottom....so i cut down the number in the pots yesterday to try and encourage them to the floor to purge the escapees....is this the best way, and will these escaped crix become a problem....i saw about 8 of them (all the locusts are gone though!!) or should i try to catch the escaped crix?? worried about what they could do to the chams??

[Raywillard]

Well escape crix can be a problem, they are little bitting monsters. I had a few escaped once and just before i went to bed i saw how two of them took a locust apart. They have great big nashers and try sticking your finger in one, it stings i tell you. I have heard that sometimes they can bite chams but they have to find them first. Mine has a sleeping area which is one of these plastic bush things and nothing finds him in there since its suspended from the roof of its enclosure.
I have a deep plastic tub and i try to find one legged crix to put in there, they cant jump straight up with one leg missing so they end up jumping and hitting the sides.

[Rob Lane]

I agree with Belial. If you can hand feed you have a lot more control over what they eat and how much.

I use the cricket feeder in the link below which works well with silent and black crickets. Bandeds jump a bit too much.

Image map


One day I might just get the site updated, LOL.

regards

Rob

[Piraya1]

They are a total menace inside a viv and outside. I'm still trying to kill a load that are in my sitting room under the skirting board near the radiator the last 2 months...Dirty egg laying little shits.