I have had my 1.2 pygmy chameleons for just over a month now and they seem to be doing well, but I am having a little bit of a difficulty feeding them. I have been feeding them 1/8 and 1/4 inch crickets and the occasional roach nymph. My problem is that it seems like in the terrarium, the crickets have way too many places to hide. I know that I have read often that a few crickets can be left in the enclosure and that the brevs will "shake" them off, but I end up putting too many crickets in because I feel like they can't find enough to eat. I also worry that after awhile of being in the enclosure the crickets are losing their nutritional value from gut-loading, so I have been putting a dish with a little gutload and some greens in the corner of the enclosure, but this is also a bit of a pain because it has to be removed before each misting and replaced so that it doesn't get wet. After the mistings I feel like I just washed all of the supplement dust right off the crickets that were hiding (of which there are quite a few apparently.. they seem to come out as I am misting)

Sigh. Should I try a feeder cup? I am not really a big fan of cup feeding. I think that the exercise of hunting helps the cham physically and definitely gives them something to do. Any hints? Am I over-thinking it? (which I tend to do..)

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I understand your concern and I had the same issues/concerns too.

Here is what I would do …

First remove all the crickets out of the tank with some 8” tweezers or something like that.

Wait three days before feeding them again. Just recently I have decided to feed three times a week instead of every other day – my females in the F1 group are cows and I worry about them not being hungry when I feed them and being that big just isn’t natural IMO.

So the new schedule is Mon/Wed/Sat but I may be flexible with that and may just feed every three days or so ... the pygmies will tell you when they are hungry … they are basically opportunists but will sometimes actively hunt – so be observant … it’s some of the best advice that can be given in this hobby I think. They will perch themselves facing down towards the substrate and wait for a feeder to cross their path. Don’t feel bad letting them wait for food for a few days – remember that in that time hydration is much more important then food and you want the pygmies to be hungry when feeding out well gut loaded prey items.

I will usually put in 4-5 crickets for each pygmy and if you feel that some crickets are not getting eaten then check at night when the crickets will surely come out – and remove them. If you are really concerned about the nutritional benefits being lost with feeders not getting eaten then removing them that night will solve that problem. Yes it’s a pain but when I find myself complaining about some of the chores I have to deal with in this hobby I quickly give myself a kick in ass, cowboy up and remind myself of how important it is NOT to be half-ass about anything with my critters.

Hopefully Heika and some others will give their point of view on this as well.

-roo

__________________
"Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed." -Oscar Wilde

Chime chime..

I feed every other day still, except for neonates, who get fed every day. I am trying to cut back on the feedings as well. My crix are gutloaded overnight with different gutload, and overfeeding kinda defeats the purpose because the crix eat poo and all sorts of nasties when they are in the tank. I have now cut back my feedings to approximately 4 crix per cham, and I only see them floating around the tanks now and again. Honestly, I don't worry a whole heck of a lot about dusting. I do it.. but I have cut back on that, too. My brevs are under UVB light and all food is gutloaded with really nutritious stuff. I worry more about overdoing it than underdoing it. So, my dusting schedule and type has really changed too. Everyone seems to be doing well with it so far, but I just recently cut back on the number of feeders per chameleon.

Heika

__________________
There is nothing "Nancy"ish about chameleons.. they are ubernifty.

I am far from a pygmy expert; I've had mine for 8 months now. At the moment, mine are fed two or three crickets every other day. I dust with plain calcium every feeding, and Herptivite and calcium w/D3 twice a month. They are under UVB, but they have so much cover (gotta prune those creeping figs!) that I don't know how much benefit they get from it.

Hi
I'm new with these little chameleons and I just bought a pair at a ny show today and they ate as soon as I arrived home. I but them in a planted 10 gallon high tank and in less then half an hour the male started to breed with the female.

I need to find a few more female so the male wont stress her out.

wow, Davy, you must have some kind of mood lighting on your tank! Congrats on your new pygmies; are they brevicaudata? Obviously they're adults; are they cb or wc?

Davy,

I went to that show and those pygmies looked a bit rough – so make sure they are getting well hydrated. I hope you got the same species for the M/F too since I saw three different species there. If you can, please post some pics. If the male tried breeding with the female then they are most likely the same species but no guarantees.

-roo

__________________
"Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed." -Oscar Wilde

Maybe, who knows.
Thank you jleahl, yep they are brevicaudata.
The male is CB and the female is WC but the person who I bought her from had her for over 5 months and she looked nice and healthy. She is nice and big and the male is small.

Thanks again.

Can you PM me?

Are they the same ones? Who had them?
I got them home and they drunk a lot of water ate and looked good, nice eyes fat and walking around. I was there in there when the doors open and bought them by 11:30 or so. I didn't stay to long, bought my supply and feeders and was out by 12:30. I would love to talk over the phone about these little guys if you have the time. Do you have a female or 1.3 to sell?