Is this okay?

yojon3000

Member
okay so i was just chillen on facebook ;P
when a gnat kindof thing landed on my screen i tried scaring it away with the cursor but they dont move -_- so i just blow on it to fly off then i went to my chams cage to get out two dead crickets :rolleyes: and i noticed the gnat got in he cage he noticed it within a second and i was like"noooo" and blowing on it and wham he ate it i just didnt want him to eat something wild cause idk parasites? :eek: well is it okay if he ate that? :confused:
 
It will probably be okay. There's a difference between deliberately feeding them lots of wild caught insects and them occasionally catching one on their own.

Keep an eye on him, just in case, but I wouldn't worry overly.
 
personally, i would think the dead cricks pose a larger risk than the gnat. why do you have dead cricks in your cage? do they not have water?, werent they gutloaded ? even without food, as long as they have water, cricks can live a lot longer in a cage than they are supposed to be there.

regardless, i dont think a single wild feeder is a big issue, especially something like a gnat (unlike bottle flies which are attracted to sewage and carnage).
even if there was some transmission issue, its not like its going to cause an overnight massive infestation, and its a good idea to do a fecal on your chams at least every 12-24 mths anyway.
i think it wouldnt become a serious issue, unless you used an ongoing supply of infected feeders (live or wild) and of course the variety of the parasite in question would be a huge factor.

we all aspire to have 100% clean chams, but the reality is many are not. how well they deal with it depends on several factors; i think the biggest of which would be the general health of the host animal and the type and loading of the infecting parasite.

this is where husbandry plays a huge roll. many chams live long term with some parasitic load, but no major ill effects. while others succumb fairly quickly.
what i would conclude from this, is that in most cases, some low level parasitic loading is not an emergency issue in otherwise healthy chams, that are otherwise well kept.

imo, if you are finding dead cricks, you should offer less cricks per feeding, reduce your crick hiding places, and clean your cage more often.
as a general rule, you dont want to offer anymore cricks than are going to be consumed at that feeding.
imo i would try to use feeders other than cricks whenever possible.
leaving live cricks in overnight is not good. leaving dead ones in anytime is even worse. cleaning your cage more often, priceless. jmo
 
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