Are my feeders too big?

extrajordinary

Established Member
So my little guy is 2-3 months old and has been eating 1/4" crickets with no problem. I'm currently waiting on another shipment of what he was fed originally (from Josh's Frogs) so in the meantime I bought about 50 "small" crickets from Petco. Except these guys are HUGE in comparison. I tried to pick out the smallest ones to offer Leo, and he's been eating them up just like normal...however, I've noticed that after he eats his throat sort of bulges, almost like he's trying to swallow but isn't having much success. Is this an indication that he's eating food that's too big for him? The right size of crickets should be here today, but I wanted to know what I've been seeing. He does look a little bigger, so hopefully he's putting on weight, but is he struggling to swallow the "small" crickets from Petco?
 
So my little guy is 2-3 months old and has been eating 1/4" crickets with no problem. I'm currently waiting on another shipment of what he was fed originally (from Josh's Frogs) so in the meantime I bought about 50 "small" crickets from Petco. Except these guys are HUGE in comparison. I tried to pick out the smallest ones to offer Leo, and he's been eating them up just like normal...however, I've noticed that after he eats his throat sort of bulges, almost like he's trying to swallow but isn't having much success. Is this an indication that he's eating food that's too big for him? The right size of crickets should be here today, but I wanted to know what I've been seeing. He does look a little bigger, so hopefully he's putting on weight, but is he struggling to swallow the "small" crickets from Petco?
How wide are these crickets in relation to his head?
 
I’m not advocating feeding your Cham bugs that are obviously too large for them but I think you would be surprised how big of an insect they can actually “choke”(ha!) down.

You can tell when they are getting to the upper limit of what they can handle when their throat is bulging and they have to make multiple chews while walking their head left to right and swallowing. Mine spend a lot of the summer outside and I’ve seen them snatch up huge dragonfly’s that would probably panic most other keepers.
 
@ERKleRose I think they're about the width between his eyes (some are a little bigger). They're much wider (the crickets are fat) than the other crickets though and I think that's where the trouble is coming in. They're a little longer and overall wider. @Brodybreaux25 I think he's reaching the "upper limit of what he can handle" because you just described his behavior after eating one of these crickets. I've been trying to relax and let him handle himself because I'm sure to some degree he knows what he can manage. Also, is it strange that he won't touch anything other than crickets? I've been trying to offer appropriately sized mealworms and he won't have any of them.
 
@ERKleRose I think they're about the width between his eyes (some are a little bigger). They're much wider (the crickets are fat) than the other crickets though and I think that's where the trouble is coming in. They're a little longer and overall wider. @Brodybreaux25 I think he's reaching the "upper limit of what he can handle" because you just described his behavior after eating one of these crickets. I've been trying to relax and let him handle himself because I'm sure to some degree he knows what he can manage. Also, is it strange that he won't touch anything other than crickets? I've been trying to offer appropriately sized mealworms and he won't have any of them.
It’s not the worst thing if he doesn’t like mealworms. You can try micro or small superworms, bsfl, or small butter, horn, or silkworms. Along with small dubia, red runner or ivory or orange headed roaches, among other things
 
He’ll manage, if a bigger bug is caught in the wild they won’t let it go without at least attempting to swallow it. If it fits, it goes down if it doesn’t it gets spit out...
 
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