Container feed vs free roam

[vangarret2000]

I was wondering how many people keep their feeders in some sort of container in the enclosure to stop them from free roaming the tank? I know benifits of this is you don't get escaped feeders or wanderers in the tank but what are the downsides to this? Would our Cham become less active at all? Does this take away too muh stimuli for them?

Right now I always have a tub in my tank that my Cham eats out of(he's 3 months) and usually let a few free roam in the morning. My gf wants me to just tub feed him for the above advantages so when he is bigger we done have to worry about crickets getting out.

 

[CLP]

I definitely believe that in a perfect world, all chams would be fed free range. It is IMHO the best method as it gives them both mental and physical stimulation of finding, hunting, and ultimately catching their prey. In practice however, I have found this to be a difficult thing to achieve.

Feeders like crickets and roaches hide and/or escape before my chams can catch them all and for me, there is nothing much more annoying than an escaped cricket chirping like they're on speed all night long . Even with the various cups/bottles I have used, there are always a few that manage to get out. I do free range worms such as silks and horns that I can attach to a branch and let roam, although usually they don't last very long before my chams find them . Other worms that can't "hang on" don't leave much option but to cup feed.

My "solution" is to free range the worms that I can, and have multiple feeding stations in each enclosure and put feeders in randomly so my cham can't just hang out in one spot knowing he'll find food there. So, on any given day, there will be food in multiple locations, and not all locations will have food. Not the free range ideal, but better than nothing.

 

[Olimpia]

I do both - things like worms and roaches go into a cup and crickets and grasshoppers free roam the cage. I do still want mine to chase down their food, but I don't want all the roaches to just dig down into the plant pots and live there for weeks. So if I'm not tong feeding roaches and worms they go into a cup.

 

[vangarret2000]

Right now I kinda do both. Let a few roam and put the rest in a cup. Does any that does both find they eventually stop eatting out of the cup because they prefer the hunt? I have geckos that do that. It's either all cup or all free roam for them. Not both.

 

[Olimpia]

I haven't, they still do both and have for years. Perhaps it's because they get different things in different ways, so whent hey want crickets they have to work for them but when they want roaches they have to find them in the cup.

I do the same thing with my AFT geckos, with loose crickets and worms in a ceramic bowl.

 

[tkilgour]

I do both. I let the bugs roam freely in cages and cup feed. It really depends on the chameleon. Some like cup feeding, while others seem to like to hunt the bugs.