cup feeding

[alil]

Hello, Will it do my veiled harm to cup feed him. I have heard that it can make your pet lazy if you do nothing but cup feed. usually I just pour the crickets into the bottom of his tree and he chases and hunts them down. But a few mins ago I held a cup with some dusted crickets and he seemed interested and ate a few before climbing away.

 

[sandrachameleon]

No, it will not do harm and does not make chameleons lazy.

If you remain concerned, just cup feed most of the time using a Larger container (where the prey move around a fair bit)
and when possible free-feed (things like moths or butterworms or silkworms where you dont have to worry about the prey getting lose) just to change it up a bit. This is essentially what I do - annoying or infesting prey like roaches and crickets are offered in a bowl or cup. Butterworms, silkworms,terrestrial isopods, superworms and such I will free-range feed

 

[alil]

As far as the amount they eat, do they get their fill and ignore the rest or are they like bearded dragons and will eat until all prey is gone. My cham seemed to eat so many before moving away.

 

[sandrachameleon]

As far as the amount they eat, do they get their fill and ignore the rest or are they like bearded dragons and will eat until all prey is gone. My cham seemed to eat so many before moving away.

depends on the individual animal, the activity level, temperatures, age of chameleon, and range of prey selection.

some will eat until they explode, others eat the minimum. So long as the animal has appropriate fat bads on head and good shape to the tail, weight is steady or increasing (for growing animals), its all good