How do I know if my baby yemen is eating?

[Jstine3]

I have a young baby chameleon, and all i do is worry about her!
She had fruit flies at first and was eating them for a while and havent bought any more, she has small crickets as this is what the shop gave us.
She has eaten 1 or two from my hand before and she has a few in there with her throughout the day, I gut load and dust them but can never tell if she has eaton loads or they are just hiding!
She is always scared and tries to run away as soon as she sees me, she even also bit me once! but she is just a baby so i understand.
How many should she be eating a day, what if she does not manage to get any?
Some of the crickets seem to be getting very big! I try to catch them out the viv but no luck as of yet...

any advice would be great

 

[BocaJan]

The only way you can tell is by poop and urates. Some adults even like to hide when they eat and drink. They are closet eaters! lol

 

[camimom]

I have a young baby chameleon, and all i do is worry about her!
She had fruit flies at first and was eating them for a while and havent bought any more, she has small crickets as this is what the shop gave us.
She has eaten 1 or two from my hand before and she has a few in there with her throughout the day, I gut load and dust them but can never tell if she has eaton loads or they are just hiding!
She is always scared and tries to run away as soon as she sees me, she even also bit me once! but she is just a baby so i understand.
How many should she be eating a day, what if she does not manage to get any?
Some of the crickets seem to be getting very big! I try to catch them out the viv but no luck as of yet...

any advice would be great

You can try cup feeding the crickets.
place them in a cup that theycant jump out of, and angle it in a way she can see them and shoot at them.
It might take her a few days to get used to this though.
How old is she? this determines how much she should eat.
I would say, under 4 months as much as she will eat.
Then as she gets older you need to limit her food intake, bc females can begin producing eggs as early as 6 months, and by reducing her food, you can reduce the size of her clutch, or even prevent the formation of one at all (though this is hard to do)

ALso, slightly lower basking temps are good in helping stop production of eggs. and yes, they can make eggs without being bred, or even ever seeing a male.

 

[Jstine3]

thanks for your messages
I have only had her for about 3 weeks now, and was only just old enough to leave the reptile shop when I got her. I need to get more food soon, any suggestion on other types, maybe something that cant run away from her?

do you think it may be best to wait till she is bigger and less fragile to get her out more and used to people? i dont want to hurt her, as before when i got her out she panicked and leaped off my hand!

thanks

 

[camimom]

If you post a pic, we can estimate age if you are unsure. ( i say this because pet shops sell at differnt ages, mine was 2 weeks old when i got him, and others wont sell before 2 monhts old)
just place her on or near something we can judge her size from.

All food is going to run away eventually.
however, dubia roaches are good staple foods (like crickets)
pheonix worms are great for calcium, (though they can be fed daily, they are not a staple)
I would try hand feeding her, to help with getting her used to you.
Yea they do the suicide jump alot, freaks people out.

I took my guy out once every other day as a baby, and he was fine, now at 9 months old, hes grumpy sometimes, hisses, runs, etc.
it depends on his mood, and if hes been fed. ( i feed him every other day now)

 

[Jstine3]

I have put the pic as my profile picture, this is when I got first got her three weeks ago.
she has not grown much since, slightly bigger.

I will try hand feeding and get a feeder cup set up.

I have a box, an empty food box which the crickets came in from the shop..i put a few crickets in there and put a branch over it like bridge, i saw here down that way yesterday, maybe this is working! fingers crossed..

 

[camimom]

She appears to be mayb 3-5 months old, closer to 4 or 5 though.

 

[Jstine3]

Thankyou for all your help!

 

[kirstxblue]

With the empty box some of you mention feedin out of, do u just place it at the bottom of the tank with a gap for them to get out of? I think I'm goin to try th cup idea because I'm also worried Calvin isn't eating enough!!

 

[mullberrysdream]

I've been having a very similar concern with mine. He is currently 6 weeks and is not a whole lot bigger than when I got him at 2 weeks. I think my problem has been not having access to the correct size crickets (local pet store's are too big). i bought a fruit fly culture last week and that has helped a bit and i just found a local breeder of dubias so hopefully tomorrow i will have some of those to try.

My guy doesnt seem to interested in crickets though and i can't figure out it out. i know the size piece is one thing but small ones dont seem to interest him that much either.