How do those of you that free range?????

[Bob 1000]

How do you feed crickets, and other insects that might be able to get loose in your homes???

 

[jannb]

I cup feed crickets and dubia and bowl feed worms or either hand feed.

 

[cantgetagoodsn]

I use a gallon milk jug with a third of the top cut out and then hang it from something using fishing line. Just make sure your cham is able to see the insects.

 

[Bob 1000]

I cup feed crickets and dubia and bowl feed worms or either hand feed.

The crickets don't hop out of the cup?? Or is your cup 12" deep??

 

[Bob 1000]

I use a gallon milk jug with a third of the top cut out and then hang it from something using fishing line. Just make sure your cham is able to see the insects.

How long did it take for your cham to start feeding from the jugg?? Mines won't eat and actually went 4 days with out eating.. Then I gave in,,lol..

 

[jannb]

I use a tall deli cup for jumping crickets and normally just hold it up for my guys to eat out of. Below are pictures of some of my feeder cups and bowls.

 

[Bob 1000]

Definetly thanks for the pictures, they are worth a thousand words.. I hope this thread will help others as it did me.. Thanks Jannb and cantgetagoodsn

 

[moviemanmania]

I feed all my chams by hand.

 

[pssh]

I use a nice tub that has an inward facing lip. I like tubs because they still allow the animals to hunt since the prey can move around, but it's still easy for me to keep them contained. My tube is circular and about 1 1/2 feet in diameter.

Edit: Oh yeah, and because it's a zillion times easier to get chameleons to eat from the tubs I have some that refuse to eat from cups but RUN to the tubs when I put food in. My tubs are never more than 4-5 inches and I have minimal escapes. Crickets are stupid.

 

[Bob 1000]

To me it seem's that crickets jump when startled.. I don't want to have crickets all over my living room the wife won't take to kindly to that,,lol...

 

[pssh]

You could get the taller tubs (like a 5 or 10 gallon) and keep a perch over it so that the animal can sit over it and hunt that way. The tub that I have with the inwards lip is very efficient at keeping the crickets in. The crickets tend to jump at an angle towards the lip and almost always end up hitting the lip! the lip is probably two inches in. I think I bought it as a bathroom light cover thing from a home improvement store. It's my favorite one so far.

 

[Sir Spiral Tail]

I use an empty hawaiin punch jug, cut off about 1/3 of the front, leaving a good 5 inches left on the bottom, and stapled a screen to the back of the jug. the crickets climb the screen to try to get out, and aren't smart enough to just jump out. leave enough room between the screen and the edges that they can't climb out. I also keep a trash can under where i hang my feeder jug, in case they do jump out, i can scoop them up and put them back in, to be feasted on. works great, also keeps whomi pooping in the same spot in my ficus pot, instead of all over the house...

 

[Bob 1000]

Sounds good guys..

 

[Dawniegirl]

I'm reading all the replies & wondering... Well, how do you mist properly when free ranging? Hmmmm

 

[draetish]

To me it seem's that crickets jump when startled.. I don't want to have crickets all over my living room the wife won't take to kindly to that,,lol...

Easiest solution for crickets jumping out is to pull off one of their hind legs, they can't jump

 

[pssh]

My main free range is set up in an extra bathroom inside a shower/tub. Free drainage most of my chameleons dislike misting, so I use a dripper for the main water sources and only mist lightly. They absolutely can't stand being misted.

 

[Sir Spiral Tail]

Mine will drink straight from my mister. I just hold the bottle up to him two or three times a day, and if he is thirsty, he leans down, and opens his mouth. I lightly spray in his mouth and he laps it up like a dog....haha, when he is done, he tilts his head up and is on his way!

 

[Olimpia]

I use for one of my FRs I use a variation on the bin in the photo below. I accidentally left my cricket bin proped up (and open) on a end table one day and after a couple hours returned to find a chameleon perched on the lip of the bin and picking off the insects he wanted to eat. So for a week I had it set up like in the photo while I put together something better.

Now what I do is have several smaller but tall containers, each with a few of different types of insects (for ease of dumping them back in their respective "community containers" at the end of the day if uneaten) and have branches criss-crossing over them and let the chameleons choose what to eat.

 

[PedroANDAshley]

I use to take one leg off the cricket so it couldn't jump out. So that's an option if you don't mind taking one leg off every cricket lol

 

[eriksorg]

Easiest solution for crickets jumping out is to pull off one of their hind legs, they can't jump

For what its worth...If you "PINCH" the crickets hind legs at or before the first joint, the leg just falls off without doing much damage to your bug!!!