How important is removing left over crickets?

[Cmoore]

How important is it to make sure any crickets that have not been eaten, be found and removed? The crickets are 1/4" - tiny and they are going to be almost impossible to find. Besides the stress it will cause my little guy digging around in his enclosure does not seem worth it, unless those little bastards would try chewing on him.

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

They'll chew on him while he sleeps and that can actually do pretty bad damage.

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Try cupfeeding so it's easy to get them out.

 

[Kate]

IMO tiny ones won't bite but will annoy. Also the longer they are in there the less nutrients they will have. Try cup feeding as you will not want large ones in there when he is older.

 

[sandrachameleon]

bowl / cup feeding may be a good option.
to help mitigate possibility (and it is a possibility) of crickets chewing on defensless sleeping cham, put gutload (fruit, veg) into cage on bottom and near wherever hiding crickets may be. gives them something else to chew on, and may help keep them somewhat gutloaded for when the cham does eat them (though obviously the supplement dust will be lost)

 

[Entomotile]

Don't mean to cause undue stress but 1/4-1/2 inch crickets most definetly can and will cause serious damage to a youg Cham. In my last clutch I had one baby boy get his back chewed pretty deep overnight by a cricket. He is fine now- I put antibiotic cream the next morning and it has completely healed over but he looks like he has a shark bite on his back. Try to limit feeding to what your little guy will eat in one day. They are so tuned to light that I guess he slept right through it poor nibbles

 

[Decadancin]

I would also suggest cup or hand feeding. Its a great way to know if your cham stops eating, which could be a sign of bad things, a great way to get a close look to monitor behaviors, and you will get a better idea of how many to feed and reduce the need to remove excess food. Also, dead crickets could offer a food source for other things you wont want in the enclosure! As for small crickets biting your cham, yes it is possible. It is not common, but my friend did have a situation with an anole a few years back which did not turn out good! I try not to take that chance, and besides, you will most likely have to give larger ones soon enough!

 

[Psychobunny]

I hand or cup feed the full grown cricks but often let my little guys hunt the smaller ones for their fun and exercise.
Never had any problems, but leaving flies in the cage can really drive them nuts!!

You are right, it would be impossibe to find them in that cage jungle!!

 

[lysinlight87]

My baby carpet is on tiny crickets, cup feeding won't work because they are very shy eaters, but the breeders said the small ones won't bother him. I've personally found that locusts are worse for biting, I've caught them munching on my veiled cham a couple of times so I avoid leaving them in over night. Big crickets are easy to cup feed if you remove the jumping legs. I got a bird food bowl that you hang on the bars of the cage & adapted it to hang in my chams cage. It worked for a while then he got bored of crickets

 

[ChameleonMom]

I have also caught crickets munching on my chams - one night I found 3 crickets on my baby girl's back munching on her spikes! Bad crickets, bad chameleon Mom! I have since cup trained my little girl....and my boy is hand fed!

 

[griddle]

Basically it's going to happen sometimes, it's not good to let crickets wander your cage since they are opportunistic and will bite your chams which can cause an infection. If you leave cricket food in your cage like cricket crack or vegetables you will reduce the chance of this happening by giving them another food source then your cham.