Large enclosure/feeding question

fluxanimator

New Member
Well I finally setup the new enclosure for my veiled yesterday. He moved out of his little 10 gallon temporary home and now has a 24'x24'x48' screened cage. He seems to like it so far but I have a problem. How do I get the crickets to be at the top. My veiled is of course almost always up towards the top but the crickets seem to be either on the bottom or about halfway up the enclosure on the sides. I doubt my veiled will venture that far down. I know there are many of you with large cages so what do you do? I could use a feeding dish but he really likes to hunt.

Thanks,
Brian
 
I rigged a deli cup to sit on a couple bio vines up by the top end of the encoulsure. I put some greens (kale or romaine) in it, to encourage the crickets to stay in there and eat. My veiled knows that in the morning, when I take out the cup, and change it for a clean one, that fresh food is on it's way.

Yes, some of the crickets escape from the bowl, and sometimes I catch them with a little fish net, and stick them back up in it, or they just croack at the bottom of the cage....
 
Yeah, maybe I just have to use a cup. He will always eat waxworms out of the bowl, but likes to hunt for crickets. I guess he'll just have to learn to get them out of the bowl if he wants to eat. Thanks
 
I'm quite lucky now as I hand feed my Veiled Cham. If not I put the bugs on the vines next to him or near him, they usually don't have chance to move :)

Ash
 
Same as Ash- I go between hand feeding for my own enjoyment, and free range. If you've got your cham on a hunting regiment, I wouldn't break it. It's good for them and natural.

If I find the crickets are hanging out on the bottom I encourage them to climb the screen, but even then, it's just so I can watch him eat. If some crix end up huddling in a corner, he'll make his way down there eventually and eat them.

I've never understood the controlled feeding thing, my cham hunts down all the crickets one by one, I've never seen him ignore anything that was out of place in the cage.

If you're worried about it, you might want to try releasing the crickets into your hand and then releasing them onto the side of the cage or on a nearby vine, they'll always climb up instead of down.
 
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I use a shallow bowl about the size of a plastic cup you would get at say a BBQ, or standard styrofoam beer cups, around that is, they are only about 2 1/2 inches deep, a lot of the crickets will stya in there with a carrot or something in it for them to chew on and some if they have enough time will jump out and climb up the vines to their doom...the other night there was a conga line of crickets climbing the vines like one after teh next and April and Phil were picking them off one by one, it was kinda comical, they sit there as if it were a conveyer belt of a buffett just bringing them their food!!! Ill post pics of the bowl setup once i get home from work...
 
I try to feed my Jackson's crickets 1 by 1. I have a maze of horizontal branches in the upper part of the enclosure. I just pop one in the tube, and help it onto the branch with a chopstick. Then he does the rest. I really like to know that he is eating plus its fun to watch him hunt them down. The ones that make it to the bottom rarely make it back to the top, so I just catch them and try again...or let him hunt them later. It's more of a feeding time..but with a 175 gal enclosure crix have a way of disappearing. If you are paying 6$ for 40 large per week...you want your money's worth.
 
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I have recently just put a egg carton on the bottome of my enclosure and BAM I'm catching stray crickets again... right back into the storage tub they live in...Im sire its been done before but its working for me.haha
 
standard styrofoam beer cups

I don't think I would use anything styrofoam just in case your cham decides to take a bite out of it :) Hungry crickets have also been known to nibble on styrofoam, and it can be transferred to your chameleon this way as well.

Just a word of caution!
 
I guess I just need to keep an eye on him and see how he reacts in his new environment.

Good idea to do so! when a chameleon's enviorment is changed dramatically from a 10 gallon to a 24x24x48 with a much different setting, he's going to need some time to adjust! Iv'e seen chameleons that wont eat or drink in there first day in a new home. Let him regulate to his new home, i am sure he will come around!


thanks,
Jake
 
Royden,
What kind of cham do you have and how old?

Ren,
Excellent idea with the egg carton!

Remember not to leave crickets running around in the enclosure overnight.
They really can hurt your chameleon.

-Brad
 
...If you are paying 6$ for 40 large per week...you want your money's worth.
Howdy,

At that price, it might be time to raise your own crix and sell-off any excess :). You might even be able to make a deal where you grow pinheads (easy) for the store and trade them for store credit to buy adults. 30 adult female crickets will produce around 1000 pinheads in about 2 weeks. My local store let me hand-pick adult female crickets whenever I needed to raise pinheads. They sell sm, med, lg crickets for 30/$1 :).
 
I don't think I would use anything styrofoam just in case your cham decides to take a bite out of it :) Hungry crickets have also been known to nibble on styrofoam, and it can be transferred to your chameleon this way as well.

Just a word of caution!

Sorry I was only using the styrofoam beer cups as a reference of size....
 
At that price, it might be time to raise your own crix and sell-off any excess :). Y

Oh my gosh...great idea. I looked at buying them by the thousand and it is ridiculously cheaper...like 15-20$ for 1000. Ahah. But then again I am a new, first time, cham owner. So im sure down the road when I am more comfortable and confident with my cham raising abilities...I will raise crix too. For now though...the man is going to get my 6 buks for a measly 40 crix.

But man...thanks for that idea. It's going to be in the back of my mind every time i go back to the pet store. I didnt realize they made such a high profit off of crix. Yowza!!

Dave what part of SoCal are you in? I used to live in Claremont just off the 10 freeway...near Pomona.
 
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Even still if you dont breed your bugs you will be alot better off getting them online and keeping them alive long enough for ur cham to eat them all... It will save you $ to get another chameleon :)
 
Yah my cage for my veiled is about the same size and i just put a solo cup on the bottom and throw some crickets in it. the first day the were confused but y the second time they were right at the bottom eating.it also helps cuz you can see what your chams are eating, it helps on the nutritional side of things.
 
I haven't read through all the threads so this may have been mentioned already.

I dust my crickets in a small cricket keeper. Once dusted, I move the cricket keeper into the cage and hold to opening of the keeper against the side of the cage, near the top until all the crickets are on the screen. They run all over the screen at this point. If one falls, not a big deal cause my cham notices this and then treks down to the bottom to get em. Of course he gets all the crickets on the screen first.
 
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