I have to caution against tong feeding. Chameleons are much much quicker with their tongue shoot and grab than we are with our release, and this can result in a tongue injury. Some chameleons have even had such a bad injury, that they lost their tongues completely! Sadly, I’m not exaggerating or being overly dramatic. Since I’m not a big fan of holding most feeder insects with my bare fingers, I rely upon silkworms for hand feeding to build trust. I put one on the back of my hand and hold my hand out to my cham. Silkworms move slowly, don’t bite and are just soft and sweet little buggies. Hornworms are also good for hand feeding, and I recommend only hand feeding them since they have extra sticky and strong feet and don’t like letting go of most surfaces, which again, can cause a tongue injury. They can nibble a bit on you, but it doesn’t hurt…just feels strange.
Sometimes I’ll put hornworms on the smooth plastic bottom of a deli cup and hold that out to my Cham. Do make sure not to give a hornworm which is too large. They grow super fast, so only get enough for 1-2 days at a time, and get them much smaller than needed.
For plants, you can use any type of plant outside of the enclosure that you use inside. Some have created free range areas, which are amazing! Try searching the forum for free range ideas. I had saved a pic of one but I’ll never find it. Someone had used a corner of the room and attached a lattice I think, and then all different plants. It was pretty and functional. You could scavenge a nice sized branch from outside and secure it to a window and have maybe a pothos with some nice strong vines hanging, or better yet, place the pothos down low and train the vines to grow up. The vine and leaves grow much larger when they grow upwards. Chams seem to enjoy looking out windows..just as nosy as the rest of us.
