Strange Activity- Baby veiled chameleon

[Tag0538]

Good morning,
I am a new chameleon owner. I have a baby veiled chameleon (?2-3 mo.?,male, single occupancy cage) and I don't know that he's completely not eating at this point but here's what I can tell you. I began feeding him crickets, with phoenix worms placed in a bowl near the fountain in the biodome he began eating the phoenix worms exclusively and showed no intrest in the crickets any longer when offered (on 8" bamboo tongs). So I stopped offering crickets for almost a week. This morning I noticed that some of the worms were at the bottom of dome, in the moss, and none were gone (as in he ate them), so I offered him a cricket. He took it in with his tongue, and then I noticed that the body of the cricket at least 3/4 of the body was on the branch...and I know he took it in his mouth....So I'm very unsure of how to proceed from here. Any help would be appreciated.
About his habitat: Biodome- pics included, there is a fountain in there, at the bottom there is a reconstituted rept-soil block with a moss topper. I mist twice daily, once am right after light is turned on and pm right before light is turned off.
I know this is a lot of information, but I'm just trying to be as detailed as possible to get the most accurate help.

 

[Carlton]

I'm not quite sure I understand the question. Did you mean that he only swallowed part of the cricket? They have strong jaws and I've seen them crush the feeder so hard that the insect's body separates, leaving some of it on a perch. There's no problem with this, possibly the feeder was a bit large for him. However, I don't like to leave my feeders loose in the cage for several reasons...

*Using moss or other loose substrate creates a risk that your cham will swallow undigestible bits of soil, bark, moss, etc. This stuff can block the GI tract. Some mosses have very tiny sharp spines that could well cause an injury.

*Its hard to judge how many the cham is actually eating

*Those that escape burrow in the substrate (the same substrate your cham is pooping onto)

*Loose feeders may not be eaten until long after their supplement dusts and gut contents have been lost

*The feeders may be hungry and eating grungy stuff from the cage floor. I don't want my chams ingesting that stuff.

Also, a comment about fountains...they are a swamp waiting to happen. Loose feeders fall into them and contaminate the water. Bits of moss, feces, shed skin, leaves, all of it will eventually get into the pump system. Unless you clean and disinfect the thing every time something drops in the water you'll have a bacterial soup. A big hassle to keep up with. And, they don't really raise the cage humidity level all that much. Spraying dense foliage works much better.

 

[Tag0538]

Okay, so I should rid the habitat of the dirt and moss then? My only concern with that is keeping up the humidity....and the dome is pretty deep, and he is active and I've seen him down there before so I'm also concerned that he will become stuck down there.

In regards to the feeders I usually put them in a bowl and he goes down at some point and eats them on his own. Them getting out is a recent thing so I'm wondering if his mouth hurts or he's dropping things out of his mouth....