switching to cup feeding...

[royden]

It's proving to be tricky.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Otto's been a wild cricket hunter his whole life, and I think it's best to let them hunt as much as possible, but now that I've switched to dubia's I a) don't want the roaches to hide and b) want to know exactly how many live insects are in the cage at any specific time so I can open the door and let Otto roam outside every now and then.

The problem is Otto does not notice anything in the cup. After a few hours of scurrying the roaches stop moving and don't get his attention. So he can literally sit there starving all day with a cup full of roaches under his nose, and then I take one out and it crawls across the screen and he goes all crazy like "where did you find that, I'm so hungry!?"

One thing to note, I set the cup on the bottom of the cage, I don't tie it up half way (I really like the cage to look less like a pets cage and more like a jungle and a big cup wired to the screen just doens't do it for me, but if that's what he needs I'll do it)

 

[booshified]

i recently started doing more cup feeding since I am wanting to switch to dubias as well. i have had no problems with mine tied so that the bottom of the cup is visable from the basking spot.

maybe you should tie the cup up behind a plant. this would help preserve the look but also put it closer to your cham.

 

[dodolah]

I also switch to cup feeding now mainly for the same reason you have.
What i do with mine is that i swirl the plastic cup so the crickets are all jumping like crazy.
And then i tease my chameleon by holding the cup in front of him (safe distance).
Usually, the movement of the crickets will catch his eyes.
If he ended up looking at you, move the cup in front of his view line.
Anything you can do to make sure that he realize that the plastic cup fill with yummy snack.

(if successful, usually his eyes will follow the cup intensely (kinda like a dog playing fetch).

Then slowly put the cup wherever you like (best to put it slightly in an angle and slightly below him -you don't want to put the cup above him and he start shooting his tongue at the bottom of the cup thinking that he can catch the cricket that way).


For some reason (i guess i do it so often) that my cham now even dare to come close to me when i tease him with the cup and start eating while i am holding the cup.

Make sure you put the cup at the same spot over and over an over..
He will learn sooner or later to go to the spot immediately when he's hungry.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

If you haven't yet seen this design by Bill Strand it's worth trying.
I have created a couple different modifications keeping the basic principle intact. One was a 2 litre green 7-up bottle with leaves and vines hot glued to the exterior so that it would disappear into the jungle environment of the enclosure. The feeders running up and down the screen really does help the cham to learn where the feeding spot is. Soon they'll come over and check the cup whether they see anything on the screen or not.


http://www.chameleonnews.com/year2003/jan2003/hints/hints.html

-Brad