Tips on how to dust crickets and feeding techniques?

[treebeard]

I've been having problems finding a good way to dust crickets and feed them to Morpheus, he's a veiled, somewhere a little over a year old (never really knew how old he was when I first brought him home, but he was small.)

When he was small, it was easy but now that he's larger, he gets totally freaked and hisses at me when I try to feed him sometimes. I haven't been dusting crickets because the only way I knew how in the beginning, was to put the calcium and crickets into a ziplock first, then grab a cricket feeder tube and get them out, but now I buy a lot more crickets then a year ago, so the tubes are too full. So, I started just using the tube to shake some into his enclosure (reptibreeze). I start moving the tube into the cage and shake some out (no, I really don't count, because some of them just burrow into the dirt in the plant pots anyway).

I'm not really happy with the whole situation, because not only am I not dusting the crickets, but the tube tends to upset him some days.

Anyone have any tips on dusting crickets and feeding techniques? I need to start dusting crickets and find some way to get them into the enclosure, without using the cricket keeper tube. Besides, they just fall to the bottom this way, and while some of them crawl up, others burrow and hide. So not very efficient...

Thanks!

 

[carol5208]

Are you afraid to pick the crickets up? What I do is use a tall plastic cup. I pour the calcium or whatever supplement you are using in there. Put some crickets in(by hand) you can use the tube also and shake some in the cup. Take the cup and swish it around. The calcium will stick to the crickets. Pour the cup into the cage or you can hold the cup up to the side of the screen and they will crawl out and usually up towards the top. You really should keep dusting your crickets with calcium. What are other feeders are you using? You should be using more than one prey item for your chameleons diet. Variety is always best.

 

[TheGuvnor]

Yea, for many years (for my beardies, and now a cham) I've always used a plastic cup (beaker) that has a lid.
Put some Calcium in it, add a few crickets, locust, or whatever you are using, close the lid and shake for a few seconds.
Undo lid, and throw in your now dusted live food. Or place them around the enclosure with forceps.

 

[teejayteej]

I put them in a bag and shake-n-feed.

 

[xraygirl]

Are you afraid to pick the crickets up? What I do is use a tall plastic cup. I pour the calcium or whatever supplement you are using in there. Put some crickets in(by hand) you can use the tube also and shake some in the cup. Take the cup and swish it around. The calcium will stick to the crickets. Pour the cup into the cage or you can hold the cup up to the side of the screen and they will crawl out and usually up towards the top.

I do the exact same thing, shake a toilet paper tube into a Dixie cup and I even (conveniently) had a small tupperware container lid that fits perfectly over the cup, to keep them little bouncy suckers from hopping out. Give em a few swishes around in the cup and they're ready to go.

 

[Chameleon Cartel]

Easy

I have 3 deli cups that my girlfriends leopard geckos came in. Each of them is labeled for the different supplements calcium, calcium w d3 and multivitamin. I sprinkle the supplement into the cup first. I have a big tote that holds my crickets with a bunch of paper towel and toilet paper rolls that the crickets gather in. I shake them into the cup until I have as many as I plan on feeding. I put the lid back on and shake them up them put them on random leaves on the hibiscus leaves inside the cage. Easy peasy.

 

[kplatvoet]

I use a "cricket duster" cup that they sell for 15 bucks- I'm an old lady and it's just too much of a pain to deal with bags and too much to little dust - I open the cricket bin shake off a egg crate into the cup (holding it over the bin so they don't get out) put on the bottom that has the calcium in it shake the cup- take the bottom off - shake it again to get any excess out and dump them in the cage. It works better for me for blue bottle flies too - where I put them in the freezer and then go outside and dump them in the cup.

 

[Restricted E]

I use feeder tongs to get them out of their container and into a plastic cup with a lid (that I have the supplement in). Put the lid on then shake.

Has your chameleon ever bit you? Maybe try hand feeding him with the feeding tongs.

 

[SMCNARY]

Get a plastic cup,cut out the bottom,tape aluminum screen over the bottom

Put your feeders in the cup and pour the supplement into the cup over the feeders. Hold the cup over another container to catch powder that falls through.

Shake until all powder falls through and feeders are well dusted.

I keep a small amount of supplement in empty sealed cool whip containers. Pick the one I want and pour over feeders and then return un used portion to container for future use,no waste.
Hope this helps :<)