Update on Stitch

nhblond

New Member
So, I had another thread called "Soooo frustrated" which describes my situation with Stitch. I just was checking on her and she is up at the very top branch in her cage, as close to the basking lamp as she can get.... So, now I am wondering if the problem with her not eating had been a combination of things. Maybe because she is in her new cage, she was too shy to explore very far, and therefore was cold and didn't want to eat? Unfortunately because of the setup, it's pretty difficult to tell what the temps in the cage are. It is fully screened, has the basking and UVB light on top. My room stays at about 72 degrees, so I know it's not below that. Any of you have suggestions on how to keep heat in a screened cage? Anyway, at the risk of disturbing her in her new found spot to hang out in, I put five free range crickets in the cage. I have given up on the container feeding. She just doesn't understand it, no matter where I put it, the depth of it, etc. Last night I put a dish with two wax worms and a dish of veggies in the bottom of the cage, but doesn't look like she touched them. I am hoping that once she warms up and is more comfortable, she will search out the crickets. They are definitely challenging pets, and I spend a lot of time worrying about her.
 
you can put plastic sheeting on the side of your cage to keep in heat and humidity, also with regards to cup feeding my little guy was really hard too you just need to be persistant and try diff setups. my camo will only really eat from his shot glass he hates plastic cups and clear or white containers, he really likes opaque green glass try some diff colous and styles.
 
As Hoi already said wrap the cage. I would free range her food and leave her alone. Try to keep count of what she eats and get any uneaten crickets out at night so they don't bother her. i would put in more like 10 crickets to make them easier to locate. Try a piece of fruit like banana or a slice of orange on the cage bottom for the crickets to eat. That is less chance they will bother her when she is asleep if you miss a cricket or two.
 
I don't see how it would be hard to tell your cage temperatures with a digital thermometer. You can find them fairly cheap along with a hygrometer which measures humidity if you dont already have them. Just an easy way to make sure the basic temps and humidity are in range.

Today I added a spot basking lamp which generates direct beam of heat and it raised my basking temp to about 110 F and I didnt catch it for a half hour that it rose so drastically.Just an example good reason to know the temps inside and out. If I didnt catch that by looking at thermometer I might have been cooking chameleons. Always good to know the exact temps. I think just less you'll have to trouble shoot later when/if problems occur being to cold or hot.
 
Thanks Hoj and Laurie, I appreciate the suggestions. That is what we were thinking of doing, wrapping 1/2 to 3/4 of the cage. I am also toying with the idea of buying a humidifier. She is in my bedroom, and I run a fan at night for the noise so I can sleep. Although it doesn't lower the temp in the room, I am thinking that the noise from a humidifier would help me sleep, and it would raise the humidity in the whole room.
Laurie, I think that's a good idea about more crickets with fruit or something on the bottom of the cage. It will be quite a challenge to hunt down the buggers at night, but I can do my best. I just don't like rummaging around in her cage while she is still settling in.
Jack, if you look at my other thread which shows a pic of the cage, the whole challenge of a thermometer is where to mount it. I will plan on looking at the digital ones. I think the small round ones I have are useless anyway.
 
Ummmm.......
Looks like the free range thing is out for now. I went up to put more in for her to find them better...... they found a way to escape the cage. Now I have free ranging crickets in my bedroom :) Good thing I am not squeamish! So, instead I moved the container and there are now 9-10 crickets in it. Not going to disrupt her for a few days with trying to put the sheeting around. I will try to pick up the digital thermometer in the next couple of days and see what the reading is. Then I can take her out and put her in a temporary holding tank while we put the plastic around the cage.
 
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