vacation feeding

[chansman]

So we're going to Disney and the person that house sits for us thinks chams are icky and bugs are gross. They're both over 6 months old and have drippers for water. We'll be away 4 fulls days and back on the 5th in the evening. Is it feasible to just drop a few days worth of crickets in the cage to get by?

thx!

 

[jcarlsen]

From what I've read, and I am not experienced yet, you shouldn't leave too many crickets in a chameleon's enclosure overnight since they're known to chew and bite the chameleon as it sleeps.

However, as a hopeful future cham owner, I'm interested in the more experienced keepers' solutions with vacations.

 

[csmolins89]

In my experience you can go a few days without feeding the chams and they are fine. As long as they have a water source and everything else in their cage is good then it should be ok. What I usually do when I go away for weekends is give my cham a large portion of food than he would normally get. This holds him over for a few days and he is no worse for wear. If I am wrong then someone should correct me.

 

[Lazy Boy]

Blue bottle fly pupae with a cup a fly setup with a hole in it. They will turn into flys eat and then come out. This will make sure he's got some food and will be fine.

 

[Lidee]

i place a larger amount of food in a bigger container, one they can't climb out of, usually crickets or roaches, and some superworms and a slice of apple or carrot for them to munch on and be gutfed.
crickets don't jump around so much if not provoked, or you can grab their hind legs with tweezers and they'll let them off, then they can't jump. its time consuming, and a bit cruel, but we do it all for the chams <3
just be careful that your cham can't topple the dish over when he/she tries to eat.
with a good dripper this set up has lasted me a week with no problems.

 

[Bush baby]

I free range all the time; the key is to leave food in the cage for the crickets; some dry gut load, and an orange and carrot will pretty much guarantee that the crickets won't nibble on your cham.

I have gone on vacation for over a week and left about 2 dozen crickets loose in the cage; came back and everything was fine.

The blue bottle cup idea is also good to go along with the free range crickets. Chams tend to eat BB pretty fast, and you don't want 100 or so BB hatching and swarming the enclosure all at the same time, so a few BBs along free range crickets is a good plan for your vacation feeding.