any danger in feeding larger crickets?

[aaron9069]

My local pet shop only had full grown crickets and jäger was hungry. So I got a few for him to try out. He's about 4.5 to 5 months old and the crickets are smaller than his head in width. He ate one as soon as I put it in his cage, im just wondering if there is any danger of impaction with larger crickets. Thanks in advance

 

[jbrough42]

the general rule is that it shouldn't be wider than the space between his eyes. feeding items that are too large can carry a risk of impaction. If he ate it with no problems, I'd just keep an eye on him to make sure that he has regular bowel movements and that you don't see any signs of prolapse (it will look like a red thing hanging out of his vent that won't retract back in.) At that age, I wouldn't think that a few full growns would cause an issue, I'd just keep an eye out to make sure

 

[aaron9069]

Thanks for the reply. I definitely don't want to make it a regular thing. I just know he's too big for the pinheads and they were out of medium sized ones.

 

[jbrough42]

If I were you, I would consider purchasing from an online cricket farm, Gann's Crickets is a great one. you can buy much larger quantities at a much better price and they are healthier and live a lot longer. Additionally you can specify the size you want, for that age you may want to consider buying a batch of the 3/4" crickets. I buy them 500 at a time and keep them in a large plastic storage bin with some screen installed for vents. I like keeping them for a while so that I can ensure that they are getting proper gut loading before feeding them to my cham.

 

[aaron9069]

I've been really considering something like that. And getting a larger storage container. The one I have is pretty small and all my crickets eat eachother within a week.

 

[jbrough42]

Yeah, it's definitely worth it. It saves time, money, and effort. You won't be disappointed. Neither will your cham, lol.

 

[Olimpia]

Large crickets aren't really a risk of impaction so much as a risk of choking. Crickets are soft and chameleons are pretty good at chewing so more than anything it's a risk of the insect being too big to go down the throat and blocking the airways.

That said, use your best judgement. If he seems like he handles them ok then it's probably fine. You can tell when something is a little on the too-large side and takes a while to get down. I tend to buy 3/4" crickets just so they last me longer but after only a few months of age (if they were not petite for their age) all my panthers and veileds always switched over to 3/4-1" crickets, because they could handle them just fine.