breeding crickets, inside the viv

[Jago1990]

hello,

i have a veiled Chameleon about coming upto 10 months old.... he is arround about 6" in length on his body.

this morning i have found, hundreds upon hundreds of baby crickets littering the floor of his viv..... i have previously fed him multiple crickets at a time and provided food and water for both crickets and chamelon, also feed him regularly locusts aswell as said crickets.

would this pose a problem to my chameleon ? should i remove them straight away ?

thanks !

 

[Jono]

I would remove them and fatten them up as food. Multiple problems could arise such as your cham overeating, the crickets not being properly gut loaded and when they get bigger they may nibble on him while he is sleeping. Also with that many there will be lots of die offs which will cause a lot of unwanted bacteria in the viv.

 

[Jago1990]

I would remove them and fatten them up as food. Multiple problems could arise such as your cham overeating, the crickets not being properly gut loaded and when they get bigger they may nibble on him while he is sleeping. Also with that many there will be lots of die offs which will cause a lot of unwanted bacteria in the viv.

thanks for your help

 

[Jago1990]

what would you suggest as to be the best method to remove them ?

 

[kinyonga]

To get them out you can try breaking up some new/unused egg cartons into 4 or 5" chunks and setting them on the floor of the cage. The crickets should collect on the underside of them and if you lift them up carefully and place them in a plastic bag you should be able to transfer them to a pet pal and raise them their. (If you get crickets by the box some egg cartons usually come in the box...and since they would have only been used for crickets they would be safe to use.)

I have had a prehensile tailed anole for years and there is a cricket colony in his cage constantly. I don't remove them and they have never bitten him...but I keep a container of food on the floor of the cage for them to eat and provide places for them to hide. I get the colony to produce or stop producing by moistening an area of the cage or drying the substrate out. I don't have to worry about him getting his supplements since I dust the food I put in the cage for the crickets which he eats too since he's an omnivore.

I have never done this with a chameleon cage though since I do not a use substrate in the chameleon cage.

 

[Jago1990]

i do use a substrate. im assuming they have laid eggs in the back corner or somewhere... thanks for your advice...

i don't normally handle him, due to me not wanting to stress him out etc.... but i picked him up today just have a look over him to make sure he had no bit marks etc...

when i held him he seemed fine very relaxed... in fact he got comfy on my hands and began to nod off to sleep. upon returning him to his viv... i always place him at the bottom to let him climb up to his favourite spot... and when he did this time... he seemed very shaky and rather fatigued ...... do you know possibly what this could be ? he had around 10, 15 locust in his viv a couple of days ago or so... and i saw 1 left in there this morning.

just a bit puzzled

 

[Itwas]

hi no offense but how often do you clean the viv?

 

[Jago1990]

hi no offense but how often do you clean the viv?

every 4 to 6 weeks