Can crickets be too small for cham

[hilltowner]

I recently bought 1,000 2 week old crickets, thinking that they would be fairly big - LOL. They're tiny compared to the medium and large crickets my 6-mo. old cham usually eats. I put a bunch in, but he doesn't seem to eat them as much as he does the larger crickets. He definitely prefers larger ones. Will he still eat the tiny ones?

Thanks!

Marla

 

[clarkrw3]

Simple answer is yes. That's why people refer to size appropriate feeders. If they are too small it's often deemed not worth the effort...however, I have also seen a fairly large cham picking off Fruit Flies sooooo. It is also important to keep in mind that more than the insect is what the insect is gutloaded with and the larger the insect (in this case cricket) the more "gutload" your cham is ingesting per item. The larger the insect is within reason (not too large for the cham to safely eat) the more nutrition your cham is getting

 

[Captive Creations]

i would suggest buying a weeks worth of med-large ones and just power feed those little one they will grow in a week to what you want i believe.

 

[Midnighthwk]

my Kazuma sez "yes" they can be too small. he stoped eating the small / med crickets at 5 months and would only eat the large ones.

 

[BocaJan]

My adults absolutely will not eat crickets that are too small. I find the smaller ones hopping around their cages and the big ones are gone. I vote for feeding the little ones for awhile and let them grow.

 

[pssh]

Crickets grow fast with heat and food. They will probably big enough within a week or two. Just pick some up from a local pet store until they are bigger.

Some chameleons wont eat smaller insects. Some will. I have a big veiled who will pick off tiny little praying mantids and fruit flies, but others wont.

 

[hilltowner]

Thanks for the replies. I did get 100 large crickets and put them in a separate container. I'll keep feeding the little ones until they start getting big enough.

Thanks again!

Marla

 

[Goldenarcher1328]

Absolutely.
When i had my cricket outbreak in my tegu enclosure, i would toss handfulls of crickets into my cham enclosures. The smaller ones would live in there for weeks until they were appropriate sizes, as soon as they were big enough and spotted by my chams, they were eaten.