Could my chameleon eat large crickets ?

[Rosemond]

 

[Rosemond]

The smal crickets are just sooo small and he eats two at a time no problem even with the medium sized ones he will wait till they stack

 

[Seiryu]

Just guessing I would say 1/4-1/2".

You go by the space between the eyes. If the space is 1/2" you can feed up to 1/2" give or take. Adults can generally take a little bit larger prey

 

[pssh]

If the insects is smaller (from side to side, not head to butt) than the space between the chameleons eyes, then they can eat it.

 

[Tay And A]

I would reccomend 1/2 inch crickets at this stage

 

[Seiryu]

If the insects is smaller (from side to side, not head to butt) than the space between the chameleons eyes, then they can eat it.

This isn't true. A 1" dubia for instance is about 1/2" wide. So you're saying a 3 month panther with 1/2" between his eyes can eat a 1" long dubia, that's only 1/2" wide. The dubia would be much bigger than his head alone.

The "between the eye rule" is the length of the bug (a little longer with some worms), not the width of the bug.

 

[pssh]

Mine do fine. I generally feed them smaller than the space, but they don't really have issues eating the bigger stuff. I keep an eye on them to be safe though. My 1" dubia are much wider than that though, so I don't feed them dubia that size. If they catch a bug sideways, they just chew it until they can flip it around the right way. Chameleons in the wild don't only eat tiny little "size appropriate" bugs. They can often handle bigger bugs, but this way is safer since they are our pets.

Edit: I can also feed fully adult female dubia to adult panthers even though they look really big. I rarely do, but I just keep an eye on them while they eat. Never had an issue with hard insects not going down as long as the size isn't ridiculous (and I am sure that it never is.) I have however had chameleons that had trouble eating large hornworms.

 

[Olimpia]

I also think the rule is the width of the feeder, not the length. If it were the opposite mine would never be able to eat anything of any substance.