Crickets

[LouieTiel32]

Hi! I recently got a male veiled chameleon from a reptile store near me. He’s probably about 5 months old, (they didn’t tell me at the store) and at the moment I am feeding him calcium dusted gutloaded super worms. I know he should be eating crickets or dubia roaches as a main staple. Before I got him, my parents didn’t want me getting crickets and having them jump all over the place. Now after they’ve seen Rocky, they love him and don’t care if I feed crickets. I too don’t want crickets jumping all over though. I hope this doesn’t sound too terrible, but would I be able to pull the legs off a cricket and feed it to my cham so that they aren’t jumping all over his cage and into my bedroom? Obviously if I can’t pull their legs off then I will still feed him crickets, that isn’t a problem anymore, I just am squeamish about them jumping all over. I hope I don’t sound inhumane, I would only pull the legs off right before feeding them to Rocky.

 

[kinyonga]

I've never been able to pull the legs off crickets. I feel like it's inhumane...but that's just me.

 

[LouieTiel32]

I agree and I don’t think I would do it, I’m just trying to find a solution to having jumpy crickets

 

[Ares05]

I don't see the point in pulling their legs off just before feeding. Just cup feed or something. Plus if you did it in advance they'd just die. I'd suggest discoid or dubia roaches if you don't want to deal with jumping. Roaches are better than crickets anyways IMO. If your parents aren't a fan then crickets are still a fine feeder but just something to think about

When you have crickets you just kinda have to accept that they will jump around. It's what they do.

I dont have a problem with the idea though. I tear off the legs of crickets when needed/have had to, either to make prey easier to catch or if I needed food to be softer for a particular animal (the back legs aren't soft), etc.

 

[MissSkittles]

As much as I hate crickets, I don’t have the heart to tear their legs off. There are other less active feeders and it is best to give a variety. As already said, roaches are great. The types we use for feeding are very unlike the nasty German roaches. Dubia and discoid don’t fly and if kept in a tall smooth sided bin, can’t climb. Silkworms are awesome feeders and almost zero chance of escaping. Giving you the feeder graphic. You may also want to invest in a relatively escape proof feeder. I like the shooting gallery. https://tkchameleons.com/products/shooting-gallery?variant=30018608595032
Now to address supplements. You only mention using calcium. While there’s several different regimens, the basic is to use calcium without D3 at every feeding except one per week. One feeding every week you’ll alternate between using a calcium with D3 and a multivitamin. If you wish to simplify the D3 & multivitamin, you can use a combo D3/multivitamin such as Reptivite with D3, which would be used one feeding every other week.
Can you post a pic of your enclosure, including lights?

 

[Flick boy]

Hi I hate crickets. But if you have a cricket keeper you could shake some out of the tube/s into a bag put a little twister tie on it and pop the bag in the fridge for 5 minutes lowering there body temperature will reduce their activity levels ( for a bit ) and dust and pop them in your feeder run

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi I hate crickets. But if you have a cricket keeper you could shake some out of the tube/s into a bag put a little twister tie on it and pop the bag in the fridge for 5 minutes lowering there body temperature will reduce their activity levels ( for a bit ) and dust and pop them in your feeder run

Great idea!

 

[aduesler93]

I feed my Cham crickets and don’t have an issue with them escaping. I use tweezers to take them out of the cricket keeper and drop them into a small plastic feeder cup. They can’t really climb the shiny plastic and when they do escape into the cage occasionally my Cham takes care of them throughout the day so they add a little enrichment to their lives! Dubias are a better staple feeder but not as available in my area so I do a combination of crickets, dubias, and black soldier fly larvae plus some treats in between.

 

[sergeantapone]

I have a plastic food cup I use as a feeder bowl that's probably 5" deep and the crickets dont jump out of it. When I first started using a cup I had a stick going down into the bowl and the crickets would eventually climb out one by one and Apone would have no trouble eating them before they really knew what was going on. When he got used to going to the cup for crickets, I took the stick out and have been feeding him crickets with it ever since.

 

[LouieTiel32]

Thanks to everyone who replied! That feeder is amazing, especially because I was also going to ask how you guys feed when you go on vacation. I think I will stick to crickets and add dubias in at times (my parents would rather crickets than roaches) but I think the best idea is to put them in the freezer for 5 minutes. I’ve had to do this before with bugs and I didn’t even think about doing this to feed my chameleon! I definitely don’t want to rip their legs off because I do feel bad about it, I just wanted to make sure my chameleon has crickets in his diet!

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

Thanks to everyone who replied! That feeder is amazing, especially because I was also going to ask how you guys feed when you go on vacation. I think I will stick to crickets and add dubias in at times (my parents would rather crickets than roaches) but I think the best idea is to put them in the freezer for 5 minutes. I’ve had to do this before with bugs and I didn’t even think about doing this to feed my chameleon! I definitely don’t want to rip their legs off because I do feel bad about it, I just wanted to make sure my chameleon has crickets in his diet!

Roaches have a bad rap for a number of reasons, but there are so many species that many are not as 'roach-like' as your folks might think. A little accurate info about feeder roaches should help educate.

That said, IMO/E, there's no such thing as an escape-proof enclosure. No matter what you feed, there are going to be escapees. The good news is that many feeders don't/can't live long on their own, so they die off within a very few days. Less if you also happen to have a cat.