Cup Feeding, Loose Feeding. Advise please ?

[waynederby]

I currently let my baby chams food loose in the cage, but it is difficult to know how much is being ate. I am 100% certain that she eats, but exactly how much i don't know.
I am thinking of trying to cup feed to make it a little easier.
Just want suggestions on 'how' to cup feed?

Any help is appreciated

 

[Eddiedwards]

I have always loose fed with my 2 veileds, a lot of people feed with cups, I think it's more natural if they have to hunt for it.

 

[Carlton]

I currently let my baby chams food loose in the cage, but it is difficult to know how much is being ate. I am 100% certain that she eats, but exactly how much i don't know.
I am thinking of trying to cup feed to make it a little easier.
Just want suggestions on 'how' to cup feed?

Any help is appreciated

There are advantages and disadvantages to cup or free feeding. Free feeding makes it harder to keep track of what the cham is getting or not eating each day. The loose feeders can hide pretty quickly, lose their gutloading, and end up snacking on grungy stuff in the cage. Loose crix have been known to chew on sleeping chams at night. Your cham ends up eating less nutritious foods. But, a more natural hunt, stalk, and shoot is possible which helps keep eyes, tongue, in better shape. Also, a bit more stimulating for your cham.

Cup feeding gives you a lot more control of the feeders, their gutloading, how many are eaten and what the cham is preferring to eat. Hunting is boring and some chams really don't like hitting their tongues on the sides of feeder bowls. Some chams end up hovering around the food dish more of the time instead of visiting all parts of their territory.

You can do something in the middle:

Confine your feeders to a larger storage bin along with some fresh gutload. Wedge the bin under the cage plants and let the cham climb down to the rim, hunt and shoot at more of a distance. You won't lose feeders in the cage and they won't be totally loose either. I know many keepers don't use cages large enough to do this, but I find this is only one of many advantages to using as large a cage as possible.

 

[Olimpia]

I use a mix of methods, which gives me the pros of both methods with very few of the cons (in my opinion).

I loose feed:
- Crickets
- Grasshoppers/katydids
- Mantids
Etc.

I cup/tweezer feed:
- Roaches
- Worms

I don't want to set things like roaches or worms free because they either don't move much or quickly find a hiding spot. However, I do set the crickets free because this way the chameleon has to work for their food. Also, I find that the crickets end up gravitating towards the top where the heat light is for warmth, and the chameleon ends up getting them anyway.

I would set at least some food free in the cage, even if it's just a few of the crickets, and the rest are in the cup. Not letting them work out their muscles (tongue included) for hunting is not going to be good for them in the long run.

 

[K9Luvn]

I primarily cup feed. That way I can see for sure what and how much they are eating. I alway like to see what goes in and what comes out. I usually have a few crickets that hop out so they can chase them down as well.