Cup training

[christi]

I've always just free fed my 5mo veiled but I cleaned his house out this past weekend and found like 20 crickets in the bottom that I thought he had eaten but he hadn't I like the idea of cup feeding and he eats meal worms out of a cup no problem but when I put crickets in a cup they can't escape from he looks at them like he has no clue what to do with them. I've been offering this scenario for the past couple days but he's not really taking to it. Is there something else I need to do? I had an opaque plastic cup that I buried in the soil of his plant so it was "ground level" and angled it so he could see them from his favorite spot and right next to the mealworm cup, but I switched today to a more shallow glass jar that is again buried almost to ground level. How long do I do this before I give up?

 

[Ctg]

I'm working on the same thing. What I found helped was to put it next to his favorite basking spot. He finally ate out of it yesterday after a couple days, but I think he only ate one or two crickets. I'm not sure what to do either.

 

[bbprinting]

He may be so addicted to the meal worms that he does not want crickets now. Mealworms are really a treat and should only be about 10% off his diet. You will probably have to stop offering mealworms until he is forced to eat a cricket out of hunger.

 

[junglefries]

mixing

Try mixing all the food in one dish. it helped me.

 

[christi]

I made one of the milkjug feeders i saw on this site and put both crickets and mealworms in it, he ate the mealworms and looks at the crickets lined up on the screen like he doesn't understand why they are there. then he goes cruising around his cage like he's hunting. I think he might be a mealworm junkie. He will always eat them but balks at the crickets. How long can I force the issue? should i just offer him a couple mealworms to keep him from starving but keep him hungry enough to hit the crickets? I typically feed him 10 med sized mealworms and 10-15 crickets.

 

[nightanole]

He is 5 months so id just limit him to 2 or so a day and have other feeders in there too.

Im having a similar problem. He will only full size supers, he will not touch the half grown ones at all, and neither will the bearded.

 

[reggie713]

ive only had my panther a week now, and i cant even put his cup down before he attacks it! i thought they all did this! guess im just lucky lol

 

[christi]

Just wondering but are panthers as a whole a little less particular than veileds? I'm considering my 2nd chameleon in the next couple months and was going to get another veiled but there's also a really nice panther at petco that i might consider. I also ordered roaches today hoping some variety might help my stubborn Merlin use his cup. (he had 9 crickets earlier and only 6 right now so maybe he ate a couple?)

 

[ellbodavis]

I tried this to see how mine would react. I tried first with 7 crickets and there was no interest. For about 2 hours, my Cham was investigating all angles of this weird cup in his cage. Finally I checked at the 3 hour mark and all were gone. I tried again with 4 crickets later in the day and they were all eaten immediately without hesitation. It helped when I put the cup up higher where he could easily get to it and investigate it from above. I have some crickets in the bottom of the cage, but mine will not leave his tree to go down there, so had put them higher.

 

[vgaines]

I have a milk jug feeder and it took my Veiled Rebel no time at all to get use to it. I hang it high in his cage in a corner right by a branch. I swear he walks over to the cup and looks inside and then looks at me like hes waiting for me to feed him. ( I also put a small bowl of greens and fruits in the feeder cup so that he and the crickets can eat them. He loves greens and red fruits). I also have one of the cricket shaker cups that I feed him with. I will put crickets or worms in, give it a shake to powder them and then hold the cup up to him. He grabs the rim of the cup with both front feet, sticks his head inside and eats until they are all gone. Cut way back on the meal worms and only offer crickets. Hopefully he will get the hang of cup feeding soon...

PS I always let two or three crickets loose inside his cage so he can hunt. When they are gone he goes right to his feeding bowl.

 

[christi]

Here's a pic of the little stinker sitting on top of the milk jug. I only gave him 2 worms this am so he ate 4 of the 8 crickets I put in the jug. Apparently he has decided he can eat out of it. I ordered him some roaches so we'll see what he thinks of that.