curious

[Wobbles]

I have heard a lot on here about cup feeding and free range feeding and i was wondering which is better to do, i free range feed, is that bad? should i cup feed sometimes?

 

[royden]

Cup feeding is better if you intend to ever use roaches as feeders. Roaches tend to run and hide instead of foolishly inspect every corner of the cage. Veiled's often go on a hunger strike either around 8-10 months old or when winter comes. During this strike they may refuse to eat what you've been offering since. I know one keeper who said her veiled refused crickets one day and literally swore off them, never looked at them again, it's only during times like that that you start to think about other staples and how they're best offered to a cham. Worms for instance are best in a cup unless you're hand feeding. Roaches can be hand fed too, but not everyone has time for hand feeding.

It's up to you. I've struggled with cup feeding for the last 6 or 7 months. When your cham gets older - teaching him that the food is in the cup becomes significantly harder, and so this is another thing to take into account.

 

[Wobbles]

Oh, ok i see. thank you for you help.

 

[desultadox]

Cup feeding has the benefits of easy food-intake monitoring and reduced escapees, among others. Free-ranging has the benefits of exercise for your animal and possible psyochological benefits by allowing them to hunt. I would say to mainly cup-feed unless you find some compelling reason not to (overweight, lethargic chameleon maybe). That being said, I cup feed but will occasionally place easy prey (silkmoths, sometimes silkworms and hornworms) in plain sight of my chameleons, this way they can feel like they're hunting and I can be pretty sure I'm not going to lose the bugs (The bugs I use don't typically move a lot or don't survive long enough to hide). At least one of my chameleons seems to appreciate the "hunt" if his fervor is indicative of anything.

 

[JoshCrane1]

cup feed, they learn best at a young age, you can monitor how much they eat.

 

[Wobbles]

ok, i got him couple of days ago and he is 2 years old, i feed him crickets and milworms, the crickets i let him hunt and the milworms i cup feed, i have not seen him eat but the crickets and milworms are all ways gone so i know he is eating, i think he is shy to eat while i am watching.

 

[BocaJan]

My veiled is like that also. He just can't hardly wait until I leave so he can eat. He prefers to cup feed. He's lazy I guess.