dealing with locusts!!!

[CrazyCalvin]

Hi all just wondering if you can help me out!

My chameleon doesn't seem to be too fussed on crickets for some reason so at the moment i'm feeding him locusts but i'm still trying to get into a routine and i'm struggling a bit! How do u do it??

I've been putting my locusts into a cricket keeper and feeding them potato, carrots and apples and a gut loading product i got from my local pet shop. When i go to feed my cham i've been pulling the locusts out, dipping them in a supplement and putting them in the vivarium. But would it be ok to cover them in the supplement when they're in the cricket keeper or will they not be covered enough?? and how do you get them out of the cricket keeper, into the vivarium without them escaping?!?! (i dont want to handle them so have been using tongs)

Am i using the right method?? if not please correct me

thanks

 

[Texas Panther Man]

You def need to gutload with veggies and a good dry gutload. As far as getting them out of their keeper. Its easiest to just place the container n the fridge for a few mins. Let them go into a sort of coma/sleep pull the ones out your going feed off put a little dust in a bowl or baggies swirl around the bugs and dust and then feed em off before they wake up.

Btw: I would try to feed without the tongs. Locusts dont bite and if you dont time out when to let go with the tongs you could actually hurt the chams tongue. Hand feeding is really the way to go. Jmpo

 

[Miss Lily]

Ummm, locusts do bite! I have been bitten by one and it left red marks on my finger!

I also feed my chams locusts - it's all Tommy will eat other than silkies which I can't get at the moment. I find that locusts love 'wild rocket' leaves, and in the past I have grown wheat grass as a gutload too and they just swarmed on it and it was gone so fast!

I keep mine in the small tubs they come in and used to put them in the fridge first to cool them down, but I don't bother anymore - it's funny chasing them across the floor, lol! The don't move so fast as crix (which just scuttle and hide under something). I do, however, remove the hopping legs with two pairs of tweezers, I always have done - they don't leap out of the tub when I lift the lid then! They have rather nasty looking barbs on those back legs!

I remove the day's food from the tubs and put a small amount of calcium supp. in a sandwich bag, add the bugs and give it a gentle shake to give them a very light dusting - you don't want them to look like ghosts! I then keep these in a separate tub and feed them off throughout the day. I also put gutload in the tub so they don't eat each other whilst awaiting their fate!

 

[Amanda1801]

I keep mine in a tub thats about the size of a shoe box but has higher sides, with some egg box bits in there - I find they dont actually jump out unless they judge it perfectly.

I dont chill them or anything, I just pick them out by their back legs (they are much easier to handle than crickets!) and pop them on a leaf next to my cham who then hoovers them up.

 

[Oski]

I just pick them up, and place them in an empty live food tub, with some calcium and shake the tub works spot on,but make sure the tub has covered air holes otherwise the dust will come out,

I always free range locust as they do not hide like crickets, and they almost always head up tot the basking site,

 

[Amanda1801]

I just pick them up, and place them in an empty live food tub, with some calcium and shake the tub works spot on,but make sure the tub has covered air holes otherwise the dust will come out,

I always free range locust as they do not hide like crickets, and they almost always head up tot the basking site,

Try telling my cham that! he doesnt seem to realise - thicko!

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Ive been handling grasshoppers and locusts for yrs with no bites to me or the chams. You must have gotten your finger right up by his mandible to get bitten. And theres no need to remove legs people. Grasshoppers and stick inssects make up a large portion of chams diets in the wild. And last time i checked nobody was out there removing legs from grasshoppers or from crickets.

 

[YOSHI]

I keep mine in a tub thats about the size of a shoe box but has higher sides, with some egg box bits in there - I find they dont actually jump out unless they judge it perfectly.

I dont chill them or anything, I just pick them out by their back legs (they are much easier to handle than crickets!) and pop them on a leaf next to my cham who then hoovers them up.

Dito everything