Fear of shiny feeding bowl?!

[ucsdmolpath]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if anyone had any insight on chameleons fearing shiny things?! I have two chameleons, a Werner's and an Ambanja Panther...I decided to put feeding bowls into their cages just to make things a little easier for them, esp. for the panther, that is still small, but in a 2'X2'X4' cage...(the werner's is in a smaller 16"X16"X30", but is pregnant, so to save her from needing to run all over the place)....

For aesthetics sake, I wired two small cheap clear glass double shot-glass size votive candle holders to the sides of their cages. Since I put them in the cages, the chameleons have obviously noticed the crickets and bugs in the "bowls", but they won't get near the bowls. I'm wondering if they might be scared of the glass? (maybe it has something to do with the way the glass reflects the light, etc?) Or maybe it's just not been long enough for them to get used to them (it's been about 2 weeks)...

Neither of the chams have eaten anything out of them...not even wax worms, which they love....

Any ideas?

Thanks!
=^_^= Eric

 

[Heika]

Hi Eric,

You might want to try plastic feeder dishes that they can't see through. It is possible that they have tried to eat out of the glass containers... but whacked the sides, bottom, etc. and have since given up. Chams don't understand glass very well. My first feed dish was a clear plastic container, and I ended up replacing it after my panther repeatedly shot his tongue against the side of the container in vain. Plus, glass is pretty hard stuff and could damage a cham's tongue.

Another thing you could try is using a tall container with the front section cut out for chameleon access and a section on the back cut out and replaced with screen. Your bugs will crawl up the screen, enticing the chameleon to eat them in a more natural way, but still prevents the bugs from escaping. There is an article *somewhere* showing one made out of a milk jug, but I can't seem to find it. These containers combine freerange with cup feeding and work really well. I know that there is bound to be someone on this forum that knows what I am talking about, and hopefully, they will provide a link to the article.

Heika

 

[Jason]

http://www.chameleonnews.com/year2003/jan2003/hints/hints.html