Feeder Cup

[emersonc]

Does anyone have a good way to put a feeder cup in a cage that Does Not let the crickets escape?

I have been using a 1/2 gal. milk jug with one side cut out. This works very well, but the crickets often jump out. This makes it very hard to tell how much my cham is eating. I have been trying to think of a setup that would work better, but nothing has come to mind. I have heard that tearing off one of the legs of the cricket works, but that just seems very cruel to me. It is one thing to put them in a milk jug so they can be eaten, it is another to tear off one of their legs first. Any ideas would be great, please help!

 

[Jordan]

You can remove their back legs. This will take away their jumping capabilities all together. It sounds harder then it is. You can place them in the refriderater for a couple of minutes or mist them to slow them down. Then use some tweezers to pick them up, scissors to cut off their back legs (if you pull you can split their abdomen), and then place them in a different container so you do not keep picking the same ones up. They will still have good mobility but no jumping.

I do not think it is mean if you do one of the above it will be over with very quick. Depending on how you are feeding them sometimes they will bite each others back legs off any way because it smell like food. I have a little plastic keeper. I use 20 oz bottle caps to keep their food in so they will usually get into the cap all the way. Later on a hungray cricket will pop that sucker off because it smells good.

Removing their back legs will also make it to where they can not chirp anymore.

 

[emersonc]

ya that is what i figured it would come down too. I was hopeing for a more friendly way, but if that is the only option then i have to do what i have to do

 

[emersonc]

Do i need to take off both legs, or would just one work?

 

[Jordan]

I have seen other people that use really deep deli cups. You can poke a couple of holes and secure it to the side (or branch). It just sounded like you like the jug. I do not like the cups because I cannot see them eat.

Both legs. They can jump with the one but will usually do like a golf slice one way or the other.

 

[emersonc]

Nice... Thanks man

 

[studiocham]

You can remove their back legs. This will take away their jumping capabilities all together.
>snipped<
Depending on how you are feeding them sometimes they will bite each others back legs off any way because it smell like food.

Nutritionally, you are denying your chams the leanest bit of protein on the whole cricket, if you remove the entire back leg at the body. Crickets autotomize their own backlegs in panic when caught, and in lean times, they eat their legs for a life-saving energy boost. Legs don't just smell like food, they ARE food to crickets. If you keep your crickets constantly well fed, they will not eat each other *as much*.

When I need to remove the barbed part of the bug's hindleg, I just pinch the lower leg off at the ankle joint. This way, the chams still get that lean protein of the cricket "drumstick", but the cricket can't jump. The same applies to locusts with wicked lower leg barbs.

When I leave crickets "intact", I feed them out in 1 or 2 gallon buckets, with metal screen glued in the cut-out bottoms (for drainage). Bowl feeding can make a cham lazy and fat, so try to mix it up by throwing 1-2 loose crix in the enclosure some days, and even try hand-feeding when your cham is calm in your presence. Hand-feeding is helpful because it is the first step to desensitizing for vet exams, and you can make your cham "work" for its food and stay fit.

 

[sharikov]

Can't they just climb out if they still have their some of their legs intact?

I am just worried about the free range method because I have seen several crickets dive right into the soil of my cham's ficus. I don't want many of them to do that because i don't know if he is eating and i don't want them bothering him later on.

Thanks

 

[emersonc]

You place the crickets in a plastic jug and glue in some cloth so that they can climb up and move around, but you make sure that the cloth is not too close to the side of the jug. They can't climb up slick plastic like in a half gal. milk jug.

 

[moviemanmania]

my cup feeding method

After some trial and error this is my method which is working perfectly for me. My veiled is still very young, around 4 inches now so I'm feeding on 1/4 '' crickets. (very small) After capturing a few crickets by hand i put them in a "gladwear" small tubberwear container with my repcal and dust the crickets by shaking the container. I then pick up each cricket one at a time and put them in the cup. As i put them in the cup i "snap" one of their large back legs. I hold their bodies with my left hand and pinch the large back leg with my right untill i feel it "snap" or sometimes i can hear it snap. After that, i put them in the cup. The cup i use is a very small disposable cup that you use for rinsing out your mouth after brushing your teeth. Remember those when you were a kid and they have all the little different designs on them? I use a needle or safty pin to poke holes in the bottom to the crickets won't drown should they get wet. Then I use masking tape or packing tape and put a rim of tape around the inside lip of the cup at the top. The tape is very slick and the crickets can't climb out of the top of the cup because they slip on the tape. I put the cup inbetween the leaves and presto! Lunch has been served! Sometimes a few crickets will manage to get out in which case karma happily stalks, flicks, and munches. Hope this helps!

 

[snk]

I have tried tonless cup feed methods until I use the plastic containers use in chinese take out restaurant for the soup. I cut off the bottom of the container and glue a mesh over the top of the container. Since I use this cup method I only have 1 crix escape so far. Hope this will help.

 

[EmiGlio]

glass jars

my owner feeds me with a big olive jar with about 20 crickets inside. he holds the jar inside the cage with the opening toward my face, and i look inside, aim and munch!
it works good, cause the crickets cant climb out and if they jump, they just hit the top of the jar.
bon apetite!

 

[scooter4n]

Ok, here is my technique
I pick one cricket at the time out of my cricket keeper, and holding crick using my wife's tweezers I pinch joints on the back legs, that is disabling them from jumping and letting them keep legs Then after I "prep" one, I trow him in to little cup with vitamins or calcium dust in it, after I get about 5 cricks prep I shake the cup, and with tweezers so i won't shake off some of the dust with my fingers put them in the feeding cup.
For the cup I use small cap from the any spray bottle with little hook on it.
Then I move that cup every 3rd feeding around the cage. that makes my cham look for it, and he is doing good job finding it.

 

[titan501x]

my owner feeds me with a big olive jar with about 20 crickets inside. he holds the jar inside the cage with the opening toward my face, and i look inside, aim and munch!
it works good, cause the crickets cant climb out and if they jump, they just hit the top of the jar.
bon apetite!

nice, i wish chameleons could type!