Gallon jug “cup” feeder

[chameleonoobie]

Here’s a bigger version of a cup feeder, made from a windshield wiper fluid jug. The only real modifications were making a little barrier lip across the bottom of the opening with some of the plastic cut from the window so the crickets don’t crawl out the front, and including a little strip when I cut it so I could curl it around and hot glue it into a circle to pass a cable through. I hang this in one corner with a cable on hooks that is easy to remove and slide through the loop, so it doesn’t move very much from wind or chameleons leaning on it. I also hot glue a piece of screen up the back so the crickets crawl right up into view. I keep some water gel crystals, calcium dust and green cricket cubes in there so they stay alive until they are eaten. My only problem are the little anoles that get in and rob the food from the chameleons, but they might end up being a meal themselves. All glued up with the hot glue, very quick easy thing. Good for a larger cage or modify with appropriate sized container for any sized cage.
Enjoy!

 

[DavidBuchan]

Very nice - I just use a plant pot. I superglued in a lid from a waxworm pot, so crickets can't get out the drainage holes. Your one is more horizontal than usual...........I like that.

 

[daveo]

Nice job on bracing the front of the cut out. I tried with a milk jug and a windshield bottle but the plastic was too flimsy. You found a nice workaround for that. I found a plastic pitcher at Walmart that had nice thick plastic that was only 2 bucks so I used that. I glued some fake plant leaves to the outside and it is nicely camouflaged in my enclosure.

 

[heartben]

can any crickets escape this? i suppose if the climb up that wall they probably cant see behind them very well? i dont know a whole lot about crickets but if the escape rate is very low to none i will definitely try this.

 

[daveo]

The only time mine escape is if I startle them and the jump just right. otherwise they cannot get out

 

[meleondollars]

On average how many crickets do you have in there at a time? Do you restock when they are all gone or do you constantly add more to keep the number up? This intrigues me.

 

[chameleonoobie]

I don’t count how many I put in there, but I restock it pretty much every day. I have a tall plastic cup with some calcium dust in the bottom, I tap a bit of egg crate from my cricket bin so a few fall into the cup, give them a shake and dump the cup into the feeder jug. I haven’t noticed any jumping out. They seem to be naturally attracted to the screen and crawl up. I guess they could jump off and out from there too if they were smart enough, but I guess they are not. Or maybe they have dust over their eyes or something. I’ve put horn worms, BSF larvae and just about everything in there too, seems to work having that lip across the bottom of the opening to keep everything in the jug.