Hand feeding

[ViolentJ]

My Yemen seems to only want to be hand fed. He's had 3 locusts in with him since Saturday and hadn't shown any interest. Yesterday I offered him a mealworm out of my hand which he took, in the end he had 10. Today I thought I'd try the same with the locusts, picked one out of his enclosure, put it on my hand and offered it up and he took it straight away.

I don't mind hand feeding but is it a problem if I do? He's still got 2 locusts in with him at the moment.

 

[chameleon97]

My Yemen seems to only want to be hand fed. He's had 3 locusts in with him since Saturday and hadn't shown any interest. Yesterday I offered him a mealworm out of my hand which he took, in the end he had 10. Today I thought I'd try the same with the locusts, picked one out of his enclosure, put it on my hand and offered it up and he took it straight away.

I don't mind hand feeding but is it a problem if I do? He's still got 2 locusts in with him at the moment.

my cham is mostly hand fed, and shes just fine. she walks onto my hand when she eats

 

[Miss Lily]

Lily handfeeds too. I feed her locusts by hand every morning! Be careful not to feed too many mealworms- they have a high chitin level and are not so easily digested. Lily loves mealworms too, but she only gets them occasionally and I try to only give her the newly shed 'white' ones. Superworms are a better alternative to mealworms if your cham is big enough to eat them. Lily goes mad for newly shed supers - unfortunately they grow really slowly so they don't shed very often!

It always makes me smile when I feed Lily - it never fails to amuse me how the tongue just shoots out and 'zaps' the food!

 

[Lancecham]

Hand feeding isn't a problem as long as you have the time for it. But it may seem that the only way they will eat. If they are hungry enough, they will eat what is in the cage. Try to avoid having food hanging around in the cage for long periods of time. That way, when food is introduced in the cage, then it will get their attention.

 

[kenya]

Have you tried cup feeding? I find that my chams do better eating out of a cup because they know where to find food, they see me put it in, and I put it in an obvious spot under their basking branch so that the movement attracts them. I can also monitor how much they are eating and if they leave any bugs for too long, I can easily remove them when I know they are no longer gutloaded.

There are plenty of threads on how to make a cup feeder.

When I go to dole out food into the cups, I will offer the cham a few feeders by hand so I know they are getting some tongue exercise. I will also release a few, one at a time, onto the cage screen and make sure they zap it. They like to hunt and really go for it. It also keeps them active.

 

[Clifford]

There are dangers with handfeeding.
See if you can get it to cup feed like Kenya has suggested

 

[dodolah]

There are dangers with handfeeding.
See if you can get it to cup feed like Kenya has suggested

just wondering, can you elaborate more on the dangers with hand feeding?
I thought some clarifications are needed.

Thanks

 

[BocaJan]

My veiled male only eats from a cup. I used one of the compact UV bulbs for the first year of his life (I know...but I didn't know any better at the time) and he can't see the roaming crickets. He needs glasses. LOL He never eats anything off his screen so if one escapes his cup I remove it so it doesn't bite him at night. Those crickets can get pretty big!

 

[sandrachameleon]

I can think of one danger to hand feeding - getting accidentally bitten! LOL
Do try the cup feeding

 

[yoza717]

I can think of one danger to hand feeding - getting accidentally bitten! LOL

That is using the term literally....