How can you tell your Calumma malthe is hungry?

[jajeanpierre]

You find them digging up the bottom of their enclosure! I fed him three fat silk worms but he was still roaming the bottom (second picture).

Yes, this is a male; I'm positive. No, he is not too hot; I checked. He's just hungry. I've found this species digs for food. It is very disconcerting when it is a female doing the digging.

Unfortunately, this is a species with no care sheets. I've had to figure them out as I go. Fortunately I've had help along the way from @jpowell86 and a few others who have kept this very rare (in captivity) species.

Sorry for the grainy pictures.

Wild caught Calumma malthe imported February 2017.

 

[Andee]

"why are you taking picture, human? You are supposed to be a vending machine for food!"

 

[TCMontium]

Do other keepers also report this behavior in malthe? Very interesting. Can't it be about moisture in the soil helping him shed?
Hopefully we will see more of these guys from you

 

[jajeanpierre]

Do other keepers also report this behavior in malthe? Very interesting. Can't it be about moisture in the soil helping him shed?
Hopefully we will see more of these guys from you

There isn't a lot of information available on them nor are there a lot of keepers. @jpowell86 has found the digging behavior with a closely related species, Calumma crypticum. They seem to dig if they are hot and dig if they are hungry.

 

[jamest0o0]

Wondering, if they dig, do they maybe eat types of insect eggs, grubs, etc in the wild?

 

[JoeDigiorgio]

I wonder how hard it would be to source beetle grubs of a clean source and reasonable size.

 

[jamest0o0]

Fruit beetles have good sized grubs from what I hear. They have string bites though and I'm not sure how large these chams are.