How to feed Chams a superworm

[orangedoodles]

I am fairly a fairly new chameleon owner. I have had him for almost 2 months. My guess is that he is around 4.5 months and he is around 7". He is in a 25"x25"x36" open air enclosure. The problem is that he will no venture near the bottom of the cage. The crickets are all placed in the jungle that I have provided him but they always end up on the bottom of the cage or climbing the walls. The only problem I have with this is that my cham will NOT venture anywhere near the bottom. He will gladly chase crickets all around the top of his cage and even hang from the top of his cage occasionally. When I start feeding him superworms how will i give it to him? just place them on the leaves? And any suggestions to the cricket problem. The crickets always hop onto the bottom of the cage and I am constantly having to replace them pack into the "jungle." I have placed vines leading all the way to the cage floor but he refuses to go halfway to the bottom of his cage. Temperature is still fairly warm down there (70F) and the humidity is great. SO can someone help me with my lost crickets problem? And how excatly do you feed superworms/mealworms to a cham besides in a bowl?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

What species?

Here is a feeding container that is very effective:

http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=79

-Brad

 

[joshdhensley]

I just let all my feeders loose in the cage. Your cham will find them. It lets them "hunt" or their food. The worms will climb the screen eventually and the cham will get it.

 

[blackbetty]

I just let all my feeders loose in the cage. Your cham will find them. It lets them "hunt" or their food. The worms will climb the screen eventually and the cham will get it.

For those of us who use Mesh though, the worms and crickets are able to chew through so wandering is not an option.

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

Here's how all of my chameleons eat their supers (head first ):

Since my adults only get a couple of feeders every other day, they don't let a superworm crawl on the screen more than a few seconds. Supers are great screen crawlers.

 

[sandrachameleon]

I cup feed supers.

 

[Ricardo]

Mine cham accepts all kind of feeding. From my hands, from a cup, and she captures the roamers too. Just on thing she hates: the pincer!!! necer accepted anything from it!!! And she loves supers!

Ricardo

 

[orangedoodles]

Oh thank you guys so much. I will try and make one of the containers. And I didnt realize that superworms climbed the screen cage. And I guess he'll be really attracted to the superworms so that they wont have time to chew. I know that one of my larger crickets already chewed a whole in my reptarium top where the lamp is in place. Sorry I never realized I wrote so much. And its a SambavaxTamatave Panther Chameleon. I n a little bit he should be able to catch them form far away as they climb up the cage right?

 

[orangedoodles]

Hey is there a rule of thumb of how big should the crickets be that you are feeding to your chameleon? (like the space between his eyes, size of chest, etc.)

 

[sandrachameleon]

That's right - the space between the chameleons eyes is roughly equivalent to the width of its throat.

I use coffee mugs as feeder cups in most enclosures. Work great!

 

[ciafardo 4]

sandra do you sit the coffee mug on the bottom?

 

[sandrachameleon]

No, the mugs and bowels (two per cage) are attached to the sides of the cages (I dont like or use screen cages, mine are sturdy home-made wood and pegboard, so I can attach anything anywhere pretty easy). But they'll go to the bottom if a cricket (when I am not cup feeding) falls down there. So I have no doubt that putting the mug on the bottom would make any difference - they'd go down to get their food if they had to. They like eating very much

 

[mjw33897]

I always thought super worms shells were to hard for the chameleon.Has anyone else heard this.Ive never fed him them because I thought they were bad for them.

 

[laurie]

Howdy,

Here's how all of my chameleons eat their supers (head first ):

Since my adults only get a couple of feeders every other day, they don't let a superworm crawl on the screen more than a few seconds. Supers are great screen crawlers.

Dave you have the most amazing photos, i really enjoy them, thanks