Id like you to meet..OLIVER AMBILOBE..

[jesseesperto]

HI everyone,

I have finally done enough planning & shopping. Yesterday Oliver came home. He is a 7 week old male blue bar ambilobe. He is doing great so far ..He seems happy in his cage and is drinking and eating. He gets scared real easy..we are very excited. It has been a while since I have been here. After our vieled cham ,Elizabeth died I was sad for a while. I cant tell you how happy we are now..
We named him Oliver "obe won" Ambilobe..lol.. Oliver is so little. I will post pictures soon.

I do have a question.. why do some use feeding bowls? pros and cons?
I have always just put food in the cage and let the hunt begin..

Is it a smart idea to give him butter worms? that are like twice the size of wax worms? I dont think it is a good idea. It was recomended but I think he is to small.Oliver cant be more than 3 inchs.. He is young and If anything happens to him I will go berzerk

So it is great to be back..

 

[Tygerr]

There are a number of reasons why feeder bowls/cups are used:

1) To prevent insects from escaping. Sometimes people house their chams in cages that aren't cricket-proof, and so by feeding the crickets from a contained, you prevent them from ending up all over the house, and rather ending up in your cham's stomach.
The same thing applies to superworms and mealworms. If you let them loose in the cage, they'd try to burrow into anything they could, like potplants. For my mealworms, burrowing usually means slipping through the mesh on the drainage holes, where they meet a watery demise in the drainage bucket.

2) Young chams often struggle to find their food a large enclosure. But putting food in a low, clear (or at least quite open) container makes it much easier for the cham to find and catch its food each day.

3) You are able to monitor the cham's food intake better. This is usually helpful for young or sickly chams. When free-ranging food, the insects can sometimes escape or get lost in the plants in the cage, so you won't be able to tell how many of the feeder insects are actually getting eaten. It's easier to count those eaten from a feeder cup.

4) It's generally not recommended to leave feeder insects (especially crickets) in a cage for long periods of time (they shouldn't really be left in overnight). A feeder cup makes it easier to remove uneaten insects each night.

Notwithstanding all those reasons in favour of cup-feeding, it is good to free-range insects too. It has been said that chams get lazy when cup-feeding: the get less exercise if food is handed to them 'on a plate'. And also they don't have to shoot their tongue as far to catch prey - some people have said that this may lead to a shortening of the tongue.

I generally do both. I always cup feed mealworms and superworms, and generally free-range crickets and silkworms. But every so often I like to cup-feed everything for a few days to monitor food intake properly.

 

[jleahl]

I'm sure you've heard this before, but I think the rule of thumb is to feed prey that is no bigger than the space between the cham's eyes; so probably the butterworms might be a bit large for him.

 

[roo_71]

I completely agree with Tygerr’s cup feeding response.

I would hold off on the butter worms for now. I also want to point out that their “juice” can possibly give a rash. I am not 100% sure about this but pretty darn close. I suspected this about a year ago with my veiled – had weird rash around his mouth that looked like something spilled on him – a day after feeding him a few butter worms. About 2 weeks ago I fed my female carpet 4 butter worms via her cup, came back an hour later 2 worms were gone and she had the same looking rash my veiled had. To me, it seemed like the butter worms were the culprit. The rash doesnt seem to cause any problems and goes away after about a month and faster then that if the cham sheds.

They are toxic things when they die and can literally melt plastic plant pots as they decompose. I still feed them as a rare treat but wouldn’t do it on a weekly basis.

Good luck with your new critter … may the force be with him … always.

-roo