loose crickets?

[sharlaxle]

Hello all.
I have a male 6 month old panther. I usually cup feed and sometimes he eats and sometimes he doesn't. (gut loaded crickets) Now when I let one loose in his cage the great hunter comes out and he gobbles it down. Now I have a cage with a lot of live plants and a moss bed in there so I am afraid to let more then one go incase I can't find it and it chews on him later. How many do you think would it be safe to let go in his cage? I feed in the morning then have to leave for work. I usually feed 5 in morning and 5 in evening. All dusted with calcium w/o d3 ( with d3 and mutivit 2 times a month).
Know I am probably paranoid, but one of the first posts I read was about crickets eating and killing someone's cham, and not gonna let that happen to carrots.
Thanks for the advice.
Sharl

 

[BeBoSON]

Hello all.
I have a male 6 month old panther. I usually cup feed and sometimes he eats and sometimes he doesn't. (gut loaded crickets) Now when I let one loose in his cage the great hunter comes out and he gobbles it down. Now I have a cage with a lot of live plants and a moss bed in there so I am afraid to let more then one go incase I can't find it and it chews on him later. How many do you think would it be safe to let go in his cage? I feed in the morning then have to leave for work. I usually feed 5 in morning and 5 in evening. All dusted with calcium w/o d3 ( with d3 and mutivit 2 times a month).
Know I am probably paranoid, but one of the first posts I read was about crickets eating and killing someone's cham, and not gonna let that happen to carrots.
Thanks for the advice.
Sharl

When you let crickets go into the enclosure. They usually hide somewhat, but then sure enough they are usually all bunched up on the top corner where your basking light is.
Just make sure when night time comes, there isn't mass amounts of crickets left.

 

[Newguy]

so you would say 1-2 crickets over night is problly going to be ok? (not on a daily basis) just curious

 

[Dave]

1-2 crickets won't hurt him.

 

[TyggyToo]

Chew on him?? Crickets will turn on your chameleon at night? Whoa!

 

[yankfanthom]

Hello all.
I have a male 6 month old panther. I usually cup feed and sometimes he eats and sometimes he doesn't. (gut loaded crickets) Now when I let one loose in his cage the great hunter comes out and he gobbles it down. Now I have a cage with a lot of live plants and a moss bed in there so I am afraid to let more then one go incase I can't find it and it chews on him later. How many do you think would it be safe to let go in his cage? I feed in the morning then have to leave for work. I usually feed 5 in morning and 5 in evening. All dusted with calcium w/o d3 ( with d3 and mutivit 2 times a month).
Know I am probably paranoid, but one of the first posts I read was about crickets eating and killing someone's cham, and not gonna let that happen to carrots.
Thanks for the advice.
Sharl

You should be alright leaving a few in there. That way if your cham feels like a snack he has one. LOL

 

[carol5208]

I say remove the moss bed so they have no where to hide. The moss will also breed bacteria after awhile getting wet and all and lastly you wouldn't want your cham to get a mouthful of moss(which he could choke on) shooting for a cricket. JMO....

 

[Sticktongue]

I would do what carol said also. I have been going into a few pet shops that hold chams lately that have that on the bottom. It seems that the crickets stay on the moss bed. 2 saturdays ago, i saw a jackson shoot and get moss stuck on his tongue and have a hell of a time getting it off. then later another place i saw an ambanja do the same thing. I have never used it personally, but thats just what ive seen. I think it'd cause more problems. But thats just my opinion.

I dont use substrate. I toss all my crickets straight into the tree. the ones that dont stick onto a leaf find their way up the screen or the tree rather quickly.