my (experimental) auto feeder for crickets.

[mightyzug]

ok folks, my bad... i made a mistake with the pics, but i figured it out now. i'm gonna make this a really basic step by step just incase anyone hasn't made a cup feeder before. this is assuming you own a kricket keeper.

so we start with a plastic jug of some sort, and cut it open so you have a cup and at least half, preferably more, in walls / top. the idea is to make a opening large enough for your cham to hunt thru.

now in the bottom of the cup, on the side where you have left your wall, cut a small hole just big enough to fit one of your kricket keeper tubes.

next, we duct tape the tube into place, and glue a screen or, in my case, tape a piece of paper towel up over the tube opening. this gives the crix a place to climb w/o escaping. and it shows your cham where the food is. however when you do this make sure not to get your climbing ares too close to the edge of the cup or more crickets will escape.

now cut a small hole in your screen mesh wherever you want to install the feeder. you must have it lined up with wherever you are going to place the kricket keeper.

duct tape it all in place / cover up the gaps, and just slide your kricket keeper into place like so. add an extra empty tube or extra eggcrate hiding space to slow the rate the crickets come out into the feeder. after a few days you can reduce / remove extra hiding spots, depending on how many crickets you have the feeder attached to. and there you have it. i have only been playin with this for a week but it seems to work pretty well for my 6mo. vieled... he has access to all he wants but consistenly has been eatin only about 15 a day. if you implement this you should monitor it before leaving it alone for a weekend to make sure your cham isn't abusing the constant availablity

 

[mightyzug]

oh, and i forgot to add that you can poke small holes near the bottom of the cup for extra ventilation if you feel like it

 

[bg77]

very interesting.....

 

[mightyzug]

here are a couple action shots after a fresh cleaning and restock of the kricket keeper. sofar it's perfect, right after takin these pics my cham went over and got a cricket and most of them ran back down the tube right away. he hung out for maybe 10min. and was able to get a decent meal then he left it alone.

 

[ohiocham]

Super Sweet.....good Job!!!!!!!!

 

[bucky]

PERFECT! im gona make it this weekend,im not gonna attach the feeder tube to it,ill just dump the crickets in there when i get it. I like what youve done with the humidifier/mister thing too,but the tube in the cage,its smart.

 

[mightyzug]

thanks ya'll... yea the tube is in there just enough that i can cap off both ends and use it like a normal cup feeder, or leave it set up like i have pictured if i need to go out of town for a few days, or if i just don't wanna mess with him. i live a good distance away from 'town' so it can be hard to get a sitter much less a sitter that i would trust with my herp

 

[John33871]

wow, did the supplement tape thing work that you had talked about earlier, or did you dust them then put them in the cricket keeper? i would like to say very nice!

 

[mightyzug]

im not sure what you mean by supplement tape?? i never had a plan for that, i just dust them when i get them and put them in the keeper. for now i am using fluker's orange cube and water pillows in my kricket keeper... i havent looked deeper into keeping crickets yet but i am sure that will change too

 

[John33871]

oh, i thought you said something about that in one of your last threads, my mistake. maybe someone else said it. well i like your auto feeder took some thinking i bet. never would have thought about that. do you put some many in at a time?

 

[mightyzug]

thanks alot. i first did 100 and with 1 empty tube in the keeper it was good for about 4 days before they started to slow down significantly, i was good for another day or so after that, it gets slow. my goal was to have somethin that would automate his feeding for 1 week and i think this will make it happen, though it may underfeed him for the last couple of days... i think if he has as much as he wants all week then a couple days of scanty meals might be a good thing anyway... any opinions?

 

[davemailcall]

Man that is totally cool! Nothing worse than trying to catch crickets in those feeders. In the end, I have cricket poop, body parts, and cricket food all over my hands. Also keep the crickets a little cleaner.

 

[mightyzug]

i am looking into different feeder insects i can keep... sofar i have only been working with crickets. for anyone who keeps dubias would this setup work the same for them as it does the crickets?

 

[lele]

i am looking into different feeder insects i can keep... sofar i have only been working with crickets. for anyone who keeps dubias would this setup work the same for them as it does the crickets?

is the inside of the tube that goes from the keeper to the jug lined or rough? The dubias would slip, otherwise. I would think the crix would too so I am guessing it is. I think it would work for non-climbers except that they are, for the most part, nocturnal feeders, that said, they may not find their way back in so the cham would have access to them anyway. If I EVER get my order of bio-vine and other supplies from reptiledepot (WHY do I order from those guys??? - two freakin' weeks ago!) so I can redo Cy's cage I will experiment for my week long trip in December. I hope to have someone checking in but don't think I Will have the original daily help that I expected. Your ingenious idea came at the right time - now I hope my order does!

 

[Red Bishop]

I think there would be an issue with dusting. Don't crickets clean themselves pretty quickly. I thought I saw in this board somewhere that if crickets were left in the cham cage for like an hour they most likely would not have much of whatever was dusted on them.

 

[mightyzug]

I think there would be an issue with dusting.

pretty much. this was made as a temporary solution for being out of town, why i left it so i could cap it off at the top as well as the bottom of the tube, so it's a normal cup feeder if i cap it.

i dunno how fast they clean themselves but i tried giving the crickets a heavy dusting before i put them in, and they had visible amounts of dust on them (they coat the inside of the tube / bottom of the feeder real good) for about 3 days when left alone in there. again i dunno if heavy dusting is ok if there is no dusting later to balance it out... here is another spot where input would be nice

the inside of the tube is textured for climbing, lele if you or anyone else with dubias gives this thing a shot please let me know.

 

[pohchunyee]

How long does it takes for your chameleon to finish the whole colony of cricket inside the feeder?? I am going away for a few days, so I might need an semi-automatic feeder like yours.

 

[mightyzug]

depends on how many i put in there i guess how much the cham eats / how old, etc etc. i have been goin with 100 crickets for a week for my 6mo. vieled, about time to start lowering the amount i put in there see if it will still last the week and hope he will just eat less per day.

 

[lele]

Missing dusting for a few days or a week is not a big deal especially with older chams. Cyrus is a very sporadic feeder and for the most part will not cup feed so he really gets minimal dusting. Most to all of it is off by the time he gets to them so I just depend on feeding my feeders the best diet I can.

I have about a month before going away so will try some variables to what works best. I will try it with dubias and will let you know how it works. the "depot" reshipped my order today (REshipped? I don't think it was shipped in the first place!) so hopefully I will get it this week and get setup this weekend then test it out next week. I have to see if the humidifier tank will last a whole week, too.

 

[mightyzug]

you'll be alright there, i have one of the smallest humidifiers i could find and it makes it a week no problem running twice a day for 30min. each