my (experimental) auto feeder for crickets.

[Scotty]

Crickets are predomonently nocturnal, that's why they hang in the "black" tube during the day....Do you find that the crickets are mainly hanging in there during the day when your cham wants to eat? I would assume that they don't "voluntarily" cruise out of the tube in daylight.
Other than that possible hiccup, I reckon you've done a good job, well done!

 

[mightyzug]

thanks and no, they 'voluntarily' go out into the light of the cup feeder to climb around, and they go back into the tube. they do mostly stay in the tubes, but there is no shortage of curious ones wandering up into the feeder for zim to eat. they just have to get close to the end of the tube and he can get them from inside there too... also i usually feed him first thing in the am, so he normally will go pick off a couple crickets just before his lights come on for the day and randomly will go back and get one whenever they show themselves.

on the 5th day is when i remove the extra tube or hiding to keep the crix comin at a somewhat consistent pace. all is perfectly just as i planned it, i see no reason why this wouldn't keep him fed for the full week while i will be gone over the holidays.

he is just about 6mo. now and as i said i need to start lowering his food intake... any suggestions? should i gradually lower it over a few weeks or should i start right off next week with somethin like 60 or 75 instead of the 100 crix i have been usin.

 

[Scotty]

Man, that's really cool!!
If they cruise out like you say, your cham will be accustomed to this (as you said) and zap them at his need... awesome!
You know what you should do... place some crix food in the feeder cup to coax the crix out and they too will eventually know where the food is to eat, so more inclined to venture out of their security tube and bingo, cham food.
Use a dry food in the feeder so it wont go bad whilst you are away.
I'm gonna give ot a go, well done again, work on the aesthetics and patent it I reckon!
Cheers
Scott

 

[mightyzug]

lol thanks alot. but he really has a pretty plentiful / consistent supply of crickets w/o anything extra to coax them up the tube... maybe im just lucky though you could maybe add some cricket food to the cup toward the end of the week as they start to thin out in the keeper... but i don't really see a need for it.

someone around here made a cup feeder with vines and whatnot glued all over it so it blended in nicely to the cham habitat, that would probably be the next step but i doubt i will incorporate that one

 

[mightyzug]

looks like im not the only one who is happy with the design either

 

[Scotty]

LOL Looks like he knows the hand that feeds him....

 

[Dyesub Dave]

I love this idea but I shudder at the thought of cutting a whole in my beautiful 175 gal. flexarium. I wonder if there's a way I could just hook this on to one of the poles and put the tube in near the zipper part and tape around it?

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.

Is it a special tubing that you buy or do you texture it yourself ... and how?

Great .... ANOTHER PROJECT !! LOL

Dyesub Dave.

 

[mightyzug]

it's nothin special, the tubing is just one of the 4 tubes that comes included with the kricket keeper, they are textured for the crickets

i don't see why it wouldn't work in the corner w/ zippers around the tube

 

[Phatturk]

I love this idea but I shudder at the thought of cutting a whole in my beautiful 175 gal. flexarium. I wonder if there's a way I could just hook this on to one of the poles and put the tube in near the zipper part and tape around it?



Is it a special tubing that you buy or do you texture it yourself ... and how?

Great .... ANOTHER PROJECT !! LOL

Dyesub Dave.

I don't think you would need to cut your flexarium. You could just put it inside the cage on the floor couldn't you? And also kinda black out the sides of the Critterkeeper so your cham dosen't attack them through the plastic.

BTW-from one automation geek to Another "NICE JOB" I have actually thought a lot about this, Please keep us posted as to how this works out for you in the long run.
I am building a similar thing right now with a motor but it will only be able to feed Meal Worms and Roaches I think, or any critters that can't cling on to things. The design is a lot like those containers that the Lead Ball Waits for fishing come in, almost like a pie sectioned off into slices with an opening only on one section. The motor turns the plastic and the critters fall into the bowl.

 

[mightyzug]

I don't think you would need to cut your flexarium. You could just put it inside the cage on the floor couldn't you? And also kinda black out the sides of the Critterkeeper so your cham dosen't attack them through the plastic.

i thought about doin this too, but it depends on your setup and cage size i guess. for me it woulda taken up too much space inside the enclosure and there wasn't any really great way to keep water from gettin into the kricket keeper in such a small space. for a 175gal it could be doable just depending on what the watering setup looks like

 

[bucky]

OH! i forgot,i put a paper towel on mine,and my chams tongue got stuck on it! Know of any other stuff crickets climb up but my chams tongue wont get stuck on?

 

[Smitty]

I glue screen to the inside of my feeder for them to climb on. Works great and lasts forever and his tounge won't get stuck.

 

[bucky]

Meh,i guess ill have to cut the screen off of my chams old cage,what about cardboard?

 

[mightyzug]

nope, whatever you use it has to have texture so they can climb it. never thought about the tongue gettin stuck though, guess i'm gonna have to find some screen and change mine out.

 

[Dyesub Dave]

How about VELCRO ... the softer side?

BTW - I couldn't put the cricket containers in my enclosure as I have 2 HUGE pots in there for the Ficus and Hibiscus!

Dyesub Dave.

 

[bucky]

Hmmmmmmmm,i tried duct tape,nope didnt work. Ya,his got stuck and got the tape holding the towel off!(he didnt swallow it though). Ill think of a few other things.

 

[mightyzug]

so i can't keep dubias.. .gf won't have roaches in the house i read somewhere that somebody was using a kricket keeper to keep thier worms... anyone think superworms would climb up the feeder for me? guess i will find out soon enough, they look kinda squirmy so it may work

 

[Dyesub Dave]

I tried the strips of velcro on the inside of the feeder and it worked great. However my cham gets his head stuck in the feeder and keeps climbing on it. I had it attached with velcro as well but he knocked it down.

Perhaps with a few adjustments I can get this to work. I can get strips of vecro with adhesive backing from work. So I just stuck a couple of these to the inside of the feeder and the crickets had no problem climbing up. Unfortunately this cham is currently off crickets and will only eat silkworms and butterwors right now .... FIGURES !!

So now I've got one good solution and several other problems to figure out!! LOL

Dyesub Dave.

 

[mightyzug]

a little update and wanted to know if anyone tried this with dubias or other feeders? i tried with the supers w/ no luck getting them to climb up the keeper tube, but no suprise there really.

also i had to re make this when i built my new cage, i used a 3/4 in. ribbed plastic flex tube from the electric section at lowe's to just extend the keeper tube. so now my keeper is on top of the habitat and the tube runs down to a feeder jug. i found out the hard way that if the tube runs UP rather than down to the pen then the crix have trouble climbing the extended distance. also eventually my double habitat will house a second cham and the feeder will have a second tube to supply the other cham, hopefully it will be able to handle both of them.

 

[mrcackums]

awesome ingenuity. Do you got any type of feed or something to attract the crickets out of the feeder terrarium? or do they seem to be attracted to the area anyways?