Clint526
Member
Questions about my new male ambilobe.
- Thread starter Clint526
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JGspecial
Established Member
a 100 is pretty steep. you should really put in as many crickets as he will eat and make sure to take out what he doesnt. crickets can bite in the night and may give him a skin infection. id say try maybe 15, if he eats them all then put more. superworms shells can impact a chameleon, it has never happened to me but so i am told. i usually give mine about 5-10 a week.
ChamDE86
Avid Member
I really hope "100 cricks at a time" was a typo. 1 adult cricket alone can kill a baby chameleon. As for superworms, I like to feed about 2-3 a week, but others have fed more with no issues as long as you're gutloading properly. Chameleons are slow, so your quick movements are a bit threatening to him. Take everything slow and be patient.
Clint526
Member
No, you heard me right. I put 100 in, have been doing it with my female since I've had her with 0 issues. My male is a monster so I don't worry the least about him. He gets 3/4" crickets, she gets 1/4 inch. I'd like to feed em as needed but I have nothing set up for crickets to keep large quantities yet but I do for the superworms. My set up is pretty tall, each has about 40" encloser.
BrendenBilodeau
Member
The waterfall in the top one concerns me. If you want it for the aesthetic appeal, I'm all for it as long as it stays clean... like every day clean. those things only serve as breeding grounds for bacteria and if your cham drinks from it, it could expose itself to potential infection. just keep the fogger and give your chams lettuce instead. they get water from it enough so that they don't need much more water than regular mists.
BrendenBilodeau
Member
Exactly. You can't put a light inside the fountain, which is where the bacteria grows, rapidly. I learned pretty quick it was too much of a pain in the ass to keep it in there. it didn't serve as a drinking option for my cham anyway.
BrendenBilodeau
Member
Oh good! as for the lettuce question, it should have no problem eating lettuce. I feed my veiled romaine all the time as a way to give her natural nutrients and water since I don't have proper drainage in my cage to regularly mist the leaves sufficiently.
carol5208
Chameleon Enthusiast
I am assuming you are dusting the crickets with calcium? If not, you should be and I cannot imagine the calcium staying on them for days or maybe even longer than a week before he eats them. Also, what are the crickets eating while they are running loose in the enclosure? They should be properly gutloaded before feeding so I am not sure how you are accomplishing that. How long have you been doing this procedure with your female?
Clint526
Member
There's a spot behind the waterfall that only the crickets can get too, I drop cricket cubes back there. And yes I dust all crickets, I assume some are cleaned off by the time they get eaten but I've been told not to feed them constantly dusted bugs anyway. Also I keep small amounts of oats in the bottom also for the crickets.
trickedoutbiker
Avid Member
I'd assume that if 1/4 die, then why haven't you at least started putting in a 1/4 LESS than what you already are? Bad idea to begin with. WAAAAAYYYY too many crickets running loose. You say you have had zero problems so far.... SO FAR, Till the crickets eat your cham alive in its sleep or bite him to death :-(
My question is, if you don't have anywhere to story that many crickets, then why are you getting so many at a time? Are you getting them from a local store (which can sell you smaller amounts, I'm positive) or are you ordering them online and that's the smallest amount you can purchase?
If you ARE getting them online, then they will come in a box with egg carton to climb on 99.9% of the time. So um, like.... keep them in that and gutload them in that and only drop a few in the cham cage a day as needed? Would be SOOOO easy. You wouldn't have too many roaming the cage and you wouldn't have them all dying. And you could dust them and NONE of it would be coming off by the time your cham got them. IMAGINE THAT, saving calcium dust AND crickets!
OR..... if you are getting them local (or even if you get them online) ---- how hard is it to go to a Petco or Petsmart and buy a cricket keeping bin? There are small and large sizes available. Or you could order one online, off of Amazon. Very easy to do. ORRRRRRRRR > go to Walmart, buy a good size plastic tote or plastic container or tubberware. And poke lots of holes in the lid of it for air or rig up some screen as a lid.
All of those are very easy to do. Dropping 100 crickets in the cage at a time is just very, very bad. A very big no no. If you researched chameleons like every chameleon owner should, then you should already know the dangers of doing this. That, and you are throwing money away with crickets dying on you. Take that money you are throwing away, and invest in a bin or container for them. You own a chameleon - already expensive hobby. A cricket keeper bin is like, $10 for a small and $20 for a big. Or a plastic tote or container would run in that range to. Much better if you do this.
I get 100 crickets every two weeks. And use them as main feeders for my cham and throw in lots of other insects here and there. I gutload them crickets for two weeks. I buy them slightly smaller than I want them because a good gutload after two weeks and your crickets will have grown some. I keep 50 in one container, and 50 in another. New food in the cricket dishes every three days, and clean them out once a week. Guess how many of my 100 crickets die in two weeks? 2. maybe 3. 4 or 5 if I'm having a bad two weeks. That's WAAAAAYYYYY better than 1/4 of your dump dying. And when mine die, I immediately take them out of the cricket bins when I find them. You don't know why your cricket died. You never do. Did another cricket attack it and kill it? Did it starve for some reason? Was it diseased and died? That's why I take mine out. Your method.... your cham will still eat a dead cricket. Now, that virus your cricket might of had that killed it, is in the belly of your cham. I see a vet visit in your future...... :-(
Not criticizing you... to each his own I guess.... I'm just giving you valuable advice that I hope you will at least think about......
My question is, if you don't have anywhere to story that many crickets, then why are you getting so many at a time? Are you getting them from a local store (which can sell you smaller amounts, I'm positive) or are you ordering them online and that's the smallest amount you can purchase?
If you ARE getting them online, then they will come in a box with egg carton to climb on 99.9% of the time. So um, like.... keep them in that and gutload them in that and only drop a few in the cham cage a day as needed? Would be SOOOO easy. You wouldn't have too many roaming the cage and you wouldn't have them all dying. And you could dust them and NONE of it would be coming off by the time your cham got them. IMAGINE THAT, saving calcium dust AND crickets!
OR..... if you are getting them local (or even if you get them online) ---- how hard is it to go to a Petco or Petsmart and buy a cricket keeping bin? There are small and large sizes available. Or you could order one online, off of Amazon. Very easy to do. ORRRRRRRRR > go to Walmart, buy a good size plastic tote or plastic container or tubberware. And poke lots of holes in the lid of it for air or rig up some screen as a lid.
All of those are very easy to do. Dropping 100 crickets in the cage at a time is just very, very bad. A very big no no. If you researched chameleons like every chameleon owner should, then you should already know the dangers of doing this. That, and you are throwing money away with crickets dying on you. Take that money you are throwing away, and invest in a bin or container for them. You own a chameleon - already expensive hobby. A cricket keeper bin is like, $10 for a small and $20 for a big. Or a plastic tote or container would run in that range to. Much better if you do this.
I get 100 crickets every two weeks. And use them as main feeders for my cham and throw in lots of other insects here and there. I gutload them crickets for two weeks. I buy them slightly smaller than I want them because a good gutload after two weeks and your crickets will have grown some. I keep 50 in one container, and 50 in another. New food in the cricket dishes every three days, and clean them out once a week. Guess how many of my 100 crickets die in two weeks? 2. maybe 3. 4 or 5 if I'm having a bad two weeks. That's WAAAAAYYYYY better than 1/4 of your dump dying. And when mine die, I immediately take them out of the cricket bins when I find them. You don't know why your cricket died. You never do. Did another cricket attack it and kill it? Did it starve for some reason? Was it diseased and died? That's why I take mine out. Your method.... your cham will still eat a dead cricket. Now, that virus your cricket might of had that killed it, is in the belly of your cham. I see a vet visit in your future...... :-(
Not criticizing you... to each his own I guess.... I'm just giving you valuable advice that I hope you will at least think about......
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