Raising feeders in cage idea. Good or bad?

[Chamero]

Hey, I am currently working on a way to get my bug colonies living inside the cage with my chams. I feed a variety of feeders (dubia, crix, supers,) on the regular and others when available, but mainly wanted to focus on these three.

The problems I foresee as of now would be monitoring amounts of food or having the bugs hide during the day.

Anyway, as of now, for the roaches, I’m thinking of a plastic gutter cut in half long ways, with high enough walls so the roaches cant get out. On one end, it will be blocked off with a wall and the other will lead to a small house-like box. 2"H x 5" L x 5"W. The gutter itself, and box, will be suspended about mid cage and will run at least 2'.

For the supers I was gonna put below the basking spot, suspended again but at a lower level, and have a square tupperware container, no top, about 6" long and 6" wide. I would then place the bran flakes only filling half the container, the rest empty, like sand on a beach or something.

Does anyone raise their bugs in their cham cages? Has anyone attempted to?
Are there reasons why people dont?

Really, Im just lazy and want everything living wild and being pretty much self-sufficient.

 

[JoshCrane1]

how were you planning on supplementing?

 

[Chamero]

Ahh... I actually havnt thought about that...good point. haha.

Ok, so what if I scratch the Superworm idea and just do the roaches.

I wont be able to supplement the roaches, but will be able to offer them all necessary fruits and veg's.

Would I be able to get by just supplementing Supers and Crix?

 

[JoshCrane1]

Ahh... I actually havnt thought about that...good point. haha.

Ok, so what if I scratch the Superworm idea and just do the roaches.

I wont be able to supplement the roaches, but will be able to offer them all necessary fruits and veg's.

Would I be able to get by just supplementing Supers and Crix?

you should only be supplementing a few feeders, and lightly. so really, you can just supplement crix. and let the rest inside. but chameleons tend to get picky and also spoiled. ive toyed with the idea here, but a few more probs may arise, maybe someone else can chime in.

 

[Julirs]

You do not want to let your chamleons eat all they want. There are multiple problems caused by obesity and even more issues with females and overeating.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Yeah .... bad idea.

-Brad

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

It would be wonderful if we could do that, but, frankly, it seems like it would be MUCH more work and just a big hassle. Not to mention the fact that, ultimately, I don't think it would work.

Realize I haven't actually tried it- so here's what occurs to me off the top of my head:

The roaches need VERY warm temps in order to breed well. If you kept the whole cage warm enough for the roaches to breed sufficiently, it would be too warm an ambient temp for your cham.

The roaches would hide.

The crickets also need warm temps to breed.

The crickets would crawl onto your cham at night and chew on him/her.

The crickets would escape from the cage when they are tiny.

You would not be able to monitor or control the amount your cham was eating.

You would have to provide substrate (egg laying medium for crickets), which is dangerous for chams. The substrate would have to be kept warm and moist.

In order to meet all the requirements- you would have to be jumping through so many hoops - that you might just frustrate yourself, and waste time and money.

 

[Chamero]

OK guys thanks, exactly the type of input i needed. Damn, thought it was the idea to revolutionize cham keeping. Guess ill keep tryin....

 

[Vibrant Chameleons]

Bad idea. It would turn into a mess when you mist the cages. A lot would most likely drown in the water. More hassle then good.