stupid question

[Susy]

Hi!
I'm trying to learn as much as I can about all chameleon's stuff... and I think I have a little problem.... I don't like to handle bugs... specialy roaches. As far as I know, the best thing to do is to feed the chameleon with crickets and some kind of worms every day, and gutload them well... in adition give the cham some other insects for variety.

Do you guys actually take your feeders with your hands?
Does any of you have some kind of avoid-touching-bug technique?

I know.... this are very stupid questions... but the worse thing I can do is not to ask.

 

[Heika]

LOL! Here, a few old pics stored in photobucket. It didn't take me long to get over the heebies.

 

[Will Hayward]

If you aren't a fan of hard bugs, try silkworms. They look like marshmellows, feel like marshmellows, and are pretty cute...

 

[Jam]

I personally have always used a spoon to get the crickets, and my chams both learned that spoons = food and will nab crickets right off of the spoon. My old cham corey would actually come hussling over from the other side of her cage once she saw the spoon enter. The spoons are slippery enough that if you get a cricket in the middle of it, they usually fumble around long enough trying to get a good grasp that the cham can spot, aim, and eat before it runs off.

 

[bka]

I'm not a huge fan of bugs either. I use gut loaded crickets (I can't do mealworms, but ask my son to do it) and I was going to try silkworms.

This is what I do for crickets. I keep all the crickets in one of those little critter cages with egg crate. Then when it's time for a feeding I pick up the egg crate and put it inside my dusting bag (a fairly large plastic bag - like the ones you get if you buy your crickets from petsmart). and I shake the egg crate. crickets fall into the bag. Then I dust the crickets in the bag. Then from the bag, I pour them into the feeding cup. That way I don't really have to touch the crickets and I don't have many escapees.

I have to say, though, that after a couple weeks I got completely used to crickets and don't mind them at all. I don't think they are gross or anything. But I really don't think I could ever do roaches.

hope that helps

 

[Kalibr03]

crickets

I keep a bucket-o-crickets and I never have to touch them. I just shake out one of their hiding spots into a cup. Then I dust them in the cup and dump them into the feeding dish. I don't mind bugs but doing it this way is just quick and easy. After you get a cham your view on many things will change and I doubt you will view your feeders as icky gross bugs.

 

[Shelby]

I just use a pair of wooden bamboo tongs I bought from a pet store. They also have some metal ones in various sizes. I just pick up the worms, toss them in a plastic cup, shake the calcium and vitamins on them, then pick them up and put them in my chameleon's feeding cup.

 

[Chamgirl]

I don't mind handling insects these days but for a long time I didn't want to touch the locusts so I used tweezers for this. Otherwise I suggest you shake a few insects from their container into the viv.

 

[Susy]

glad to know all that

Ok! Thanks for all your comments! Now I have to find out if any "on-line" store would ship the bugs to me here in México... I'm going to e-mail some websites... Any idea would help.