Holy smokes...what a morning I had today. Well, last night I moved my male Ambilobe from his juvenile set-up to his new permanent home that I built.
Today was the first feeding...and boy was it memorable. Considering that his new cage is about 10 times bigger than his starter cage, I was worried that he'd have a hard time finding his food, especially because there are so many hiding spots for the crickets. I considered cup feeding, but wanted to give him some incentive to hunt and explore his new habitat. I normally only feed 5-6 crickets at a time. Considering the size of his new cage, I decided to supply 12. Well, of course my wife was anxious to see the little guy eat in his new cage, so we had an audience.
So, about 30 seconds after I drop all 12 crickets in the cage, one of them finds their way right out the top and plops onto the floor at our feet, at which point I start scratching my head...hmmmmmm. Shortly there after, a second cricket is scurrying by my feet, then I look up and see one crawling on the drapes over the window that the cage is next to....oooops. Luckily my wife is understanding and simply walks away saying, "I don't want to be listening to crickets chirping in the living room all night"....understood, I think to myself.
***side note: Well, I found a fundamental flaw in my cage design...I made the top of my cage out of a chicken wire type metal screen to provide maximum penetration of lighting...which the crickets can easily fit through...derrrrrr***
I spent the next 45 minutes waiting for each of the crickets to find their way out...or make themselves visible enough that I could catch them. I almost had a heart attack at one point. One of the crickets was walking on the rim of the top side of the cage,...and my cham was about to try to shoot it through the metal screen! I had horrible images of his tongue getting ripped off. I quickly reached my hand inside cage and scared him away from his attack as I tried to catch the cricket.
Well after I rounded all the little buggers up, I found a piece of tupperware that they couldn't jump out of, put them in it, and placed it in the cage...of course he's wanted nothing to do with it all day.
Hopefully he'll take to it. I was thinking I'll move it around to keep him foraging for his food at least. I'm curious to see how this plays out....hmmmmmmm.
Today was the first feeding...and boy was it memorable. Considering that his new cage is about 10 times bigger than his starter cage, I was worried that he'd have a hard time finding his food, especially because there are so many hiding spots for the crickets. I considered cup feeding, but wanted to give him some incentive to hunt and explore his new habitat. I normally only feed 5-6 crickets at a time. Considering the size of his new cage, I decided to supply 12. Well, of course my wife was anxious to see the little guy eat in his new cage, so we had an audience.
So, about 30 seconds after I drop all 12 crickets in the cage, one of them finds their way right out the top and plops onto the floor at our feet, at which point I start scratching my head...hmmmmmm. Shortly there after, a second cricket is scurrying by my feet, then I look up and see one crawling on the drapes over the window that the cage is next to....oooops. Luckily my wife is understanding and simply walks away saying, "I don't want to be listening to crickets chirping in the living room all night"....understood, I think to myself.
***side note: Well, I found a fundamental flaw in my cage design...I made the top of my cage out of a chicken wire type metal screen to provide maximum penetration of lighting...which the crickets can easily fit through...derrrrrr***
I spent the next 45 minutes waiting for each of the crickets to find their way out...or make themselves visible enough that I could catch them. I almost had a heart attack at one point. One of the crickets was walking on the rim of the top side of the cage,...and my cham was about to try to shoot it through the metal screen! I had horrible images of his tongue getting ripped off. I quickly reached my hand inside cage and scared him away from his attack as I tried to catch the cricket.
Well after I rounded all the little buggers up, I found a piece of tupperware that they couldn't jump out of, put them in it, and placed it in the cage...of course he's wanted nothing to do with it all day.
Hopefully he'll take to it. I was thinking I'll move it around to keep him foraging for his food at least. I'm curious to see how this plays out....hmmmmmmm.
