...Oh, the other Eric...



Eric, (god it's weird addressing some other person with the same name as you)

Crickets running loose is not a bad thing. In fact, for some species bowl feedign is a bad thing. Kinyonga may have had experience with deremensis like this - the suckers will NOT move from tongue range of the bowl. Either that, or they ignore anything in a bowl, like mine do after a while.



Chameleons will usually go to a close range shot, if they know the prey is immobized. I've only seen fresh imports taking full-tongue-length shots at bugs in a bowl. they eventually get closer, and with time, eventually, their tongues will not shoot out their full length. It's like lifting weights, but not extending your arms - with time, it'll be harder to fully extend that joint.



I started cup feeding my veiled a few years ago. Within a few months, I noticed I could not get him to reach beyond 6 inches. So I started to strech his tongue. Hand feeding only, and I'd force him to shoot farther and farther every day. It took less than a month for his tongue to get back to full length. So if you bowl feed - don't JUST bowl feed.



In 13 years, the only part of a chameleon I've ever seen crickets attack is shed skin. Especially in big cages. It's not a huge deal that they might eat an occational cricket with little gutload or supplementation - the majority wil have full bellies.



Regardless of the rules and facts that you see - most everything about chameleon care is NOT written in stone, and there are many ways of doing almost everything.



The best way to free-feed crickets is to devise a slow release cup. I have a plastic container with the side cut out, and I place it next to the screen. The insects (even superworms) climb the screen. They almost always climb up, to the corners, where they feel secure, but are easy prey. I use this every once in a while. Most of the time, I like to hand feed, and then throw in a few crickets (literally, I throw them in )to scatter them in the trees. It takes my big melleri sometimes a few hours to get all of them in her densely lanted cage. But it's worth it to see her refine her hunting techniques. Whent hey ee a bowl, they know they dont' have to hunt, and they just chow down - it's boring.

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