There's nothing you can do to "make sure" they eat other than providing the appropriate environment for them, appropriate size food source, and not stressing them out by too much direct(in their face) observation or handling. A stressed chameleon, especially a stressed baby, may not eat.

Simply keep a constant supply of food available for them during the day and they will eat when they are hungry and only when they feel comfortable enough in their new surroundings.

*Remove the crickets, even if in a feed bowl, at night. Even pinheads can significantly scar baby chameleons by chewing on them while they sleep.* Its happened many times.

Make sure they get plenty of water via a drip system or by misting them several times a day for several minutes.

Dehydration will do them in before lack of eating.

I would put two containers of food in the enclosure so they don't have to travel too far to 'find' the food. Make sure they can see the crickets/fruitflies from their perches. You can do this by placing the feed cup slightly below their favorite places to perch. Once they get comfortable and a bit bigger you can move the feed cup each feeding so that the chameleons have to 'exercise' to get to their food. Chameleons can become complacent and lazy and if the food is always in the same convenient spot, they will not move and therefore not get enough exercise.

But, for these babies, do all you can to make it easy for them.

Again, do not handle them too often. "Falling asleep" in your hand is not really a good thing for your baby. Its great for you and warms your heart, but its not a natural thing for these lizards, so I would not recommend this practice.

Good luck with them.

[ Hide Replies ]

• new babies/ advice for feeding? - Buggzter, Sun Mar 4 13:50:26 2007
• RE: new babies/ advice for feeding? - sonofgaladriel, Sun Mar 4 14:15:26 2007
• They ARE eating! yay! - Buggzter, Tue Mar 6 11:55:11 2007
• RE: They ARE eating! yay! - pixie343, Wed Mar 7 07:28:09 2007