Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted a few days ago about my 7 unexpected baby Jackson's.

So far they are all fine, but this morning I put "small" crickets in and a couple of them were a little bigger than others. Anyway, one of the babies went after one of the larger ones and seemed to be chewing it for a long time. I was worried and kept coming back to check. chewing...chewing...but when I checked about ten minutes later, he was hanging by his tail with the cricket half in and I thought he was choking.

I took him out and pulled the cricket out of his mouth and then he seemed ok.

Now I'm paranoid, so I took all the crickets out and am only offering fruit flies.

Do you think it's ok with only the fruit flies until my order of pinheads come in (maybe Tuesday?) So far I haven't noticed them actually eating the fruit flies.

Thanks!
Jennifer

It was probably a good idea to remove the cricket from his mouth. Good job.

Chameleons will usually either chew it up until its small enough to get it down, or rub up against something and get it out of its mouth.

But really, it wasn't worth the risk waiting to see if he was able to spit it out.

All you should be using right now is either Hydei (or smaller) fruit flies and PINHEAD crickets. Crickets over about a week old are probably too big for them. It's perfectly fine to use the fruit flies until whenever you get some pins. Most pet stores don't even sell "pinhead" crickets and they are more like 2 week olds. That's why fruit flies are great, cause they save you from the unexpected hatchings or births (as most pet stores carry them). Usually American Cricket Ranch gets crickets to me very fast, like next day (from Southern Cali to Las Vegas). I had a 2 month old veiled chameleon get ahold of a big cricket once when I temporarily stuck him in a cage for my larger animals and I noticed it right as he finished it off. I couldn't believe it. His mouth was wide open and this was at least a 2/3 inch cricket. But he did it. I'm not at all suggesting that you do that, but it can be done. Congrats again with your babies and feel free to keep asking questions.
-Tyler Stewart