Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How the hell can i get the crickets to crawl up to the top of the cage?
When i was feeding the jackson fruit flies i would just stick a piece of bannanna up there and it worked great, I tried this with the cricekts and they showed no interest.

ALso, is it pretty normal to see about half the crickets you throw in the cage at the bottom dead, when your cleaning?

thanks,
Todd
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Getting ready for my new Chameleon.

Hi Todd,

Well, let me first ask you this - are you supplying food and water for the crickets in the cgae? If not, that is in part why they are dying. Another factor would be that they don't live forever the older they are when you get them, the sooner they will die. If you are getting 4week or older they may have only one or two weeks left. I find that 3/4" are the hardiest and can last quite sometime with proper care.

Next - are you keeping these crickets yourself and properly gutloading them for your cham? Or are you buying them at a pet shop and tossing them in the cage? If the latter, you are making two mistakes - one, not gutloading them means that you are giving minimal nutrition to your cham, two, crix from petstores live in crowded, often nasty conditions. Not good for the crix, not good for your cham. When buying them form pet shops you should really not feed them to your cham for a few days to "clean" their system out of parasites. Feed them fresh fruit and veggies all the time (as well as a healthy dry gutload) - remember, what you feed your crickets (and other feeeder insects) is what you are feeding your cham.

Climbing to the top. Crickets like two things (OK, 3 if you include eating!) dark and heat. If there is a lot of dense foliage near the top of the cage they may settle up there b/c they will have both cover and warmth, otherwise they will stay around the bottom where they can hide in and around plant pots.

One last point. If you are free range feeding your cham you MUST leave food in the cage for the crix to eat. Not only for them, but so they don't nibble on your sleeping, defenseless cham at night.

Have you tried cup feeding? Also, your cham may not be interested in the crix if that is all you are offering. A diverse diet is best. Superworms, silkworms, roaches are a few you can try.

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she is on the loose!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

I have had my veiled for a little over two years. When she was small, we would place the crickets upside down on the top of the cage. We would only feed what she would eat. As she got bigger, we would just toss several in. Hunting for the crickets help kept her strong and senses keen.

Currently, we are nursing Pudge back from an illness. We now have to hand feed her the crickets. We will put the head in her mouth (after removing the back legs) and she works to swallow the rest.

Lele is right about having food supply for the crickets in the cage though. I never had much of a problem cuz Pudge was a great hunter. I rarely found any dead ones when cleaning the cage.

Good luck!