How Many Crickets?

How many crickets does your cham or chams eat a day?

I have veileds and panthers. My adults eat 7 to 10 1/2 inch crickets a day. I like to use the smaller size because they are easier to dust.

Paul,
It can obviously vary, based upon the size of the crickets, the size of your animal, temperature, and what side of the bed your chameleon got up on that day. With a little bit of time, you will get a feel for what is normal. Do let your chameleon eat all that it wants to, as it is the best judge of its needs. If you use free-range bugs in the cage, an excess of crickets can cause problems, not the least of which is munching on your chameleon at night. The larger the cage, adequately planted, the minimal this risk is, providing there are usually no more than 6-12 loose crickets on average at the end of the day (medium to adult size chameleons and crickets). Small crickets, 1/4" or less, do not seem to possess the ability and/or desire to eat live chameleon flesh yet. Our experience with free ranging small crickets and small chameleons is that there is no cricket-eating-chameleon risk, which is good, as you will not ration small crickets to small chameleons as you would larger crickets to larger chameleons. To all viewers, once you see a cricket-chew wound on your chameleon, you must get your chameleon into a larger cage that day, and start anew with less crickets, If not, the crickets will exploit that feeding opportunity every night, usually beyond recovery after just 2-3 nights ..... aka a mortal wound getting worse. Topical antibiotic will fix it when caught in time, but the scar will always be there as a reminder.