Feeding in Separate Container?

[stevenavm]

Hello-

I recently posted about how I naively put a baby crested in an enclosure with repti-bark and saw him with a piece in his mouth(that i believe he spit out after realizing it wasn't the cricket he wanted) and quickly replaced the bark with paper towel.

He's a monster with crickets in his enclosure, but I took on the regular suggestion of feeding him in another container.

In the other container, he just seems stressed. Doesn't move at all. Just sits still. Not flighty or scared really, just no interest in the crickets. But after about five minutes of being back in his enclosure, when I dump the crickets in there instead, he's hell bent on cricket destruction.

Any reason for him being nervous in the separate container?

[CrestieCool]

I would recommend adding foliage. I have an adult that is the same way. He likes to stalk them.

[stevenavm]

i'll try the foliage idea. his enclosure (8x8x12) seems a bit small to have a whole separate tub in with all the other stuff i have going on in there right now, but i'll look into it!

[VetTech2007]

I also do the separate container that I put into his terrarium with him to feed his crickets. He does very well with that as he's nervous outside of his terrarium.

[usmcgunman]

I have been putting my little ones in a separate container to feed as well so that I am sure of what they are eating. Their enclosure is a little on the large side and I want to ensure that they all get a fair shot at being able to find and feast on the dusted crickets. I have had great success with the tub, though sometimes they're just not interested (some have scarfed on CGD already and sometimes they're just not in the mood!). I feel better about feeding them this way because it's more controlled and easier for me to keep track of them (which I anally do in a notebook to figure out consumption and weight gain, etc.). Glad to see that others use the separate enclosure idea and that I wasn't just being weird trying this out!

[possum]

Mine eat off my hand lol I hold them and hold a cup up with crickets in it and they sit and lunge to get the crickets. Nim is such a vivacious eater though I've started putting her in her own container so she can happily leap to get what she wants.

[jaxon]

Alot of my geckos are also nervous in a "feeding enclosure." The only ones that I do this to now are younger animals living in my natural set-ups. As long as substrate is not an issue, I feel feeding them in their enclosure isn the way to go.

[lauraleellbp]

I'll sometimes throw one of their branches in the cricket KK (I generally take advantage of cricket day to clean enclosures anyways) and I've found that the little ones especially are much more interested in hunting live when they can watch from above.

I also feed phoenix worms on a regular basis, and it's great to use a glass tea light holder and place the worms inside that right underneath one of their perches in their regular enclosure- almost ALL the babies go crazy for bugs then!

[stevenavm]

awesome. thanks a bunch. i'm loving this forum already. hopefully in a couple years i'll be one of the more knowledgeable ones haha