vivs,tanks,terrariums

BlackIrisReptiles

BlackIrisReptiles

New member
Beautiful vivs everyone!

With my crested viv I don't usually have a problem with my guys hunting the insects. They're drawn to the heat of the bulb I have ontop of the cage (I must mention my viv is in a screen cage, I just added plastic lining to the bottom for the soil) so they climb the mesh and hang out in the open. And that's when my guys get them.

I imagine that the solution might be to feed your geckos outside of their viv? I don't know how doable that idea might be for you, but it sure beats having to destroy a carefully constructed vivarium. Maybe get them used to feeding in a different container - or hand feed, perhaps. I give mine insects occasionally with tweezers.
 
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Chum

New member
I have had good succes avoiding crickets all over the terrarium by feeding them in a transparent deli cup. The geckos see the movements in it from a distance and is attracted by that. At least mine are very intreaged by movement and will normally seek it out to see if it is food.

Small crickets does not seem to be able to jump very high, and I only feed crickets up to a size of about 8mm.
 
Scarlet.Escapist

Scarlet.Escapist

New member
catevala said:
OH yes absolutely. That was one of the first things I tried. Crickets jump right out of them. And with young hatchlings the dish seems to disorient, so that they do not associate it with having anything of interest for them.
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The trick with feeding from a dish/bowl/tub is finding the correct size width-wise + height-wise. At first the geckos will be disoriented and be all confused, but once they get a hang of things they'll be feeding out of it with no problem.

Some suggestions for the types of containers to use would be... tall margarine/butter tubs, taller but not too tall food containers, some rounded +rimmed glass vase/bowl things, shorter vases, and smaller kritter keepers. You can also use taller plastic cups make a hole big enough for a suction hook to pass through and just stick/suspend the cup off the side of the tank. Though for that method you have to find a suction cup/hook that would bare the weight of a jumping/diving gecko. But considering how small L.Williamsi are I doubt that would be much trouble :roll:.

The tank looks great btw :D!
 
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catevala

New member
feeding bowls consensus

Thanks Y'all! Some great responses and very helpful. Just a word of "warning". I do not keep geckos. I am a "refugee" from trying to get help from various anole keepers in cyberspace. I have found anole keepers to be generally not too generous with their time and knowledge. If there are any anole keepers/breeders reading who consider themselves to be friendly and helpful then please let me know! I have not yet found some of you! and those I have found often do not have any ideas that seem to help me. So I started to look elsewhere and that's how I found y'all. Of course alot of anoliphiles I have known, both the one kind and the other, also keep geckoes, usually the diurnal ones. Anyway, I have tried the dish-bowl-container angle before and that seems to be the consensus. I will try again! and maybe stay with the smaller crickets (which I have actually already been doing to a large, no pun intended, extent). If you are curious, I keep four juvenile Anolis coelestinus that I hatched from eggs.
 
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kaikara

New member
If you want to bowl feed and want the crickets to have a hard time getting out just pinch off one or both of their back legs. Usually will solve the problems of escapes.
 
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catevala

New member
well...

kaikara said:
If you want to bowl feed and want the crickets to have a hard time getting out just pinch off one or both of their back legs. Usually will solve the problems of escapes.
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:? Sorry but I have tried that too. I can't even catch them without killing them and so I don't have much luck in pulling off legs! (These are pretty small crickets you know). What I have found that does work though is to really dust the hell out of them. That seems to slow them down some...
 
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kaikara

New member
catevala said:
:? Sorry but I have tried that too. I can't even catch them without killing them and so I don't have much luck in pulling off legs! (These are pretty small crickets you know). What I have found that does work though is to really dust the hell out of them. That seems to slow them down some...
Click to expand...

You don't pull them off. You have to pinch them so they drop them. if you tear them off you will probably kill it. If they are so small that you can't grab make sure you get a smooth surfaced bowl. I use ones I get from home depot. They are terra cotta type bowls but the interiors are glazed so the surface remains very slick if kept clean. The crickets have a hard time grabbing onto the surface to pull themselves out. This along with pinch off the legs makes for very few escapes.
 
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