As some of you know, when I got George she was being badly terrorised by the black crix her previous owners were 'feeding' her. She was not actually eating the crix so they just built up in her viv and were really attacking her. We took about 15 of them off her when she first arrived and since then, it has been a real battle to get her to eat anything that is not a worm!

I have introduced her to a feeding 'cup' so that the bugs cannot free roam her viv and feed her small amounts several times a day but at the moment, I can only get her to take pin head size brown crix.

What sort of timing do you think I should give her before increasing the size of her crix and should I start to release a couple at a time into her viv so she can try to chase them? I tried her with baby hoppers like this and she was terrified! I think that it may help to improve her 'aim' too because if I put a wax or silk worm onto her leaves it takes her about 4 attempts before she actually gets to eat it

Any help on this is greatly appreciated, thanks

Have you tried taking off one of the crickets back legs before you put them in? Gross,( ) I know, but seems to slow them down a lot! I found that the leo we rescued ate more of them this way, otherwise it was mostly worms for him as well.

How old did you say she is?

I'd go with worms for a while - make sure to use silks in addition to wax - the wax worms do not have much in the way of protien. Try a larger free ranging cricket from time to time and see how it goes.

I'm a little concerned with the "aim" issue - can you elaborate? If she's missing her prey repeatedly, it could be signs of a problem; dehydration, early Metabolic Bone Disease or an injury - not saying that's the case, but this is something you should keep an eye on. I'd look at it as a clue that there is something not quite right if you are seeing this over and over.

Thanks Rocky's dad. If I put a worm onto a leaf for her chances are she will miss it before she catches it - this occurs probably for every 2 of 3 worms that I put out for her. She is well hydrated and as far as I know has always received excellent care before she came to me. I do dust her crix, powder worms with vit d3 etc, she has all the correct lighting and UVB. I did notice that the very top of her spine just below where her crest starts has a slight kink in it. It has not gotten any worse but upon enquiring to the vets and other people from my local herpetological society who also keep chams, I am under the impression that it could be something to do with when she was still incubating in her egg?? (please feel free to explain what this means). I looked into the possibility that she may have been dropped or badly handled at some point and that it could have been an injury that didn't heal well but came to a dead end as I have no contact info for her breeder. I make sure she is well hydrated, she has a drip system and fogger in her viv and I spray her a couple of times a day (she comes right up to the sprayer and drinks from it too). If, however, I put her food into her feeder cup, she never misses a shot and usually ends up with several worms in one go! As for her age, I have not had her from a young age so can only go at what her previous owners have told me but I would put her at between 12 and 15 months - this is another reason why I'm inclined to go with the egg problem theory as she was a little on the small side when we got her (growing fast now though) so thought maybe this 'problem' could have caused some sort of growth stoppage???? Thanks again and I hope you can help some more fromt he info I've given you

Got any more pictures that you can post?

It's hard to say about the kink in the spine - might be an injury, but it's possible she had a slight calcium deficiency while growing before you got her as well. I assume she looks normal other than that? The picture you have in the other thread does not really give a good perspective.

It sounds like you are right on in your husbandry - the only thing I might change is to go with even more water. I have an auto misting system, and it runs for 10 minutes 3 times a day. On top of that, I shower him for a half hour to 45 minutes once a week. You have to have good drainage for that, though, as it's important to let the cage/plants dry completely between mistings.