likki my first chameleon

[tagerlilly18]

guys I have asked a few questions since l got my nosy be x ambanja male panther at a reptile show. The supplier was a little business called total-e-chamz . Likki was 175 but I was able to get him for 165. The man said he was about 4-5 months old. Man am I in love with him lol. From the first day I got him he climbed right out onto my hand . he never bit me yet and I hope he never does. I've had him for a week now and he's set up in a mesh cage with a reptisun 5.0 uvb and a basking bulb that keeps it I believe 80-85 basking and on the bottom is around 65 but it is winter where I live. I have a croton plant in his cage with a little prothos on the ground. I have a bigger one but I have no idea how to hand it in the cage since a have one of those reptarium cages ,which are the PVC frame ones with the mesh over top. I have some bamboo stick in there too its a bit hard to get them in because some are hollow like on the inside. So the pin barely holds it up. I have newspaper on the bottom and humidity ranges from 30 to 80 depending on when I misted.no mist several times throughout the day. At least 5. I do not have a dripper. I have crickets in a separate cage and I hand feed him daily he eats 2-5 a day so far. They are large crickets also. I just got calcium without the d3 today and he ate 5 calciumed crickets today. He ate 3 that had d3 calcium earlier this week. I also have multi vitiman powder that I haven't given him yet. I think he is pretty docile for a cham. He let's me hold him and get him out his pen and he's getting a lot better with my face and not being fearful of it. He likes to chill out on my and my head. I think he is so awesome. I just thought I'd tell you guys what my set up was and a little about my sweet boy likki. Feel free to give me any advice guys I'm always open!
P.s I know I need to get gut load for the crickets I'm just not sure which one I should buy. So as of now I'm feeding them carrots and grapes.

 

[carol5208]

Congrats on your new chameleon! Is that all he will eat or all you offering him? He should be eating more than that, but if your crickets are big that could explain it. If you are only feeding him 2-5 I would feed him like 10-12 if he will eat them. As far as gutloading, just use a variety of dark greens, like Kale, mustard, collard, etc and then other fruits and veggies like carrots, apples, oranges, etc. Then you can use a dry gutolad like BugBurger by Repashy or Cricket Crack. Cricket Crack is not sold in stores but by one of our sponsors like TikiTiki Reptiles. Also, start feeding your chameleon other prey like silkworms, or small hornworms. Superworms can be gutloaded like crickets, but don't feed them too much. Chameleons seem to get addicted to them and then won't eat anything else sometimes!

 

[tagerlilly18]

Yeah that's all he eats I offer him More than that I'll even offer more later but that all he eats. I was going to buy super worms today but they looked so huge! I was a little worried because they looked like a meal worm and I didn't want it to burrow out him. The crickets he's eating are pretty big like close to an inch to an inch big.

 

[carol5208]

Those seem awfully big for a chameleon that young, but maybe your guy is big himself for his age? By "burrow out him" I am assuming you mean eating through him from the inside? If so, That is a total myth about the superworms eating the insides of your chameleon! There is not one documented case of this and it seems all the pet stores pass this incorrect info on to us buyers. Superworms do come in smaller sizes. You may have saw the large ones and they probably would be too big for 4-5 month old. Believe me, they are safe to feed if you find the right size.

 

[tagerlilly18]

I'll have to measure him tomorrow to see how long he is. He does well with the crickets though and I always watch him and he gets them down well. Pet smart only had large worms but I'm going back up there soon so I'll check for smaller ones or even some other variety worms because all they had today were supers. I'm glad they won't burrow lol. That's a relief. Do you know if they bite? Thei picked up one today and it did that thing where it puts its head where I had picked it up and I was just to freaked out that it was going to bite me lol.