Hi. I am Kat. I have a baby Veiled Cham, Night Crawler. He is 4.5 months old, and the just the cutest. He eats all of the mealworms I give him, his veggies, and his fruits, but he will not eat his crickets. He has a nice color to min, his mouth is clean, he is not bowlegged, so, he seems healthy. Does anyone know why he will not eat them? I have read up on it, and all I could find was info. on how good crickets are for chameleons. Thank you.
My baby will not eat crickets.
- Thread starter kitten333
- Start date
jdog1027
Avid Member
You should probably fill out the 'Ask for help' form here on the forum. What type of chameleon do you have? Most young chameleons will eat crickets without too much problem. Some species may prefer specific feeders, but most youngsters do well with crickets. Crickets aren't the best feeder nutrition wise. They have a high phosphorus to calcium ratio. You should gutload them with turnip or mustard greens, apples, carrots and squash. A good dry gut load is needed as well. Do some research using the 'Search' function here.
jdog1027
Avid Member
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
Location - Where are you geographically located?
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
Location - Where are you geographically located?
Night Crawler's info
Your Chameleon - Male, Veiled Chameleon. I have had him for a week and two days.
Handling - only as needed or to take him out
Feeding - LOTS of meal worms, various small fruits, veggies, and Gut loaded crickets, which he will not eat.
Supplements - I feed him three times a day. Fluckers calcium with VD
Watering - Automatic mister. twice a day for 30 seconds. He does drink quite often
Fecal Description -his fecal looks normal whiteish, kind of like bird fecal
History - I bought him from Pet Co. I am not sure if that is need to know.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Combo it is 10 in. by 12 in
Lighting - I use the UV bulbs. They are Sun Glo Exo-Terra. He also has one that is purpleish of night time use, also UV.
Temperature - I have a reptile thermomatur (sp) His temp is usually around 95 durring the day and 85 at night
Humidity - I have one of the humitity thermoms.
Plants - I have live plants on order. They should be here anyday, now. I had to order them, because everyplace around here uses pesticide killer and I read that that could be harmful to him.
Placement - It is on a dresser type desk thing. It stays very stable, never moves unless I am cleaning it, and is not in a high traffic area.
Location - Tennessee
I am still knew to owning a Chameleon, and I hope I am doing things right. Thank you just ever so much for your help.
Your Chameleon - Male, Veiled Chameleon. I have had him for a week and two days.
Handling - only as needed or to take him out
Feeding - LOTS of meal worms, various small fruits, veggies, and Gut loaded crickets, which he will not eat.
Supplements - I feed him three times a day. Fluckers calcium with VD
Watering - Automatic mister. twice a day for 30 seconds. He does drink quite often
Fecal Description -his fecal looks normal whiteish, kind of like bird fecal
History - I bought him from Pet Co. I am not sure if that is need to know.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Combo it is 10 in. by 12 in
Lighting - I use the UV bulbs. They are Sun Glo Exo-Terra. He also has one that is purpleish of night time use, also UV.
Temperature - I have a reptile thermomatur (sp) His temp is usually around 95 durring the day and 85 at night
Humidity - I have one of the humitity thermoms.
Plants - I have live plants on order. They should be here anyday, now. I had to order them, because everyplace around here uses pesticide killer and I read that that could be harmful to him.
Placement - It is on a dresser type desk thing. It stays very stable, never moves unless I am cleaning it, and is not in a high traffic area.
Location - Tennessee
I am still knew to owning a Chameleon, and I hope I am doing things right. Thank you just ever so much for your help.
O
Ozzie2011
Guest
Welcome aboard! Where in TN? I bought my live plants from Lowes and just used veggie wash to wash the leaves and then rinsed really well with warm water and then I replanted using organic potting soil. Then I bought a bag of rocks at Michael's craft store to put on the top of the soil.
Thank you. 
I am in Murfessboro. I got him, here, too. Pet Co told me that he was 4 and a half months old, but the more I see pictures of Veiled Chams. He looks more like two months old. He is really small. I am starting to wonder. So, plants from Lows/Homedepot should be good for him if I wash them correctly?
I am in Murfessboro. I got him, here, too. Pet Co told me that he was 4 and a half months old, but the more I see pictures of Veiled Chams. He looks more like two months old. He is really small. I am starting to wonder. So, plants from Lows/Homedepot should be good for him if I wash them correctly?
Silkyslim
New Member
Hehe you said you feed him LOTS of mealworms.
I bet he is spoiled. Generally forum members here use mealworms more of a "treat" than a staple. They are high in fat and chitlin and from what I gather that is about it. Don't feed him mealworms for a while and eventually he will get hungry enough to try something else, shouldn't take more than a day or two to break him but you don't want to offer mealworms so much.
There are a lot of worms available for your guy, ide suggest some butterworms as they are very nutritous, super easy to care for (keep them in the fridge until feeding time) and a good size for smaller chams.
I bet he is spoiled. Generally forum members here use mealworms more of a "treat" than a staple. They are high in fat and chitlin and from what I gather that is about it. Don't feed him mealworms for a while and eventually he will get hungry enough to try something else, shouldn't take more than a day or two to break him but you don't want to offer mealworms so much.
There are a lot of worms available for your guy, ide suggest some butterworms as they are very nutritous, super easy to care for (keep them in the fridge until feeding time) and a good size for smaller chams.
Silkyslim
New Member
Thank you.
Yeah I use plants from there in all my cages. I washed the leaves with soapy water which was a royal pain but worth it and all. I shook out as much of the old soil as I could and used some organic mix with sand in it to provide better drainage and prevent my plants from being over-watered. Then I covered with some pretty river rocks so he cant get at the dirt and accidentally ingest it.
Oh. Alright. That explains a lot. He has a healthy appitie, but not to crickets. I did not realize Mealworms were treats. He is spoiled as can be, and I supose has had a lot of treats in the past week. lol. I am just glad he is eating, but I will deffinetly do what you suggested. I thought about trying that, but was not sure if it would be crule. Thank you just ever so much for your help.
You said you are using calcium with D3....D3 from supplements can build up in the chameleon's system and cause problems similar to MBD...so its best to let the chameleon produce the D3 from its exposure to the UVB. You only need UVB lights on during the daytime....at night the chameleon should not have any lights on. As long as the chameleon can move in and out of the UVB he should not be able to overdo it...but when its sleeping at night, its either going to be in it all night or out of it all night since they don't usually move once they are asleep.
You can/should run a dripper during the day at least once to give him more opportunity to drink.
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.
Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.
Since many of the feeder insects have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).
If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).
Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)
Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)
Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.
Here are some good sites for you to read...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.
Hope this helps!
You can/should run a dripper during the day at least once to give him more opportunity to drink.
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.
Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.
Since many of the feeder insects have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).
If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).
Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)
Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)
Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.
Here are some good sites for you to read...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.
Hope this helps!
carol5208
Chameleon Enthusiast
10 in by 12 inch???? That is WAY too small unless your cham just hatched out of the egg. If he is 4 1/2 months he should be in a much larger enclosure. Your temps are WAY to high!!!! 95 during the day? You are cooking him to death. Your temps should be in the 70's and your basking area should around 80 or so if he is young, which I am assuming from the size of your cage. In a cage that small it is literally impossible to have a "basking area" You need to upgrade your cage and get something larger ASAP. Follow the rest of the advice Kinyonga gave you on supplements and nutrition. One other thing, if the crickets are too large, he probably will not attempt to eat them. Please post a pic of your cham so we can get an idea of his age and also what you are keeping him in. You Sun Glo Lamp does NOT provide UVB but only UVA. You Must have UVB light in order for your chameleon to survive!!! Go out and purchase a Reptisun 5.0 UVB tube light. Get a bigger enclosure(screen preferred) and get the light to fit the top of the enclosure. Look in the forums Enclosure and Supplies threads and get some ideas on how to set up your cage properly!
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