New chameleon

[chillenword]

At the reptile show I recently picked up a new panther, he has been eating tons of crickets and I was thinking about starting a dubia colony to keep as his main supply of food. I have two different types of powder (calcium and a multivitamin) that I have been dusting the crickets with. how do dubias fair as opposed to crickets in calcium and nutrition? I also heard silkworms were good so i ordered 300 small silkworms. Money isn't an issue and I know the chameleons enjoy some variety, if I can keep a steady supply of silkworms would I be better off than dubias?

thanks!

the chameleon is about 3-4 months old and about 3-4 inches without his tail.

 

[warpdrive]

as a new member with what I belive is your first set up, I would like more info as to what you keep him in.
cage, lights, temps in the basking spot and room temps, humidity levels in the room when the cage is dry, what are the names of the dusts you are using (links are better then a brief reply)...so on.

dubias are a great feeder. they can replace crickets so you'll never run out of food and never have to buy crickets again.
but crickets are great, so give him some well gutloaded crickets every now and then.

supers are great too.

what you want to do is give him a large variaty of feeders.

as for dusting.
dust the feeders lightly with calcium without D# in it almost every day.
dust with vitamins (herptivite or reptivite) once or twice a month.
you'll need a calcium dust with D3 in it too...only dust once or twice a month with it.

gutloading is more important then dusting, so learn about that too.

edit: oh and grats on your new panther....and post photos of your cage and panther, we can tell alot from photos

Harry

 

[jamncristian]

keep both!!

your chameleon will definately appreciate it

i reccomend phoenix worms while he is small because there natural high calcium levels and nutrition
http://store01.prostores.com/servlet/thephoenixwormstore/StoreFront
you may feed them if u want them bigger and they are very easy to care for

house flies can make a good treat or staple but i am not really sure about staple
http://www.shopspiderpharm.com/servlet/Detail?no=34

wax worms can be easily bred but is only reccomended as treat because it is high in fat
http://www.shopspiderpharm.com/servlet/Detail?no=34
i reccomend using crumpled up wax paper instead of card board

and when your cham is an adult you can feed him a hornworms and hawk moths
http://www.manducaproject.com/

I suggest buying them from great lake horn worms which is one of the sponsors

DO NOT get them from outside because they are poisinous from the plants they eat

 

[chillenword]

I purchased the starter kit from the guy at the reptile show I was at.
i keep the temp between 80-85 durring the day and 75ish at night. humidity i keep around 60-70.

the exact setup I have is from http://screameleons.com/ you can see the kit on the main page.

the person who runs the site gave me a deal.

 

[Lovereps]

Congrats on your new cham!
With the Screameleons setup, you have everything you need except for the plants.
If you don't already have plants, Pothos and Ficus seem to be pretty popular with many cham keepers--just be sure to thoroughly rinse the leaves to remove any possible pesticide residue...
I would imagine that you've already read this page from Screameleons
http://screameleons.com/How_to_care_for_chameleons.htm
The advice you've received has been very good, so I hope you'll take notice of it all.
Everyone here loves pictures, BTW

 

[chillenword]

Yeah, I have tons of pics on my camera I have to upload.. each day my chameleon looks a little more colorful, and gets a little bigger. How would i determine if mine is a male or female?

 

[hallenhe]

Yeah, I have tons of pics on my camera I have to upload.. each day my chameleon looks a little more colorful, and gets a little bigger. How would i determine if mine is a male or female?

At 3-4 months, you can generally tell with panthers. Males have a visible bulge behind the vent (i.e., to the tail side of the vent); the extent to which this is visible and noticeable will vary with the animal. If you can post a picture showing this region, other members may be able to help you.
Coloration is not very much developed yet; if you see any signs of blue barring at any point, that's generally going to be male (females may have blue or purple spots on their face); lack of blue barring does not mean it's female - you may have a variety that doesn't have this trait, and even a male blue bar Ambilobe, Ambanja or Nosy Be may not have really developed his blues yet.
Again, post pix!