1 Week Update

T

the cw

Member
My little guy is doing pretty good I think. Last week, I made a (perhaps too nervous) thread where I was worried sick about him being brown all the time. Well, that's no longer a problem! He's bright green nearly all the time and is pretty active in his cage(he went brown once, but I think my cat was to blame). He's eating well....or, should I say, I've put over 35 crickets in the cage since last Wednesday and there's only 10 right now in there(I've seen him eat 5, so there must be many, many more that have been eaten up); there have also been some "mysteriously" missing waxworms from his dish.

He still *does* look skinny to me, but since he doesn't go for the waxworms much I'm not sure exactly what to do. I'm thinking about Mulberry farms; what do you guys think would be a good insect to fatten him up? I'm 99% sure he's eating the worms just not too eagerly, so I don't think it would be a waste of money to try hornworms(I think he doesn't like the dish, but the worms just fall and he's never near the bottom of the cage). What else do you guys think? Small grasshoppers? Hornworms? Any suggestions would be eagerly desired.

Overall, I'm feeling much better about him then last week. He's got his sleeping perch, and he seems to like the routine I have set up for him. He's scared of me, still, but I am noticing he takes an interest whenever I put crickets in his cage.
 
the cw said:
My little guy is doing pretty good I think. Last week, I made a (perhaps too nervous) thread where I was worried sick about him being brown all the time. Well, that's no longer a problem! He's bright green nearly all the time and is pretty active in his cage(he went brown once, but I think my cat was to blame). He's eating well....or, should I say, I've put over 35 crickets in the cage since last Wednesday and there's only 10 right now in there(I've seen him eat 5, so there must be many, many more that have been eaten up); there have also been some "mysteriously" missing waxworms from his dish.

He still *does* look skinny to me, but since he doesn't go for the waxworms much I'm not sure exactly what to do. I'm thinking about Mulberry farms; what do you guys think would be a good insect to fatten him up? I'm 99% sure he's eating the worms just not too eagerly, so I don't think it would be a waste of money to try hornworms(I think he doesn't like the dish, but the worms just fall and he's never near the bottom of the cage). What else do you guys think? Small grasshoppers? Hornworms? Any suggestions would be eagerly desired.

Overall, I'm feeling much better about him then last week. He's got his sleeping perch, and he seems to like the routine I have set up for him. He's scared of me, still, but I am noticing he takes an interest whenever I put crickets in his cage.
Click to expand...

As im sure youve figured out, the coloring an be from stress.
how old is he?
i would nto suggest hornworms if he us under 3 months old because hornworms grow fast, and would probably outgrow him before thye can all be fed off.
I would get calciworms from mulberry farms. they are great, and you can feed them daily. NTM when they turn into soldier flies, they are still small enough for him to eat.
babies always seem skinny to me. My male veiled was the same way, the first two months i had him, (got him at 2 weeks old) he was super skinny looking, but now hes nice and bigand filled out
 
I think he may still look skinny because he should be eating around 15-20 crickets per day. If its been 6 days and he's only eaten 25 crickets, he needs more. Try to cupfeed him and see if he will eat them. He might have trouble finding the crickets. Try to not feed waxworms too often. They can get picky and refuse their staple foods if you spoil them too much with junk. (Waxworms, mealworms, butterworms, etc.)

Mulberry farms is great, I highly recommend them. Keep trying the crickets. If he doesn't want them you can try locusts and roaches. Calciworms are also fantastic. Full of calcium and they're easy to breed.

Glad to see he's settling in though! :)
 
Glad to hear that he's looking better. You need to gut load his crickets right before feeding and dust with supplements. After the crickets are left in the cage for over 6 or 8 hours they are no longer gut loaded and I'm sure by then the supplements would be washed off. Any crickets that he doesn't eat needs to come out of the cage before he goes to sleep because the crickets can eat on him at night while he sleeps. I'm attaching my blog for new keepers below. It will give what all you need to keep him healthy and links to pictures and where you can buy each item. Most things that you need for chameleons can not be found in your local pet stores.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html
 
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Everyone is extra nervous for the first Chameleon to settle in.......good to hear it's going well........I'll also recommend Calciworms, and roaches - they are particularly healthy and easy to gutload. Variety is what's most important, as long as you have at least one good staple, so I usually give a couple of wild caught spiders and flies per week too.........
 
What are calci worms? I went to Mulberry, and I found no such thing on their site.

I'll try and get a picture of him today or tomorrow so people can see if he looks too skinny(I've looked at other chams via google and he looks close to those, but maybe a bit peckish). I'll see what I can do. I'm used to other lizards where if you can see *any* of their bones it's often a death sentence; chams are a bit different, I suppose. :p

As far as the crickets go, I know he sees them, he just doesn't go for them all the time. They're not hiding--they're in plain site(and moving). He notices them, but just doesn't go straight for them. He seems far more interested in them, if they fall into the ficus plant rather than if they're on a vine...strange preferences, I suppose. I *know* he's eating them when I'm not around, just he doesn't seem too interested all the time.
 
I've moved the crickets to a cup now and we'll see how he goes for it. It's within site of his basking perch.

With Phoenix worms, do you think small or medium would be good? I'd say he's close to 4 inches long. Medium looks good.
 
the cw said:
I've moved the crickets to a cup now and we'll see how he goes for it. It's within site of his basking perch.

With Phoenix worms, do you think small or medium would be good? I'd say he's close to 4 inches long.
Click to expand...

small willbe fine.
 
the cw said:
I've moved the crickets to a cup now and we'll see how he goes for it. It's within site of his basking perch.

With Phoenix worms, do you think small or medium would be good? I'd say he's close to 4 inches long.
Click to expand...

Medium would probably be okay, but try small for the first time. After he grows about an inch or two, you should go for the medium.
 
the cw said:
I've moved the crickets to a cup now and we'll see how he goes for it. It's within site of his basking perch.

With Phoenix worms, do you think small or medium would be good? I'd say he's close to 4 inches long.
Click to expand...

for cup feeding, it can take a few days for him to figure it out. I started cup feeding mine and it took him about 4 days to figure out how to eat from it.
 
Okay, I'll order a cup of small and medium worms. What size silk worms would be good?

Also, I think the crickets I've been giving--and he's been eating--are larger than those most people mean. I mean, he doesn't look as skinny as when I got him so he can't be doing terrible. How large should crickets be for a 3-4 month cham? I think they're larger.

He has been going for the wax worms in their little cup. He sees the crickets in their cup and we'll see if he likes them.
 
the cw said:
Okay, I'll order a cup of small and medium worms. What size silk worms would be good?

Also, I think the crickets I've been giving--and he's been eating--are larger than those most people mean. I mean, he doesn't look as skinny as when I got him so he can't be doing terrible. How large should crickets be for a 3-4 month cham? I think they're larger.

He has been going for the wax worms in their little cup. He sees the crickets in their cup and we'll see if he likes them.
Click to expand...

I think a cup of small AND medium would be a little too much. You can do so if you please, but I would recommend getting just one small until he's a bit bigger! Then I think you would be able to move to medium.

They should be no bigger than the width of the chameleons mouth.

Try to not let him get addicted to waxworms. Hunger strikes can be a PAIN to deal with.
 
I'm looking to get him to eat: if small is enough, I'll go for it! If I try silk worms, what would be a good size?
 
I ordered small phoenix worms, medium silk worms(they said they were on the "small side") and then some smaller 3/8'' crickets(despite working in a pet store, finding good size crickets for my cham is hard!)

I'll update as necessary. Thanks everyone.
 
the cw said:
I ordered small phoenix worms, medium silk worms(they said they were on the "small side") and then some smaller 3/8'' crickets(despite working in a pet store, finding good size crickets for my cham is hard!)

I'll update as necessary. Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...

I love mulberry farms crickets. I have not had any die off from them. (minus the occaisional escapee who got eatn by the puppy, or squished by my shoe).
petsmart cricktes, die in like 4 days
 
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