A few novice questions.

[CamoCritter]

Hello all,
A have a few beginners questions.Im reading this book and its telling me that the veiled chameleon lives in both a desert-like climate and a tropic-Sub-tropical climate which is better for the chameleon?Also i took the advice to feed the little guy 1/4' size crickets but as we know a few big ones find their way into the batch and instead of eating an abundance of smaller ones hes eating 3-4 Big ones daily,he seems to ignore the smaller ones completely,is this alright?The book mentoined earlier i think is outdated,because it still recommends a planted substrate as for the bottom of the terrarium.What substrate if any,should be used?

Any input at-all is appreciated.

Thanks-CC

 

[CamoCritter]

Does anyone have advice?

 

[royden]

Hey Camo,

Welcome to the boards!

What you're trying to reproduce in your captive enviroment is a tropical, humid, warm enviroment. Please read Brad's blog for more details on overall veiled husbandry, and please use the forums search function. It works great and there's great info from passed threads.

http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

Let him eat whatever size of crickets he wants. It's his dinner.

 

[CamoCritter]

Ok thanks for the reply,He can get the big ones down within 15-20 secs.But he loves the big ones most.I have only seen him eat a couple of the small 1/4" ones.

 

[BocaJan]

You didn't say how old your cham is, but I have 3 females - 7 mo, 6 mo and 5 mo; plus an adult male. I was getting 1/2" crickets to feed them all since at the time the females were small. Well, the big guy didn't like the little ones much. I just switched to 3/4" and like all good female veileds, they pig out! They don't eat quite as many as the 1/2", but they go after them just as fast. The 7 month old seems to catch and swallow in aboaut 2 seconds. She even goes after a second before the first one is down. LOL

PIGS, all of them!

 

[CamoCritter]

Well hes about three months.and only wants to eat 3/4- 1 inch crickets. Is this a bad thing?And what about the substrate.should i use any?

 

[dodolah]

Well hes about three months.and only wants to eat 3/4- 1 inch crickets. Is this a bad thing?And what about the substrate.should i use any?

no substrate.

 

[royden]

no substrate.

let him eat whatever size he's succesfully swallowing.

 

[Jordan]

The general rule of thumb with crickets at least is to not feed them anything that is longer then the width of their mouth.

As far as substrate it is generally not a good idea for a beginner to attempt something like this. It usually ends up being a whole bunch of extra work, worry and with not to many benifits.

 

[Kat77]

Yup, no substrate and a nice screen or mesh enclosure will make for a happier veiled.