Hey y'all, I'm a new chameleon owner and I just got a sweet girl on wendesday. I'm worried because I haven't seen her eat or drink from her dripper and I was wondering the acclimation time needed until she can be handled and start eating. She ate two small crickets in the way home but since she has been in her terrarium, she hasn't eaten a thing that I've noticed. Any help would be appreciated =)
Acclimation period?
- Thread starter cass1dy
- Start date
My (4 month old) panther girls arrived Tuesday and didn't eat until Thursday. I got them to eat by giving them some flies that were pollinating my mint plants. I'm not recommending catching wild insects, but I decided it was right for me at this time. Anyway. Both chams attacked the flies. They then ate the dubias without a problem.
- Your Chameleon - Baby Veiled, femal, roughly 6-8 weeks. About 4-5 days with me
- Handling - I try to handle her for a few minutes each day. I don't want to overwhelm her so I've been keeping distance
- Feeding - Small Crickets, Meal worms
- Supplements - i dust the crickets in Repti-Calcium every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
- Watering - I have a mist system in place it mists every couple of hours for 80 seconds
- Fecal Description - Droppings appear normal.
- History - I got her from petsmart the day she arrived
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - She lives in a wooden cabinet with the glass replaced by screen
- Lighting - ZooMed 10 watt UVB light in hood on attached to the roof and a 150 watt heat and UVA ZooMed bulb
- Temperature - low 70s to high 90s
- Humidity - 60% with Aquaballs to help keep it up
- Plants - Two hibiscus plants and a pothos plant in the middle. I have ZooMed Aquaballs on the bottom and a layer of Eco earth over by.
- Placement - The cage is placed by a window in the living room
- Location - i am located in Central Texas
I filled it out!
Petsmart
jamest0o0
Chameleon Enthusiast
Stop handling her! It's way too soon to be doing that...
Offer her more variety, but ditch the mealworms
You should be dusting calc without d3 at every feeding, along with a multivitamin and calc with d3 2x a month, each on alternating weeks
Droppings appear normal? Relative to what? Please describe...
Pet smart means there's a good chance she was terribly taken care of and may have parasites or an illness. A vet visit/fecals are probably necessary.
Mist system should be on much longer about 10 minutes when lights go on and a couple other misting sessions lasting at least 2 minutes each should be a good place to start.
Your temps are WAY too high. Get them down to 85 in the basking.
Not sure what aquaballs are... hibiscus are nice, but will probably die without amazing lighting. Make sure the basking spots are above eye level.
I suggest posting pictures of your set up and of the chameleon
Offer her more variety, but ditch the mealworms
You should be dusting calc without d3 at every feeding, along with a multivitamin and calc with d3 2x a month, each on alternating weeks
Droppings appear normal? Relative to what? Please describe...
Pet smart means there's a good chance she was terribly taken care of and may have parasites or an illness. A vet visit/fecals are probably necessary.
Mist system should be on much longer about 10 minutes when lights go on and a couple other misting sessions lasting at least 2 minutes each should be a good place to start.
Your temps are WAY too high. Get them down to 85 in the basking.
Not sure what aquaballs are... hibiscus are nice, but will probably die without amazing lighting. Make sure the basking spots are above eye level.
I suggest posting pictures of your set up and of the chameleon
