Ok here we go:
Your Chameleon - Female vieled cham, low pied. Approx. 10 months old, been with me for 1 month.
Handling - I have handled her twice in 1 month. Once to put her in viv, month later to weigh her. She's not too happy with handling but she doesn't bite.
Feeding - She wont eat locusts, only crickets! She has tried meal worms but didnt finish the rest. She wont take any wax worms off me, probably best anyway. Previous owner fed her all she could eat, which was 8-15 crickets a day. I tend to feed her 4 in the morning and 4 at night. Crickets eat lettuce and bug grub.
Supplements - Calcium dust, cant remember brand, and nutribol. every evening feed gets dusted with calcium 5 times a week, vits twice a week.
Watering - I hand spray 3 times a day. Ive never seen her drink but i dont stand there watching her. Ive only seen her eat once but her food has always gone.
Fecal Description - brown with white urates.
History - Not really.
Cage Info:
Cage Type - It is a plastic modified Herbtek enclosure that she lived in before, i bought it with her. It has glass doors. Its roughly 100cm wide and 170cm high. Real and fake plants, plenty to climb on
Lighting - Dont know brands without going upstairs, but its a basking lamp on a dimmer stat and a 5.00 UV light less than 2 months old. lights on for 12 hours a day.
Temperature - Temps are roughly 95 in basking corner, down to 75 at bottom of viv. Drops to 65/70 at night.
Humidity - maintained by misting 3 times a day and have real plants. Not measured but fine.
Plants - Unbrella plants.
Placement - Upstairs in corner. No fans, air vents, or high traffic areas.
Location - UK, Runcorn?
Current Problem - That she weighs 194g and doesn't seem to be gravid. Is she ok or do i need to put her on a diet??
wowow many things wrong here.
i suggest the previous owner didnt treat her too well, or handled her all too much. if she is mostly a dark colour and even darker when handled, she may have some bad memory issues. you may never change this, but the amount you are handling her is fine. just let her climb in her cage or free range on a tree, but dont handle her just for her to walk up the stairs lol
the previous owner catered her a buffet every single day, which is absolutely ubsured. chameleons past the age of 6-7 months do NOT need to eat everyday. 15 max is alot. you never want to over feed a female veiled, unless you have the exception of her being FERTILY gravid. over feeding her when she has not bred will lead to an excessive amount of infertil eggs, the more she develops, the harder and more stressfull it will be for her to lay, even a small clutch is stressfull on any female chameleon, not just veileds. 6-7 months -a 12-14 months, everyother day 7-9 feeders is appropriate. give her a variety. (supers, crickets, meals, wax, silks, roaches.... and so on) do your research to find the nutritional value of the insects. fatty feeders such as wax worms may be feed once or twice a week.
for suppliments, i suggest all rep-call brands. both calcium and calcium D3 are both phosphorus free. which when properly dusted with feeders balances the phos:calcium ratio. your supplimentation schedual is also very high. you do not need to dust everysingle day with calcium, and you deffinatly are not supposed to dust with vitamins twice a week. a more appropriate would be dust with plain calcium (lightly) every feeding which i hope will be changed to every other day. calcium D3 about once every 3-4 weeks. and vitamins the same about once every 3-4 weeks.
you must gut load your crickets with exceptional ingredients. Sandrachameleon has amazing blogs about gut loads. but "cricket grub" and lettuce wont do anything. feed them a variety of fresh fruits and veggtables (find out what are safe and nutritional) along with a dry food gut load (oats, bee polen, chicken feed, grain). and change the gut load veggies every 3-4 days, keep an eye on fruits daily to avoid mold. you never want to feed chameleon insects who have been eating moldy food.
you live in the UK so a terrarium based enclosure is fine. it should be atleast 2x2x 3.5' - 4'. with a screened vented top.
have you researched your real plants before putting them in? common plants are hibiscus, ficus, scheffleras (umbrellas) pothos and drecenias. you must also prep the plants up, thorughly washing the leaves free from any pesticides, repotting with organic soil, or replacing the top half of soil with substrate then with river bed rocks.
your temps are slightly high. on a very warm day some may not be able to get away from 90 degress plus temperatures in the basking spot. but basking spot should reach a max of about 87-90 degress f. with an ambient tempurature in other parts of between 75-85. humidity should be given to atleast 50-60% with each spray, as long as it is drinking, you will not need to worry so much of humidity drops. veileds can tolerate that. at least two heavy long mistings a day.
you need to be aware of the products you are using, you need to invest in a 5.0 uvb flourecent tube by either zoo med (reptiSUN 5.0) or buy exo-terra (reptiGLO 5.0)
you may substitute a basking bulb with a regular household bulb, or even a growbulb to heat the bask area as well as help your plants grow, you shouldnt need anything more than a 60W. but trial and error, you may need to play around with different wattages to achieve your target temp.
you SHOULD monitor your humidity with a digital or even analog meter, you cannot just bassed on "its fine", that sounds very careless of a keeper to assume. no offence.
the low traffic is good, but just because you live in the UK i would still put a air fan or something to help circulate a little better in the room
conclusion. you NEED to have all the right proper husbandry immediatly. it may be some risky spending, but well worth it and essential in the time of keeping her in captivity. regardless if you think she is gravid or not, PROVIDE a laying bin in her cage. 6-8" ATLEAST with moist play sand. get that chubb cake on a every other day diet. when she older than 13 months you may feed her every two days (3 times a week) keeping her supplimenting schedual the same. shes fat fat fat, but very pretty. again her dark colours may be an upsett somewhere in her life time
whewwww that was a lot, i hope this realy helps.
-Phil
I know how hard it is to cut down on their food and feed every other day. I have been doing the same with Amy and she is now down to 171g from 186g. I thought enough was enough when she weighed more than Tommy! I guess the British females are just bigger girls! Ali is a beauty!
