Basic cage and dusting help needed

[Pantherchamm]

Hey guys I have a 3 month old panther chameleon and was wondering how often do I dust his food ( the two supplements are pictured below ) and also if my cage can use any improvements. I will post pictures below so please let me know if there's anything I can do differently to make him feel more comfortable
Thank you

 

[Andee]

Your cage looks really good so far, it could use a few more dowels or branches in the empty pocket, just not too high up. Also some more foliage could be added in that area. For supplements, you need a calcium without any added vitamins that should be used at every feeding. You should dust with d3 and the multivitamin 2 times a month each. Do you know if your baby is captive bred and born? You may want to look into getting a multivitamin with a preformed vitamin A if it is.

 

[Darianlynne]

Hello, I'm am new to the CF and I've only had chameleons for about a year now. I only had my two veileds, until recently. My dad pick up an ambilobe at a petco near by, which is different for me, because like I said I've only had veileds and they came from a petstore where he only gets chams from underground. But when I dust their crickets, I dust them everyday without D3, and then with D3 every two weeks. I recently had been corrected on the way I was doing things.. I made the mistake of buying repti Vite with d3 and I was also giving them calcium W D3 too. Not knowing, I nearly overdosed both of my chameleons! (Make sure you don't do the same thing I did!) I also gutload my feeders with flukers cricket quencher and flukers high-cal 12-to 24 hours before I feed them to my chameleons to make sure my crickets are healthy as well.... I was wondering if veileds and panthers differ in their care? Thanks in advance. Your set up looks very nice, by the way!

 

[Andee]

Veileds and panthers don't really differ in care, though female veileds do tend to make more eggs than panther females. They need the same type of dusting. And yes if you do have a multivitamin/d3 combo only dust with it twice a week and no extra dusting with another d3 supplement. However your gutloading is not a good gutload. Flukers products in general are usually crap, but their gutload offer nothing helpful and possibly do more harm than good. What you want is a good dry gutload and for a wet gut load squashes, fruits, dark leafy greens like Dino kale and mustard greens, sweet potatoes, sweet bell peppers. All insects will get everything they need moisture wise from the veggies and fruit, the dry gutload I recommend if you don't want to research into making your own like I do, is bug buffet, repashy bug burger, cricket crack, Nick barta has a bunch of them for sale in the classifieds section on the forum.

 

[Pantherchamm]

Your cage looks really good so far, it could use a few more dowels or branches in the empty pocket, just not too high up. Also some more foliage could be added in that area. For supplements, you need a calcium without any added vitamins that should be used at every feeding. You should dust with d3 and the multivitamin 2 times a month each. Do you know if your baby is captive bred and born? You may want to look into getting a multivitamin with a preformed vitamin A if it is.

Thank u very much for your input I am going to be adding some more branches and maybe another plant that's taller then the others this week if it'll fit. But yes he is a captive bred baby. Do you think the dusting with just calcium every feed is necessary if I am using the d3 and multi vitamin 2x a month ?

 

[Darianlynne]

Thanks andee, I started out giving my feeders kale, collards, potatoes. Tbh, I just saw it at petco and it looked promising! I'll definitely start back up on on veggies and fruit. That would be easy enough. I've tried another gutload prior to flukers.. I'm not sure what it was called. It came in a box and then a zip lock bag. It looked like wheat almost! Thanks again for the advice.

 

[Pantherchamm]

Veileds and panthers don't really differ in care, though female veileds do tend to make more eggs than panther females. They need the same type of dusting. And yes if you do have a multivitamin/d3 combo only dust with it twice a week and no extra dusting with another d3 supplement. However your gutloading is not a good gutload. Flukers products in general are usually crap, but their gutload offer nothing helpful and possibly do more harm than good. What you want is a good dry gutload and for a wet gut load squashes, fruits, dark leafy greens like Dino kale and mustard greens, sweet potatoes, sweet bell peppers. All insects will get everything they need moisture wise from the veggies and fruit, the dry gutload I recommend if you don't want to research into making your own like I do, is bug buffet, repashy bug burger, cricket crack, Nick barta has a bunch of them for sale in the classifieds section on the forum.

I just read online that I can use repashy all in one powder that contains all the proper vitamins for my chameleon which also makes it easier then having 3 different bottles dusting 2x a month and what not but what is your guys thoughts on using repashy instead ?

 

[Andee]

Depends on which repashy you are looking into. They have several different kinds and some are used for different situations. Plain calcium is completely needed for a diet that has only bit d3 and a multivitamin. Plain calcium is important for balancing out the phosphorous ratios in insects. Technically if you have a varied enough feeder diet, I am talking about 6+ regular feeders, and a good enough varied gut load you wouldn't need to dust nearly as often. However since this seems to be your first chameleon I wouldn't try it until you know your chameleon well and youve done at least 6 months of intensive research on various types of fruits and vegetables that will balance the phosphorous and calcium ratio, while providing necessary vitamins. That means researching a good dry gutload you can either make or buy and a wet gutload you can provide. Preferably the wet gutload would be organic fruits and veggies, non organic fruits and veggies are extremely dangerous.

However most Repashy products need to be given around 3 or 4 times a week. Chameleons are not an easy pet, their dusting schedule is probably an easier part of their care.