Brown crickets

[kasperr]

Hi, I got a 4 month old panther chameleon. I've ran out of food this morning so went to the bigger pet store to get some crickets and they only had brown crickets. I fed my chameleon this morning with 3/4 of them and he liked them, I've put few more in this evening but they seem to be too fast for him and I'm worried if to take them out as I heard they might bite him. What would you suggest?

I'm new here so hello by the way.

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forum!

Are the crickets the right size for the chameleon?

 

[kasperr]

Welcome to the forum!

Are the crickets the right size for the chameleon?

They are a bit larger than the previous ones I had, it's my first few days as I owner of the chameleon. He ate the larger ones, I've now removed them except one.

 

[kinyonga]

I always free ranged my crickets in the cages and the only times the crickets would bite a chameleon were if the chameleon was sick or there was nothing in the cage for them to eat. I always left little containers of my greens/veggie gutload in the cages for the insects to eat.

 

[kasperr]

That makes a lot of sense, I mean he'll definitely eat the size of the cricket I left in the cage, I think he's pretty full by now, there also is few wax worm at the bottom of the cage which fell down during feeding so i can imagine if the cricket is really hungry he'll go for them. But yeah tomorrow morning I'm gonna go to reptile shop to get some smaller insects.
It's all new to me so just don't want the poor little thing being bitten.

 

[Flick boy]

Hi, I got a 4 month old panther chameleon. I've ran out of food this morning so went to the bigger pet store to get some crickets and they only had brown crickets. I fed my chameleon this morning with 3/4 of them and he liked them, I've put few more in this evening but they seem to be too fast for him and I'm worried if to take them out as I heard they might bite him. What would you suggest?

I'm new here so hello by the way.

Hello

 

[kinyonga]

Can you post a photo of the chameleon and it’s cage including the lights please?

 

[Tkrd69]

Welcome to the "CF"

 

[kasperr]

Can you post a photo of the chameleon and it’s cage including the lights please?

Here's my setup

 

[kasperr]

And here's little guy

 

[kinyonga]

Where do you live? What State/area of the country?

What is the bulb in the dome on the cage? Please be specific…brand? Is it UVB? Coloured or white light?

 

[kasperr]

Hi, I live in UK, there's two lights in there one Is uvb which is at the back and the round one is the basking light.
I bought the whole thing as a setup from reputable reptile shop in UK, chameleon was from there too

 

[MzLaurie11]

Hi, I got a 4 month old panther chameleon. I've ran out of food this morning so went to the bigger pet store to get some crickets and they only had brown crickets. I fed my chameleon this morning with 3/4 of them and he liked them, I've put few more in this evening but they seem to be too fast for him and I'm worried if to take them out as I heard they might bite him. What would you suggest?

I'm new here so hello by the way.

Hello and welcome. 4 mnth old cham needs small crickets. I use the cup method. Use the plastic clear cups cover the bottom and at least an inch of the bottom sides with gray or masking tape. ( tape to prevent cham from hitting cup on outside with tongue.. Do not use red cup!)Get a stck that is aboit 2-3" longer then the cup. Wedge the cup in somewhere where it tight but can be removed and in the gop third of the cage. Dump the small crickets in then put in the stick. The crickets will walk up the stick and the cham will get them off the stick. It helps keep the tongue strong and accurate. Also if the cham goes into the cup, it can get out by climbing up the stick. I like banded crickets. The calif black are too large. Its nice that they dont sing, but look more like a bettle then a crivket to me.

 

[Flick boy]

Hi, I live in UK, there's two lights in there one Is uvb which is at the back and the round one is the basking light.
I bought the whole thing as a setup from reputable reptile shop in UK, chameleon was from there too

Hi and welcome. I don't know what shop you got stuff from but both lights are wrong, and they have given you bad information they both produce uvb the 14 % fluorescent is way to high you need a 6% , also you need to get rid of that mercury vapour bulb they are not suitable for chameleons your uv will be way off the charts , ( lights need changing ASAP) what temperature is it at basking I live in UK I'm only using a 50 watt at present and have it on a thermostat as even my 50 watt would be way to hot and its 9 inches from basking, also when you sort your lights out you will want to think about a bigger enclosure z 2x2x4 is recommended , what supplements are you using? If you check out the information on chameleon academy you will find this very helpful at least you have came to the right place for help

 

[kasperr]

Hi, I'm really confused now as the guy in the shop in Bristol called Cross r us put the whole bundle himself, the tank is 1.5f × 2ftx 3ft atm which I will definitely upgrade to bigger one once the cham gets bigger. What sort of lights would you recommend then ? We did spend quite a bit of money on the setup so I'm really concerned that is all wrong. At the basking the temperature is around 27 celcius and humidity at around 50%/65%, we spray it in the evenings and in the mornings quite a bit then in the day every now and then. The cham himself is darkish colours since we got him, he goes brighter when we takim out in the sunshine. He normally stays in the middle of the tank in the leafs, is it because the uvb is too high?

Cheers.

 

[Flick boy]

Hi I know they are not cheap, lots of people get sold the wrong equipment, you will want to swap put out the 14%tube for a 6 % and take out the mercury vapour and put in a normal basking bulb a 50 watt arcadia solar basking should do it , best to get a couple to have spares, do you have one complete picture of the enclosure, including lights do you have a probe directly below the basking , what supplements do you have ? At this age your baby should be eating lots , if you struggle to get appropriate feeders at the shop , you can order online from buzzard reptile, dubia Paul, pets at home have more stuff on their website which all deliver. Also there doesn't appear to be enough branches, if you poop a picture up that would be great ,

 

[kasperr]

Cool, I'll order correct lights tonight, as a supplement they gave me this with the whole thing (I'll attach photo below)
The probe is just below basking spot,
We just ordered some more branches as we noticed that our enclosure compared to others is a bit bare. He's eating very minimal at the moment but I'm gonna try to use the cup with stick method tonight.

Thank you for all the information mate, it's very stressful week for us as we want him to have best life.

 

[Flick boy]

If you have just got him it make take a bit of time to settle in. I understand that it stress ful.im getting my second later this month and I'm stressed out lol. Ok anyway with your new lights you will want your basking area 8to 9 inches away from them . I'm not high up on repashy, bit members prefer the repashy burger bite as opposed to the superload , but that is to feed your insects it is not a supplement. You will need a calcium no phosphorus nod3 this you will use at every feeding ( insects lighty dusted not looking like powered donuts and then twice a month say the 15th and 30th ( you get me ) a multivitamin with d3, I will include pictures.

 

[Flick boy]

Ok so ignore the fact that my reptivite has no d3 ( I'm using 3 supplements) you want it with d3 ( just trying to keep it more simple. Keeping records not only helps you keep track but if a vet was required you have all the information wrote down, I like to use this komodo it has 2 temp probe s so one can be at baskingand the other near the bottom to give you a better idea of the overall temps and has a humidity probe also ( try to not spray it directly as this will give you false readings, and it may not take it kindly. And a picture of my lights running more along side each other. One last thing for now lol I would recommend you get a fecal/ poop test done for parasites, there is a person in the uk who does this where you can post a fresh sample I will pm you her name later , any other questions just shout.

 

[kasperr]

Right, thank you for all your help mate. I went to local reptile shop, I took the boxes of lights with me, they told me straight away too much uvb, they recommended keeping the 16% as it will gradually decrease and if I keep it high enough it'll be fine for now but I'll invest in thermostat. I changed the Mercury light bulb for the one without uvb and I've been explained on what distance to keep it away from the top branch. The guy in shop basically said that guys gave us completely wrong setup and ripped us off a little bit as well. I bought the same supplements as you, I'm gonna keep little journal as you do as it makes sense.
Weird thing for ya, as soon as I replaced the bulb, he changed to really beautiful light green colour and started eating!
I'll wait for the message regarding his poo samples. How often do I need to send them off? And how much does it cost?

Once again thank you