Calcium Advice

[JPeg16]

As I have said, I'm a first time owner of a baby panther. I've had adult chams before, but never such a tiny baby. I'm always worrying about how much vitamins and calcium to give him and how it should be done. It's difficult to dust his tiny crickets and fruit flies. I'm also worried sick about mbd. I've rescued a few other reptiles with this problem and have seen a baby panther cham in a pet store with mbd. Any advice will be very much appreciated.

 

[warpdrive]

I not too sure just what your question is, but I'll talk alittle about suplementation anyway....

without knowing the age of your baby or some cage info, babys need some extra calcium and vitamins because of all that growth that they will have.

just place your feeders in a large deli container.
then add your dust and give it a little shake or two.

most just dust with cacium w/o D3 on most days.
use vitamins and calcium w/D3 about twice a month each.

if your lighting is good (using repisun 5.0 for D3 production) then MBD is not realy a big deal to worrie about.

just remember that good gutloading is still far more important then dusting.

Harry

 

[JPeg16]

That's pretty much what I wanted to know to make sure I was doing things right. He's probably a little under three weeks old.

 

[warpdrive]

That's pretty much what I wanted to know to make sure I was doing things right. He's probably a little under three weeks old.

wow, that realy is way too young for a first time chameleon keeper.

most babys are sold around 12 weeks old.
at this stage they are ready for a baby cage.
at 3 weeks, I'm not too sure if even a baby cage is small enough.

at 3 weeks, I totly understand that feeding and dusting could be hard.
yet it does get easyer as they grow...larger feeders and easyer dusting of said feeders.

regardless, you have your work cut out for you.
yet the rewards are great.
in the end you get to watch your little one grow up from just a tiny little thing.

good luck,
Harry

 

[JPeg16]

Thanks I'm not a first time chameleon keeper but he is my first baby. That's what I meant. I got him three or four days after he hatched. I've raised other babies (bearded dragons and such) but just not a chameleon yet. We have been gut loading and he's under a uv light. I've just had experience with reptiles with MBD and it scares me. Thank you for the advice And we made a cage for him, knowing that anything else would be too big. He's eating great though and he's very active.

 

[warpdrive]

sounds like your doing well.
sorry if I got it mixed up, but yeah, sounds like you are doing just great.

just remember that your dusting, mostly because they grow so fast.
so in time, say around 10 or 12 months you can drasticly cut back on the dustings.
just gutloading well is enough when they are adults, but I'm sure you know that already.

although I'm new to chams, I've also delt with plenty of reptiles in the past.
I'm even babysitting a nosybe and a crested gecko right now.
yet I have to say that chameleons are so cool...I'm realy suprised at how much mine has impacted my life.

I also got my cham when he was young.
no older then 6 weeks old...maybe even a week or two less.
2" STV, maybe 4" total.

used houseflys for the first few days. then started off with 1/4" crickets.
he just turned his nose up to fruitflys as I think they were too small for him to care about them.
he also hated pheonix worms. but loves just about anything else I tossed in there.

now he's a monster at 4 3/4" STV...about 9 1/2" total.
I only have him about 3 months at most...they grow so fast.

Harry

 

[laurie]

Hey hello and relax, I have been where you are and we can get you through it. First off you can't really dust fruit flies. For that size baby I use 1/16 cricket, and dust them lightly each time. I feed them about 3 to 4 times a day. I kept mine in a 10 gal aquarium until they were at least 6 weeks. I had a UVB light on them but no heat light. I overfeed because I am never sure of hunting ability. Also I mist about 4 times a day with a very, very fine mist. That's it; I lost one out of 27 so it worked pretty well. Post or PM me any questions and I will try to help. We also have some wonderful experts who can help.