Chamwow! New mom here! Need food help!

jaimeerosko

New Member
Hi everyone!

I'm Jaimee and I am a new Cham mom! I have been googling like maniac for months and got my little dude last Thursday. This website/forum has been so helpful to me so I figured I'd join.

I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of things right now but thought it wouldn't hurt to check in with some seasoned owners! Also, I know I will be needing continuous support and advice and what I read here seems to be top notch info.

So, details..

History/setup..

Lucki (named Lurcifer, like Furcifer) is a three month old (?) male Panther. I got him about a week ago from a legit breeder in Chicagoland. The breeder is helpful and offers support via text; we spoke for at least a month before I actually decided to pull the trigger. Lucki came with a tiny little setup (Lucki is also tiny) and appears to do doing well in it. I will most certainly upgrade as soon as he (and his food!) are a bit bigger. As of now, he is in ten gallon tank with a screen top and a homemade bamboo jungle gym with some artificial plants (looking for some small pothos right now). He has a zoo med dual lamp fixture with a UVB bulb and a 40 watt, both set on a timer with twelve hours on, twelve off. Basking temps can reach 88 degrees when the tank has dried out between mistings, and can reach 80% when I spray the tank down (3-4 times per day). Humidity will dip to 30% with temps at 70 degrees overnight with the tank dry/lights off. Basically, I am following the directions almost verbatim off the "Panther Chameleon Care Sheet" off of this website. His tank is located in the bathtub of the bathroom I never really use, partially for warmth without a draft and also as protection from my other pets until he gets a safer setup. What housing should I get next? Should there be something between this house and his adult home? What do you suggest for misting? Right now it's a spray bottle with bottled water in it; I am in need of something more practical but appropriately sized for his setup and his tiny stature.

Food..

Lucki is eating fruit flies right now and does not seem to be especially interested in crickets. I believe he may have eaten one on his own- mayyyyybe two, and has eaten one off a skewer that I stabbed and presented to him. I am having a hard time finding crickets that are as small as what he was used to eating. There is a reptile specific store here in Chicago that said they could order pinheads or 1/8th inch crickets, but only 1000 at a time. I don't really have the space for a ton of bugs and honestly don't really have much interest in having those in my house. To provide some details, I live in an apartment in Chicago with no basement or attic (or even a storage closet) and I also have two extremely curious specialty breed monkey cats who would probably delight in getting into a container filled with live bugs. I am open to suggestions and ideas. Right now, I have about two dozen crickets in a tank that have become pets since Lucki doesn't really want them. They are eating mango and potato. The fruit flies are flightless and I have them in two sizes, (small and tiny-nearly invisible) he eats both. They are living in their own tiny ecosphere culture, which I find to be totally amazing. He has also been fed/eaten one mini mealworm which I purchased out of desperation when I could not find the crickets and hadn't gotten the flies yet. I understand mealworms are not the best option. I am dusting every meal with calcium (without D3) and will be dusting with vitamins probably this week. I also have calcium WITH D3 and I'm wondering if I need to use that once every two weeks as well or if just the vitamins (which contain D3) every two weeks are sufficient? Also, do the flies need food/gut loading? Or is the potato base in their container enough? What other options do I have for food? What would you do?

Personality..

Lucki seems personable, confident, and curious. He will eagerly crawl up onto my hand (or chopstick, then hand) when I remove him for tank cleanings and his super thorough morning tank drench. He doesn't seem to be crazy about being misted himself so he gets to wait in my bonsai tree now while I take care of his house. I have provided him with some new hiding spots in his jungle gym, but seems to prefer to sit right out in the open and look around. Even when he sleeps, he just parks on a center beam of bamboo and passes out for the night. He's so cute and I just love him. Last Thursday, his body was just over an inch long (minus the tail). I will try to measure him tomorrow to keep track of his progress. I have a food scale and he's so light he doesn't even register on it. Has anyone else had a three month old this small? I know they are grow at different rates but geesh. I have never taken care of something so small that wasn't a fish, I actually have legitimate fears of misplacing him.

That is all I can think of right now.. I'm tired and need to go to sleep. Please let me know what you think! I am open to any/all ideas and insight. Thank you in advance and I am looking forward to becoming an active part of this forum!

Jaimee

PS.. I met Lucki's dad.. included is a photo of him and a photo of Lucki from earlier this week! :)
 

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I also have calcium WITH D3 and I'm wondering if I need to use that once every two weeks as well or if just the vitamins (which contain D3) every two weeks are sufficient?

Use both. What vitamins do you use though? Just wondering.

I use Reptivite once every two weeks as my vitamin supplement and it has small traces of D3 in it. I also use Repti-Cal WITH D3 on the other remaining weeks, once every two weeks. Week 1 Sunday - vitamins. Week 2 Sunday - calcium with D3. Week 3 Sunday - vitamins.....so on and so forth. I supplement with ReptiCal WITHOUT D3 at mostly every other feeding throughout the week.

The reason you need to use both the Vitamins AND the D3 Calcium, is because the small traces of D3 that are typically found in vitamin supplements aren't enough to adequately supply your chameleon with the D3 that it needs. If your chameleon was outside at all times under REAL sunlight, then it would get all the D3 that it could ever need and you could get away with using only the vitamins which contain D3 . If inside, a UVB bulb is producing UVB which provides D3 to the cham, but a man-made bulb comes nowhere even close to the power of the real sun. Therefore, if inside, you need to give the chameleon a slight D3 boost by giving it a Calcium with D3 supplement once every two weeks AS WELL AS supplementing once every two weeks with a vitamin supplement. The chameleon will get some of the D3 that it requires when you supplement it, and it can get the rest of it on its own through basking under your UVB lamp. Then, it will get the vitamins that it requires from the vitamin supplement that you provide.

Hope that helps
 
Those are exactly what I and many others use. Use the Calcium without D3 at almost every feeding and then use the other two supplements once every two weeks, switching between them every week. Many successful chameleon keepers have been following that supplement schedule for years.

I also personally give my chameleon one day a week with no supplements at all, and I do this every Saturday. My reason for it? - It's that you can overdose a chameleon on calcium if you over-dust the feeders time and time again. Now, I don't make my feeders caked in white or anything, I just give them a faint white coating, using minimal powder, so they are very slightly ghost-ish looking. BUT.... The rule of thumb goes, that it's recommended to dust with the regular calcium (no D3) at "most" feedings, so I dust appropriate feeders with it on every weekday, then I skip 1 day of the weekend (Saturday) to give him a small break from any supplements at all. (Sunday is my alternating day I use for the D3 Calcium / Vitamin supplements). Every Saturday is also the day that I give mine more food than usual, and he always gets treats on this day as well that he doesn't typically get throughout the week, such as wax worms and butter worms. It's kind of like a super feast day for him, getting about 25% or so more food than on any other normal day. I skip the calcium altogether on this day specifically, because with the extra feeders, that's more extra calcium I'd be giving him if I were to dust them all. The reason I do that is personal preference for me; that's not anything I read anywhere as a tip, and it's not in the care sheets. It's just my own method I use to give his system a slight break from calcium and it helps to combat any potential overdosing. Besides, I'm sure my chameleon enjoys eating bugs once a week that have ZERO taste of calcium powder on them ;). He goes absolutely nuts on his Saturdays (y)
 
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U can also try dubia roach babies,and please dont feed them any mealworms....i never feed my entire baby clutch anytype of worms unless they get older in their separate cages....
And here is the reason....when they are young ,in the nursery enclosures or container,all babies are looking to eat anything will attract their attention,and guess what the worms looklike????
It looklike their TINY TAILS!!
so if they get hungry , they can nip eachothers tails just because the tails look like a wiggle worm!!
Since u dont have lots babies in ur cage,u can try feed him gutloaded calcium dusted crickets,dubia babies n some hornworm n silkworm babies ,that should be fine.
Hand mist the lukewarm warter around him unless he doesnt mind u spray him directly so he can drink n lick those water drops,check his pooping as long the urate color is white and visible then that mean he is drinking,good luck to ur baby chamy
 
He is not interested in the crickets that I have. Where do I find all these tiny bugs?

Also, he is the only baby (or reptile) that I have so I really don't need to worry about him eating anyone else's tail.
 
And I do know that he is the only baby u have as I said it on my post,Im just telling u that its not good to feed him the mealworm,cause they can easily get addicted n ignore all other food plus its hard for him to digest the mealworm in his tiny stomach
U can get those feeder online,if u look up on top of ur forum screen with all the sponsors,what u feeding ur cham is what ur cham going to be like in his future.
 
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