gravid questions

Found this, about different insects to feed reptiles, i left meal worms off because i think they are just nasty and you shouldn't feed to reptiles. Hope this helps


Crickets

Crickets are nutritional the best staple diet for any reptile. It is possible to keep them alive for a long time and make sure they are full of flavour by the time they are served to your pet.

Housing
Cricket can be house in plastic enclosures such as a cricket keeper. This will give them the space they require to live and will also give them the ventilation they require. Crickets do like to hide and cricket keepers come with dark tubes that the crickets will climb into. You can also use cardboard tubes or egg crate. No additional decor or substrate is required as this will only hinder your cleaning regime.

Food
Its important to feed your crickets for two reasons
1. To keep your crickets alive, healthy and active
2. Anything your cricket eats, your reptile will in turn eat. This is called gut loading.
Crickets should be fed a mixture of fresh vegetation and commercially available cricket foods. Crickets foods, such as Bug Grub, are loaded with vitamins and minerals that will be passed on to your pet. Always make sure food is available in their enclosure.

Water
Crickets will die of dehydration before starvation. It is crucial to keeping them alive to offer them a source of water. Crickets will drown in a water bowl so a Bug Gel is a great alternative. Crickets will drink from the gel with no risk of drowning. A small blob of gel in a bottle cap is sufficient.

Maintenance
Daily, check your crickets have sufficient food and water gel available. When you have used all of your crickets, clean out the enclosure using a disinfectant and give yourself a pat on the back for being a great reptile keeper.
Feeding

Feeding
Lightly dust the crickets in a vitamin and mineral supplement like Nutrabal. Offer as many crickets as your reptile will eat in one sitting. Ask us for advice if you are unsure which size crickets to feed.

Locusts

Locusts are active insects and reptiles love them! They are not as nutritional as crickets but you can care for them to make sure your pet gets the most out of them.

Housing
Locusts can be house in plastic enclosures such as a cricket keeper. This will give them the space they require to live and will also give them the ventilation they require. If you want to grow the locusts to a very large size when they have wings then a larger enclosure may be needed. Locusts do like to hide and cricket keepers come with dark tubes that the crickets will climb into. You can also use cardboard tubes or egg crate. No additional decor or substrate is required as this will only hinder your cleaning regime. Locusts will grow faster at higher temperatures so if you want really large locusts then use a heat mat.

Food
Its important to feed your locusts for two reasons
1. To keep your locusts alive, healthy and active
2. Anything your locusts eat, your reptile will in turn eat. This is called gut loading.
Locusts should be fed a mixture of fresh vegetation and commercially available cricket foods. Crickets foods, such as Bug Grub, are loaded with vitamins and minerals that will be passed on to your pet. Always make sure food is available in their enclosure as locusts do eat a lot.

Water
Locusts will die of dehydration before starvation. It is crucial to keeping them alive to offer them a source of water. Locusts can drown in a water bowl so a Bug Gel is a great alternative. Locusts will drink from the gel with no risk of drowning. A small blob of gel in a bottle cap is sufficient.

Maintenance
Daily, check your locusts have sufficient food and water gel available. When you have used all of your locusts, clean out the enclosure using a disinfectant and give yourself a pat on the back for being a great reptile keeper.

Feeding
Lightly dust the crickets in a vitamin and mineral supplement like Nutrabal. Offer as many crickets as your reptile will eat in one sitting. Ask us for advice if you are unsure which size crickets to feed.

Worms & Grubs

Worms and grubs should be used as a treat food for your reptiles and not as a staple diet. Therefore it may be necessary to care for them for longer as you wont be using so many at at any time.

Wax Worms
Wax Worms require no additional care. They can be kept in the fridge in their original container and will keep fresh for months

Worms & Beetle Grubs
Worms and Beetle Grubs should be housed in a plastic tray or a plastic tank. They are burrowing animals so a deep layer of substrate should be used. We have found that Spider Life substrate is great for this job. Provide them with a layer around 10cm deep. Keep the substrate moist but not wet. For food, mix some Bug Grub into the substrate.
 
Super worms are really great too, my cham loves them. You should try yours on some too. They are cheap and you get loads in a tub. If you go to pets at home in the metro centre you can get super worms, locusts, crickets and wax worms. Or get them online
 
dreamofthedead, thanks for the posts, but i am kind of weary about posting this on this thread for the some reasons. first, we are supposed to be examining the husbandry, other than feeding. yes we know this veiled is fat and needs some weight watchers, but there could be multiple other issues in this case. lighting, and temperatures, the whole enchalata for if and how bad this girl is gravid. again, this female could be gravid, egg bound, but showing receptive colours again. also, what you posted said under feeding: (lightly dust food and give as many as the reptile can eat) this is obviously a whole different case. we as chameleon keepers are not entitled to be feeding our chameleon everyday any time after about 6-7 months old i believe any time after 5 months since females can start getting sexually mature at this age. every other day is appropriate with about 7-8 crickets appropriate for size, or a mix of various feeders around the same weight as 7-8 crickets, and with that, plain calcium every feeding. any time after about a year and 3 months, a feeding every two days is fine, and again plain calcium supplimenting every day.

as another post said, 80-82 basking temperature, you will obviously get days where it might go over, but should be no more than 85. an appropriate laying bin should have a 50/50 sand and dirt mix (eco-earth can be substituted for dirt), moss on top sometimes attracts a laying as well. the laying bin should usually have 12'' of this mix for laying, a minimum of 6'' if space is short in the cage. Some also us trash cans (brand new) for extra security and privacy for their chameleon.

with egg producing, she NEEDS a good intake balance of calcium. calcium aids in the shell formation, and if it is all gone to egg formation, she will not absorb it for herself and end up with MBD. a little bit more than lightly dusting can be used for every other day feeding without harm. just make sure they dont look like "ghost" but a good dusting is good.


im actually pretty upsett that basic husbandry equiptment has never been on hand, but i guess this is what the forums are for. please start taking better care of this animal jcarty, i hope this helps though, best of luck mate
 
i would also like to add, that in a case of overweight, add to gut load, fruits that are appropriate for intake by the reptile that are higher in antioxidants, it helps humans in weight loss, and if its alright for gut load, im sure it would have an effect as well on reptiles.
 
dreamofthedead, thanks for the posts, but i am kind of weary about posting this on this thread for the some reasons. first, we are supposed to be examining the husbandry, other than feeding. yes we know this veiled is fat and needs some weight watchers, but there could be multiple other issues in this case. lighting, and temperatures, the whole enchalata for if and how bad this girl is gravid. again, this female could be gravid, egg bound, but showing receptive colours again. also, what you posted said under feeding: (lightly dust food and give as many as the reptile can eat) this is obviously a whole different case. we as chameleon keepers are not entitled to be feeding our chameleon everyday any time after about 6-7 months old i believe any time after 5 months since females can start getting sexually mature at this age. every other day is appropriate with about 7-8 crickets appropriate for size, or a mix of various feeders around the same weight as 7-8 crickets, and with that, plain calcium every feeding. any time after about a year and 3 months, a feeding every two days is fine, and again plain calcium supplimenting every day.

as another post said, 80-82 basking temperature, you will obviously get days where it might go over, but should be no more than 85. an appropriate laying bin should have a 50/50 sand and dirt mix (eco-earth can be substituted for dirt), moss on top sometimes attracts a laying as well. the laying bin should usually have 12'' of this mix for laying, a minimum of 6'' if space is short in the cage. Some also us trash cans (brand new) for extra security and privacy for their chameleon.

with egg producing, she NEEDS a good intake balance of calcium. calcium aids in the shell formation, and if it is all gone to egg formation, she will not absorb it for herself and end up with MBD. a little bit more than lightly dusting can be used for every other day feeding without harm. just make sure they dont look like "ghost" but a good dusting is good.


im actually pretty upsett that basic husbandry equiptment has never been on hand, but i guess this is what the forums are for. please start taking better care of this animal jcarty, i hope this helps though, best of luck mate

I don't think what i've said is wrong, if you look i also sent the person links to get thermometers then post the temps and humidity levels on here so we could look.
 
I don't think what i've said is wrong, if you look i also sent the person links to get thermometers then post the temps and humidity levels on here so we could look.

i didnt say anything you said was wrong, i was just disagreeing about the feed as much as they can eat sentences in the post. and that was obviously something you didnt say personally. i was just trying to some all up at once for the guy to see.
 
iv just got the digital thermometer they didnt sell the digital hydrometer so i just bought one of them exoterra round ones for now

the degrees farenhite is 83/84 goes down to 81 after misting

and the humidity level says round about 53/55

they didnt sell small locusts the ones they did sell were to big and they said they dont get them any smaller even tho i saw a small locust crawling around there geko cage

dreamforthedead were is tht pet shop in the metrocentre as i only know of a big warehouse one dow the road tahat is not in the metrocentre
 
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