Husbandry review for Picasso

[Uri]

Hello everyone meet Picasso I got him from @JacksJill and he was very healthy when I got him and she’s been very helpful. My only issue is he isn’t eating much he hasn’t taken to his shooting gallery well and seems to not want dubias or crickets and only took to mealworms, since Thursday he’s only eaten 5 crickets and 2 mealworms. I would try to get hornworms but they are too big the ones I’ve seen and silkworms are hard to find right now. I have an order of bsfl coming in Wednesday so hopefully that helps too. He’s also been very dark throughout his entire time here. He does have beautiful pjs when sleeping and his urates are white
Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Triceros jacksonii jacksonii male 7 months old, 4 days in my care
• Handling - Only twice when I put him in his enclosure and when he tried to sleep too close to his feeder where crickets tried to jump on him to escape at night so I had to move him to another branch and take out the crickets
• Feeding - I am feeding him gutloaded crickets dubias and the very rare mealworm I only had 3 left alive from an old cup that I gutloaded and tried to feed out to see if he would at LEAST eat those. I leave at least 5 crickets and 7 dubias in his tk shooting gallery and have 5 free roam crickets daily everyday but he ignored them and only ate a total of 5 crickets and 2 mealworms in all those days. I leave them in before he wakes up so after he basks he can see them and eat and he does but he ignores them I should also say the sizes are the right size, I’ve experimented with small and extra small sizes which he ate the small size crickets which I believe are 1/4 size
• Supplements - I use zoo meds repti calcium with d3, without d3, and rep-cal herptivite multivitamin and I use without d3 once every other day, and once I month I will use with d3 and once a month for the multivitamin.
• Watering - I have a reptirain which I don’t use because it’s so load I hand mist 3 times a day, 2-3 minutes before lights come on, during the afternoon around 4pm but I turn off his heat bulb 30 minutes before I do his afternoon rain shower and then 30 minutes after lights turn off. As well as fogging at night after 12 am until lights come on
• Fecal Description - dark brown almost black round looks good not too dry not too watery with his urate fully white although he hasn’t gotten a fecal test yet I will get one as soon as I can. He hasn’t pooped much as well he hasn’t eaten much.
• History - He was captive bred from jacksjill who I think we all know is very good at what she does

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - 18-18- 30 screen reptibreeze I will upgrade to a dragon strand 2’2’4 cage as soon as I am able too if not just the xl reptibreeze cage
• Lighting - my uvb is the long tube t5 ho 5.0 uvb. I also have a dual dome fixture with one 100 watt zoomed heat bulb, and a 65 watt led grow light
• Temperature - 82 degrees F for basking at the warmest. The ambient goes from 80-72 ambient the bottom goes down to 68. At night tho his temps go down to 63 at the warmest and are usually around 60 for the night
• Humidity - the room is always 30-50% during the day and at night with his fogger and late night misting it goes to over 80%
• Plants - I have lots of sticks and more coming in waiting to be sanitized, for plants I have a pothos plant that’s spread nicely, and another that I forgot what it’s called but I searched it up and it’s veiled tested and hides him during the day
• Placement - His cage is in my basement which is my coldest room which is very low traffic with only me ever going in and out and not often. His basking branch is about 6 ft above ground(I’m short so it goes far above me) there are no fans or vents nearby they are far away
• Location - The northernmost part of the State of Indiana Elkhart Indiana a relatively cold place

Current Problem - Not eating and very dark for these last days the last picture of him on a lid was me taking him out of his deli cup into his enclosure

 

[JacksJill]

I don't know if you want my review or not but overall you seem on track. My only immediate suggestion is to work some of the pothos vines up a little higher so he feels hidden when he eats. He should like the BSFL when they arrive.
He's not his brightest colors but he's not that dark for a guy in a new cage he isn't totally secure in yet.

 

[Uri]

I don't know if you want my review or not but overall you seem on track. My only immediate suggestion is to work some of the pothos vines up a little higher so he feels hidden when he eats. He should like the BSFL when they arrive.
He's not his brightest colors but he's not that dark for a guy in a new cage he isn't totally secure in yet.

Any review is helpful and I’ve been trying to work on that which is why I want to get a bigger cage to have more room for plants. I’ve been taking vines from my overgrown pothos upstairs that would in now way fit in that cage and wrapping them around the top to try to create more coverage. Would plastic plants be a decent temporary solution until my plants grow large enough to help with the coverage? Also he’s usually slightly darker than that most of the time. I was also wondering how much does he usually eat on average Ik he’s still supposed to eat as much as he’s able to as he’s still growing but how much is that usually

 

[Uri]

I also forgot I have a bamboo stick in there somewhere

 

[JacksJill]

He would usually eat one or two "hand" fed dubia nymphs for me and then over the day finish off dozens of bean beetles or 15-20 very small 1/4 inch crickets. The size you are feeding look larger but not too large so maybe 5-6. He's never been the best cricket eater and I thought he preferred dubia. He's had a mini super worm or two.
Here is how I hand feed dubia nymphs. I put them on their back and feed this way.

 

[Uri]

He would usually eat one or two "hand" fed dubia nymphs for me and then over the day finish off dozens of bean beetles or 15-20 very small 1/4 inch crickets. The size you are feeding look larger but not too large so maybe 5-6. He's never been the best cricket eater and I thought he preferred dubia. He's had a mini super worm or two.
Here is how I hand feed dubia nymphs. I put them on their back and feed this way.
View attachment 300300

He’s still scared of me so hand feeding isn’t an option as whenever he sees me he immediately hides away in his plants. What he’s eaten has been from free ranging. The dubias I ordered from joshes frogs are smaller than the last dubias I bought and I’m hoping the bsfl get his attention

 

[JacksJill]

I wouldn't expect that to work for a while but eventually he will.

 

[Uri]

I wouldn't expect that to work for a while but eventually he will.

He doesn’t seem to be losing weight tho and he’s definitely drinking water and staying hydrated so I’m not too worried I was hoping to get silkworms but I haven’t been able to find any small enough as I’ve heard those are popular and i haven’t tried to hand feed because well he’s still scared of me