I just got Leo, and have some questions, help?

[SamMcDoograh]

Ok, so me and my husband just got our Cham yesterday (Monday). His name is Leonardo, because we were both were big ninja turtle fans when we little lol. Anyways, he's an adult, already around 2 years old, and he is surprisingly comfortable from what I can tell. He's very active, he eats right from our hands and will hunt just fine, and if we put our hand in the cage he will just walk right on

I do have some questions though, I am having some problems keeping his cage humid enough, we have 4 or 5 plants in his cage and have been watering him atleast 3 times a day for 2 mins like some of the care sheets have been telling us, but I cant seem to get his humidity up. Any suggestions?

Also, we have gotten him crickets and superworms to eat, but he doesnt eat the worms, should we try something else? I know the gentleman we got him from was feeding him dubia roaches (i think thats what their called) but I havent been able to find them at any of our local pet stores. When we went to one they told us we shouldnt feed them the dubia, so Im just wondering what you guys think?

Also any advice would be great, we have been reading TONS and he seems to be doing great so far, Im actually really suprised at how super quickly he has eaten from our hands and walked on our hands and arms without any problems. However, the more I know the better!

Thanks

 

[chamillionaire3]

well congrats on the cham! okay for the humidity there are many things you can do depending on where you live. you can get an automatic misting system which will keep the humidity up which i do recommend. i personally use the mistking. another thing you can do is get a simple cool mist humidifier frm walmart or wlagreens and buy some pvc pipe to fit it and have it run into the cage. as for the dubia roaches they are perfectly fine to feed him and hopefully he should love them. thats too bad about the worms though, some chams like them some dont. but anyways congrats on the cham, he seems like he has a great personality which is awesome!

 

[squeekz1992]

Ok, so me and my husband just got our Cham yesterday (Monday). His name is Leonardo, because we were both were big ninja turtle fans when we little lol. Anyways, he's an adult, already around 2 years old, and he is surprisingly comfortable from what I can tell. He's very active, he eats right from our hands and will hunt just fine, and if we put our hand in the cage he will just walk right on

I do have some questions though, I am having some problems keeping his cage humid enough, we have 4 or 5 plants in his cage and have been watering him atleast 3 times a day for 2 mins like some of the care sheets have been telling us, but I cant seem to get his humidity up. Any suggestions?

Also, we have gotten him crickets and superworms to eat, but he doesnt eat the worms, should we try something else? I know the gentleman we got him from was feeding him dubia roaches (i think thats what their called) but I havent been able to find them at any of our local pet stores. When we went to one they told us we shouldnt feed them the dubia, so Im just wondering what you guys think?

Also any advice would be great, we have been reading TONS and he seems to be doing great so far, Im actually really suprised at how super quickly he has eaten from our hands and walked on our hands and arms without any problems. However, the more I know the better!

Thanks

Hi and welcome
If you fill out the https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ form, we can help you make sure everything is tip top for Leo

If your having issues with humidity, I would recommend live plants and upping your misting times/frequency. I mist my Kuzco 5 times a day at least for 3-5 minutes. I also have 6 live plants in with him.


I would not do Supers as a staple, as they can cause impaction ( constipation). Dubias are not sold in local pet stores, but you can ask someone on the forum, or got to one of our sponsors websites (top right hand corner of screen).

Most of what a pet store tells you is crap, so I'm glad you came here Use crickets until you can get dubias. A variety is god for your cham.

Do you know about supplementing and gutloading?? And lighting?

Not doubting you at all Just making sure you have all the necessary resources to make Leo happy and healthy

Nevermind about the plants. I missed that you have them!

 

[SamMcDoograh]

Wow thanks guys for answering me so quickly. I will be sure to go post that how to ask for help thing tonight, I have a ton of questions I could ask lol.

As for the superworms, he wont have anything to do with them, so I just told my husband what you said about them causing impaction, which I definitely do not want.

I know a little about gutloading. Im wondering what you guys think, the guy that we got him from said that he bought his crickets a week at a time instead of buying hundereds and keeping them. Do you think thats a good idea? We have got him a supply of crickets for the rest of the week, and we have the clacium to dust them as well once a week.

I have a heat light and a uvb light both of which I got at petsmart. They had a listing of what types of lights chameleons need so I followed that. He's got a 100 watt heat lamp on top of his cage above his basking spot, is that too much? Theres a reptile expo in Arlington Texas near where I live this weekend so I was going to go and see what I could get there for him, and see about any information I could get. Plus it just sounds like it will be fun to go to

 

[Meow Kitty]

the gut load at my local store is "ok" but i notice drastic change in my chameleons colors when i don't gut load them the night before i recently started giving them frozen slurries of fruit and dry gutload, check out sandrachameleon, she has blogs on this forum
she is the food guru when it comes to gutloads

 

[SamMcDoograh]

the gut load at my local store is "ok" but i notice drastic change in my chameleons colors when i don't gut load them the night before i recently started giving them frozen slurries of fruit and dry gutload, check out sandrachameleon, she has blogs on this forum
she is the food guru when it comes to gutloads

I wanted to try feeding him some fruits and veggies to give him a good variety of food is that a good idea? What kind of fruits do they like, or what should I avoid feeding him?

 

[absolutbill]

I wanted to try feeding him some fruits and veggies to give him a good variety of food is that a good idea? What kind of fruits do they like, or what should I avoid feeding him?

Is the cham in question your avatar? He's beautiful! However, he's a panther, so good luck enticing him to eat his veggies! I've had 3 panthers and a veiled, and the veiled was much more likely to enjoy some fruit and veggies, it's just not something that panthers enjoy. I'd also suggest to up your misting time - an automatic mister on a timer will quickly become your best friend. I mist my crew 3 times a day, 10 minutes at a time. That gives them plenty of time for their drinking instinct to kick in, plus it helps with the humidity in my cages. I have about 72% in them right after a mist, and without misting it's around 50% (but I'm in Florida so that helps too).

I'd also suggest getting about 500 crickets about a size smaller than you want and gutloading them all properly. That will save you a bunch of money in the long run, plus you know that they are "ready to go", since they are always gut-loaded. Just get a 10 gallon tank with a screen lid. I get 3/4" so that I have a couple of weeks chirp-free at the house - very important when you are talking about hundreds of crickets! Good luck with Leo!

 

[SamMcDoograh]

Yep, thats him

Thanks for all the advice, I will deff. be getting this stuff soon. We are looking at an automatic mister especially since we both work, but we wont have the funds until the end of the month. Do you think he will be ok in the mean time? I've got help around the house too while me and my husband are at work, so that way he isnt going too long without water.

 

[absolutbill]

Leo should be fine for another week or so until you can get a mister. Just make sure to up his misting length, or frequency, or both as much as you can.

 

[Kate]

Congrats on your new Cham. I read that you have calcium to dust feeders once a week. IMO it's best to dust feeders every feed with phosphorous free calcium without d3 and calcium with d3 and multivits twice a month. You will get more pointers when you fill in form. As a rule I believe petsmart and petco are not very good at advice so you may like to check things out here first.

 

[SamMcDoograh]

Congrats on your new Cham. I read that you have calcium to dust feeders once a week. IMO it's best to dust feeders every feed with phosphorous free calcium without d3 and calcium with d3 and multivits twice a month. You will get more pointers when you fill in form. As a rule I believe petsmart and petco are not very good at advice so you may like to check things out here first.

Yeah we are going to have to go get some more stuff when we get paid. I figured as much, considering when we went to petco the guy was completely clueless, and at petsmart the lady was telling me all of these conflicting things, but then said her daughter breeds Chams so she "knows what shes talking about" *eye roll* lol.

We have upped his misting and the length especially since he has been shedding on the top of his head and he just finished shedding around his eye. Im also going to try to make him a dripper so he has water to drink while we are at work. Thanks for all the great advice guys. I find myself on here reading new stuff everyday