Meal/supplement PREP

wedidthis

New Member
Hello! I'm about to embark on a new friendship/hobby of owning a Male veiled chameleon.

Pre-word
I have failed my first attempt at raising a young female veiled :(

I bought her from Petsmart a week ago and returned her today after seeing that she closed both eyes for a full day and rubbed her eyes till bruising. I believe she had a sinus infection that was caused from poor housing conditions at the store.

However when I inquired on these forums as how to aid her when it first showed (5 days ago) Using the proper Information list, many members mentioned that my nutrition wasn't up to par.

I will be starting from scratch soon, ordering from a breeder, but first I would like to have adequate nourishment ready for my little guy.

GAME PLAN

Feed mostly store bought crickets, and meal worms. I will be looking into silk worms as an additive in the variety, once I can find a cost effective source near by.

I will be gut loading said feeders with:
1.Orange
2.Romain
3.Carrots

As far as supplementation goes:
1. I have Zoo meds Reptivite w/ D3
2. I am purchasing a Straight Calcium
^Why do some calcium's come ratio'd with phosphorus; should I get this instead?
3. I am Purchasing a multivitamin
^ What brand is best?

MY SUPPLEMENT SCHEDULE

1st week
|M| T| W| Th| F| S| Su|

M,Cal T,Multi Th,Cal F,Multi Su,D3

2nd week
|M| T| W| Th| F| S| Su|

T,Cal Th,Multi F,Cal Su,Multi

Repeat 1st week and so on...

Any additional input would be great! Let me know if i missed anything, need anything, or should cut something. I want to have an old and happy Cham someday :D
 
Whoa too much supplementation. Multi vitamin needs be be cut back to 2 times a month, and calcium with d3 2 times a month, and plain calcium no d3 or phosphorusm almost every feeding. Some better things to gut load with would be mustard or collard greens, butternut squash, kale, and romain lettuce, not iceberg or anything like that. And you might want a little bit more variety than that if you can, I can pick up only crickets super worms meal worms, wax worms, and calci worms locally everything else I have to order. Except a mantis egg I guess
Hello! I'm about to embark on a new friendship/hobby of owning a Male veiled chameleon.

Pre-word
I have failed my first attempt at raising a young female veiled :(

I bought her from Petsmart a week ago and returned her today after seeing that she closed both eyes for a full day and rubbed her eyes till bruising. I believe she had a sinus infection that was caused from poor housing conditions at the store.

However when I inquired on these forums as how to aid her when it first showed (5 days ago) Using the proper Information list, many members mentioned that my nutrition wasn't up to par.

I will be starting from scratch soon, ordering from a breeder, but first I would like to have adequate nourishment ready for my little guy.

GAME PLAN

Feed mostly store bought crickets, and meal worms. I will be looking into silk worms as an additive in the variety, once I can find a cost effective source near by.

I will be gut loading said feeders with:
1.Orange
2.Romain
3.Carrots

As far as supplementation goes:
1. I have Zoo meds Reptivite w/ D3
2. I am purchasing a Straight Calcium
^Why do some calcium's come ratio'd with phosphorus; should I get this instead?
3. I am Purchasing a multivitamin
^ What brand is best?

MY SUPPLEMENT SCHEDULE

1st week
|M| T| W| Th| F| S| Su|

M,Cal T,Multi Th,Cal F,Multi Su,D3

2nd week
|M| T| W| Th| F| S| Su|

T,Cal Th,Multi F,Cal Su,Multi

Repeat 1st week and so on...

Any additional input would be great! Let me know if i missed anything, need anything, or should cut something. I want to have an old and happy Cham someday :D
 
1.Straight calcium pretty much every meal "CHECK"
2.Multi Vitamin 1st and 15th of month?
3.D3 8th and 23rd of month ?
4.Add some dark leafy greens to the mix "CHECK"

What about multi vitamin and calcium brands/pointers to look out for?
 
Yup that looks wayyy better :) I'm not an expert when it comes to the best supplement brands I use repti calcium with no phosphorus or d3, and I use zoo meds reptivite with d3 for the multi vitamins. I have a jacksons Cham tho so I'm not sure what is best for your veiled. Hopefully someone else can shed some light?
1.Straight calcium pretty much every meal "CHECK"
2.Multi Vitamin 1st and 15th of month?
3.D3 8th and 23rd of month ?
4.Add some dark leafy greens to the mix "CHECK"

What about multi vitamin and calcium brands/pointers to look out for?
 
Hey, I highly recommend reading over this in preparation for your new chameleon, it's an excellent resource and will answer most of your questions, I believe: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/

There's a section on feeding and supplementation (https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/) that covers everything you're interested in learning. It gives you a great list of great foods to feed to your insects, explains how to gutload, and goes into supplements.

You want all your calciums to be phosphorous-free, because the body works best when calcium and phosphorous are at a 1:1 ratio but crickets are nearly 1:3 calcium to phosphorous, and that's bad. So we want to use plain calcium without phos to compensate for this imbalance. Personally, I use Repashy brand everything for my supplements but there are plenty of other great brands.

You can also buy dry gutloads (don't use anything by Fluker) like Repashy Superload, Bug Burger, Cricket Crack, etc. that will provide your crickets with great nutrition. Then you only need to provide some fruits and veggies as hydration, but you know that your bugs are getting a complete meal themselves.

Read over those and if you have any additional questions we're here to answer them :) But they should help you quite a bit.
 
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