Need Help (Veiled Cham)

[frankyfong36]

I just purchased a veiled chameleon the other day. (June 5th) Since I have brought him home, I have only seen him eat a few crickets, (yesterday) and drink a little bit (yesterday). He only ate once and drank once. I haven't seen him eat or drink anything today.

How often should they be eating? Everyday? And drinking everyday? I tried to mist the cage and leaves, but he doesn't drink that way. The only way I saw him drink was with a cup dripping from the top.

are you supposed to mist the chameleon directly?

 

[jannb]

How old is your veiled? Young ones eat ALLOT!

 

[VeiledOwner87]

I just purchased a veiled chameleon the other day. (June 5th) Since I have brought him home, I have only seen him eat a few crickets, (yesterday) and drink a little bit (yesterday). He only ate once and drank once. I haven't seen him eat or drink anything today.

How often should they be eating? Everyday? And drinking everyday? I tried to mist the cage and leaves, but he doesn't drink that way. The only way I saw him drink was with a cup dripping from the top.

are you supposed to mist the chameleon directly?

jann is right i know they can eat alot, youngins will eat alot. if you just bought him yesterday, then chances are he is still acclimating himself to his new cage. he will eat when hes ready and comfortable..either way, he is still eating. i would avoid misting a baby or juvenile right on, unless an exception can be made by setting it to a very light mist, and distancing the sprayer away enough from the cage to not have pressure contact it, or too much none the less. you will want to feed babies and juveniles everyday though. i have a female, and from ages 6 to a year, i will only feed her everyday (this will prevent/or decrease amount of infertle egg laying which can be life tolling on a female. after a year she can be fed 3 times a week.

i want to add this. NEVER be in any hurry to grow your chameleon. the slower it grows the longer and healthier it will be.

for a male, i would feed it everyday with less feeders, or the same as a female, every other day or 3 times a week (depending on the age)

as far as him not wanting to drink from the mister, the key is, slower misting for longer time, slower misting for 5 minutes or so. twice a day is sufficient for a veiled.

if he is more comfortable drinking from a cup dripper, than thats what it is to him. you might want to invest in zoomed's drippers. theyre inexpensive, better looking, and wont make a mess if they cup falls.

hope this helps man, and good luck

 

[Ellron]

If you filled out the ask for help form (Stickied in the Health Section of the forum) we could tell you what might be wrong in his husbandry. I would suggest cup feeding rather than free ranging, then you could monitor his food intake. Be sure that his dripper is dripping pretty rapidly , about a drop a second.

Good luck with him!
Any pics?

 

[Elizadolots]

Are you judging this based on what you've witnessed or the fact loads of crickets are still around?

While filling out the "how to ask for help" form is always good for getting insight on your husbandry, I will say that many chameleons don't want to be seen eating. If I walk in on mine after they've nabbed something they freeze and act as though nothing at all is wiggling outside their mouths...so, you not seeing doesn't mean it isn't happening.

Same goes for drinking. Some people report never seeing their chameleons drink.

So, what do you do? You look at the poop. I describe good chameleon poop as looking a lot like bird poop....there should be mostly brown/grey (which should have some solidity) and a bit of white. The white might be ivory or cream...it can have yellow or orange at the tip, but if it's all yellow then your chameleon is not drinking enough. If it's orange, your chameleon is probably dehydrated.

The "how to ask for help" form includes a question on poop. Be detailed. If you can attach a picture, that's even better (don't worry, we've seen loads of poop pictures).

 

[frankyfong36]

I'm not sure if I'm replying to one person or all at once, but thanks guys/gals

I will post pics of my dude soon. I will even post pics of his poop as suggested. I'm worried since I think Ive seen some bright yellow or orange colors in his poop.

As far as age goes, the pet store owner said 8 months. But he is maybe 5 1/2 inches long not including the tail. Does that sound right? I dont know. I saw a much larger (more mass) one in the pet store that he said was 3 year, so I took his word.

The drinking part is really stressing me out.

 

[Elizadolots]

Size is sort of weird...they grow all their lives so if they are denied nutrition at some point, they won't grow during that time...so, it's not always a good judge of age.

If you think your chameleon is dehydrated then you need to start upping the hydration. You should have a drip going as much as possible during the day. It should hit leaves or something to create a "oh, look, water is dripping here!" experience for your chameleon.

You should probably up the misting. I mist twice a day. I mist until everything in the cage is dripping (I've never timed it...it's long enough my old lady joints complain and I have a power mister). I also have a dripper going from the top all day.(I suspect my husband, who's the home parent, is not as attentive to refilling the drippers as I would be, but I'm rarely at work for more than 7 hours so I figure it's okay).

Do you have a real plant in the enclosure? I swear, both my chameleons got more enthusiastic over drinking when I put real plants in their cages. Make sure the dripper drips onto the real plant.