New Cham Mom-to-be

[Howdyshay]

Hi, I'm Shay. I live in Austin TX and I am waiting for my very first Chameleon to be old enough to ship. His sire is my avatar. He will be when he gets here... His name is Kharma. I know, original... I just can't help it. I am a child of the 80s. Yeah, I am getting started into Cham Life at a late age. I actually fell in love with a chameleon on Zoom. One of my students ( I teach high school) brought his cham, Floyd onto our Zoom call the first day of school. I became obsessed and I am sure he thinks I'm crazy. I researched a lot and found Bruce at Chameleon Paradise and put a deposit on a beautiful ambilobe Panther baby. It's a hard time to get into this with everyone out of everything. I talked to Todd at Light Your Reptile for a long time about lights and everything chameleon so I have a baby bin set up with everything (almost) ready to go. Bruce is so great about giving you everything you need to know. I went with the Jungle Dawn spot for my plants and a ZooMed UVB t5 bulb and a basking bulb which is way harder to find at Home Depot than I thought. Everything is LED there now. My only real question right now (I have millions going in my head all the time) is getting food for him. I went to Petco which I will never do again to look at crickets and worms and most everything they had was dead. Then I checked out the chams they had and it was awful. Dead bugs mealworms nothing alive 5 or 6 in one cage and some where considerably older. No dripping water, hardly any plant cover. They looked so unhealthy and sad. There is a local exotic pet store in town (they have a sloth) I think I will just drive the extra 20 minutes to get them there. So back to my question... at first when they are just a couple of months old do you just feed them fruit flies and tiny crickets or do you also find small superworms or silk worms to feed them as well? And how many should I try feeding them at that age. I have read through here and there's a lot of information and some of it is conflicting. I just wonder how many crickets I will waste while he's small when you have to buy a bunch at a time. I just am curious as to how you started feeding your baby chameleons so that they like the healthy stuff and also do I wait to try to feed them a worm and just let them find them themselves while they are getting used to their new surroundings?
Sorry this is a book... you should meet me in person.

 

[Kamikaze Chameleon]

Hi, I'm Shay. I live in Austin TX and I am waiting for my very first Chameleon to be old enough to ship. His sire is my avatar. He will be when he gets here... His name is Kharma. I know, original... I just can't help it. I am a child of the 80s. Yeah, I am getting started into Cham Life at a late age. I actually fell in love with a chameleon on Zoom. One of my students ( I teach high school) brought his cham, Floyd onto our Zoom call the first day of school. I became obsessed and I am sure he thinks I'm crazy. I researched a lot and found Bruce at Chameleon Paradise and put a deposit on a beautiful ambilobe Panther baby. It's a hard time to get into this with everyone out of everything. I talked to Todd at Light Your Reptile for a long time about lights and everything chameleon so I have a baby bin set up with everything (almost) ready to go. Bruce is so great about giving you everything you need to know. I went with the Jungle Dawn spot for my plants and a ZooMed UVB t5 bulb and a basking bulb which is way harder to find at Home Depot than I thought. Everything is LED there now. My only real question right now (I have millions going in my head all the time) is getting food for him. I went to Petco which I will never do again to look at crickets and worms and most everything they had was dead. Then I checked out the chams they had and it was awful. Dead bugs mealworms nothing alive 5 or 6 in one cage and some where considerably older. No dripping water, hardly any plant cover. They looked so unhealthy and sad. There is a local exotic pet store in town (they have a sloth) I think I will just drive the extra 20 minutes to get them there. So back to my question... at first when they are just a couple of months old do you just feed them fruit flies and tiny crickets or do you also find small superworms or silk worms to feed them as well? And how many should I try feeding them at that age. I have read through here and there's a lot of information and some of it is conflicting. I just wonder how many crickets I will waste while he's small when you have to buy a bunch at a time. I just am curious as to how you started feeding your baby chameleons so that they like the healthy stuff and also do I wait to try to feed them a worm and just let them find them themselves while they are getting used to their new surroundings?
Sorry this is a book... you should meet me in person.

Welcome! And dont feel bad at all for asking questions, thats what we're all mostly here to do ? im happy you got a panther, i hope its male as they are a lil easier for beginers and typically tend to be more tolerable to handling. I agree and also hate petco and big box stores theyre all absolutley terrible. I deffinitly recomend getting one from a reputable breeder. I got mine from LLL reptile and hes healthy and gorgeous, there are more sites on the sponser page where you can find other sellers. As far as feeding when they are young you wanna feed them, practicly as much as they can eat. Just think about what they encounter in the wild, i like to try and put myself in my chameleons canon eyes ? varitey is KEY! i highly suggest small silkworms as they are soft bodied [east to digest] and also known to be one of the most notritious feeders however many other things work! I also like black soilder fly larva[high in calcium] hornworms[high in mositure] although they can get big! Crickets and dubia roachs are great options too! Best of luck!???

 

[Kamikaze Chameleon]

Also

 

[Kamikaze Chameleon]

And

 

[Howdyshay]

Welcome! And dont feel bad at all for asking questions, thats what we're all mostly here to do ? im happy you got a panther, i hope its male as they are a lil easier for beginers and typically tend to be more tolerable to handling. I agree and also hate petco and big box stores theyre all absolutley terrible. I deffinitly recomend getting one from a reputable breeder. I got mine from LLL reptile and hes healthy and gorgeous, there are more sites on the sponser page where you can find other sellers. As far as feeding when they are young you wanna feed them, practicly as much as they can eat. Just think about what they encounter in the wild, i like to try and put myself in my chameleons canon eyes ? varitey is KEY! i highly suggest small silkworms as they are soft bodied [east to digest] and also known to be one of the most notritious feeders however many other things work! I also like black soilder fly larva[high in calcium] hornworms[high in mositure] although they can get big! Crickets and dubia roachs are great options too! Best of luck!???

Thank you so much. I have been watching some YOUTUBE videos about it and I think I am going to try to order some black soldier fly larva and some silk worms. I may try the Dubia Roaches as well. ALthough not a fan of roaches at all.

 

[Kamikaze Chameleon]

Oh yes lots n lots to take in! Im glad to help ? those are what i mostly use, silkworms require some care but totally worth it, dubias are also very nutritious but my cham wont touch em ? im looking into getting some different kinds soon like i said variety is key!

 

[Kamikaze Chameleon]

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[Fchamel]

Welcome to the fam! Yes, it is hard to know what is right or wrong... I feed my
Baby veiled three times a day, to space the food out. I feed dubia roaches, black soldier fly larvae, and crickets. I would also put greens with their food, and put some calcium in there once a day.