New cham owner.

[flow163]

Hello, I just got a male veiled chameleon this past weekenday and it's my first reptile ever. I have a few questions about its care.
1. I was told by the vendor that it is "about a year old" and I wanted to know how many times a day should I feed it? And do I have to start on the every other day thing?

2. the thermometer reads in the high 70s. How hot should I have the basking area?

Any info would be apreciated.

 

[DragoLikesReptiles]

Hey flow, welcome to Chameleon Forums! Veileds like a basking of high 80s to low 90s. You should feed it everyday to every other day. Silkworms, crickets, butterworms, BB flies, roaches, superworms, and hornworms are the best feeders.

 

[flow163]

Yeah, I'm feed him meal worms. But how often? 4-5 a day? Twice a day?

 

[Gavinsons]

Meal worms are not the best, Super worms would be better. Crickets are a good staple food. I throw in about 20 crickets every day for my 14 month panther and 4 dubia roaches. He always picks off the roaches first and when I get home from work there are usually only 4 or 5 crickets left.

 

[laurie]

Meal worms are not the best, Super worms would be better. Crickets are a good staple food. I throw in about 20 crickets every day for my 14 month panther and 4 dubia roaches. He always picks off the roaches first and when I get home from work there are usually only 4 or 5 crickets left.

You are way over feeding your panther. Check with the big panther people on here. Most feed every other day or every 2 days. Then never as much as 20 crickets at a time. Are yo using appropriate sized crickets or very tiny ones?

 

[Gavinsons]

They are about half size crickets, if I had bigger crickets I would cut it in half. Forgot to mention I have only had him for 2 weeks and he didn't eat much the first week. My baby veiled eats about 15 1/4" crickets every other day.

 

[laurie]

Hello, I just got a male veiled chameleon this past weekenday and it's my first reptile ever. I have a few questions about its care.
1. I was told by the vendor that it is "about a year old" and I wanted to know how many times a day should I feed it? And do I have to start on the every other day thing?

2. the thermometer reads in the high 70s. How hot should I have the basking area?

Any info would be apreciated.

Hi, welcome to the forum. You are correct at a year you want to cut down to every other day for feeding. I has been a long time since I have keep panthers, but I think I fed the 5 food items every other day.

Here are some panther people you can talk too.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/happy-6th-hatch-day-hendershot-my-sweet-boy-140450/

https://www.chameleonforums.com/new-addition-furcifer-petteri-canvas-chameleons-140201/
This does not show a panther but Nick knows panthers very well

https://www.chameleonforums.com/youre-so-vain-140053/


These 3 should get you started. Just pm any of them.

 

[Carlton]

Hello, I just got a male veiled chameleon this past weekenday and it's my first reptile ever. I have a few questions about its care.
1. I was told by the vendor that it is "about a year old" and I wanted to know how many times a day should I feed it? And do I have to start on the every other day thing?

2. the thermometer reads in the high 70s. How hot should I have the basking area?

Any info would be apreciated.

If you go to the Resources tab on this forum you will find just about all the care information you need for a veiled cham. It will tell you all about proper temps, lighting, diet and nutritional supplements, cage setup, etc. Take a look!

 

[WilcoxAE]

All great advice on here --^

Yeah, avoid overdoing the mealworm feeding. As much as your cham may love their wriggling intensity, they can lead to problems. One being constipation...not cool...not good.

And don't forget about "gutloading" feeder insects. Basically feeding them healthy good stuff a day before (or constantly) and change it out before it molds/goes bad/whatever. You wouldn't want to eat something that had been crawling around and eating sawdust now, would you? Your cham doesn't either. In the words of the Crocodile Hunter, "If it ain't good enough for me to eat, it ain't good enough for my she-la"

By Crikey!

 

[flow163]

Meal worms are not the best, Super worms would be better. Crickets are a good staple food. I throw in about 20 crickets every day for my 14 month panther and 4 dubia roaches. He always picks off the roaches first and when I get home from work there are usually only 4 or 5 crickets left.

Yeah my bad, they are super worms. The ones with the dark tail and head. I put them in a plastic container and put a piece of lettuce, is that OK to gutload?

 

[Carlton]

Yeah my bad, they are super worms. The ones with the dark tail and head. I put them in a plastic container and put a piece of lettuce, is that OK to gutload?

Don't use iceberg lettuce...its mostly water. Use darker leaf lettuce, chunks of orange, other veggie trimmings (not spinach or broccoli) and fortified cereal grains such as Total.

 

[flow163]

Don't use iceberg lettuce...its mostly water. Use darker leaf lettuce, chunks of orange, other veggie trimmings (not spinach or broccoli) and fortified cereal grains such as Total.

Thank you. I was using leaf lettuce. Didn't know about the chunks of orange. Can they have different things in there at once? Or keep it simple and use one?

 

[Carlton]

Thank you. I was using leaf lettuce. Didn't know about the chunks of orange. Can they have different things in there at once? Or keep it simple and use one?

I like to give them a variety so their gut contents cover more nutritional bases by the time you feed them to the cham. Don't use too many fruit chunks at once and remove the fruit if it molds.

 

[WilcoxAE]

Yeah, Carlton said not to use spinach as it inhibits calcium absorption, which can ultimately lead to metabolic bone disease.

There are "commercial" gutloaders from Flukers but when I found giant pieces of corn in one bottle, I stopped using it. (WHY would a CHAMELEON need its feeders to eat corn? When and how and why would a chameleon ever eat corn....??)

Check this out though. From another post and pretty much the end all be all of gutloading:

Apples -fine in moderation, so long as you dont include the seeds
Oranges, pineapple are fine in moderation - dont include the peel and dont use too many acidic things too often
Kiwi - somewhat high in oxalates - limit
Pears - okay in moderation
Grapes - high in sugar, moderate
Banana - high in phosphorous, but okay now and then
Mango - higher in phosphorous than calicum, okay now and then -but do not include the peel which is has high amounts of oxalic acid
Peach -high in goitrogens, especially the peel, inhibits iodine - limit
Celery - contains some oxalic acid but fine in moderation
Cucumber - ok
Carrots - fine in moderation
Beets - Oaxalic Acid/Goitrogens - limit
Fennel - bulb and leaves okay in moderation, seeds good in moderation
Kale - okay in limited quantities - moderately high in oxalic acid and potentially goitrogenic
Broccoli & Cauliflower & Spinach - limit - oxalic acid and goitrogens
Parsley- high Oxalic Acid - limit
Basil - good in moderation
Onions, Garlic - high in sulfur and oxalates - limit
Aloe Vera - ok

you might find these links useful:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs...utloading.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs...l-information/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs...utloading.html

Not good regular gutload choices: Rhubarb, Parsley, Cassava, Spinach, Chard, Beet leaves , Radish, Collards, leek, Beans, Brussels sprouts, onion, chives and Garlic, ice burge head lettuce, most Leaf Lettuce, egg plant, Watercress, Broccoli, Kale, cabbage, bok choy, Soy/edamame, figs, animal fat, meat, dairy, avacado, bran/wheat, mushrooms, anything significantly higher in phosphorous than calicum, anything high in phytates, Oxilates, Goitrogens...

https://www.chameleonforums.com/gutloading-whats-bad-101630/

 

[flow163]

Wow this is great info. Thank you. So after I start to feed him every other day, how many superworms should I give him per feeding?

 

[cquest]

Hey guy's & gal's aren' all cham's different and require different care due to age gender,species and health? As babies they are required to eat every day if thats what they wish. to become healthy & strong bones. ? This is a question in a statement no disrespect to anyone!

 

[Carlton]

Hey guy's & gal's aren' all cham's different and require different care due to age gender,species and health? As babies they are required to eat every day if thats what they wish. to become healthy & strong bones. ? This is a question in a statement no disrespect to anyone!

To some degree yes. However, the quality of the feeders (and what they are gutloaded with) you do offer matters just as much as quantity if not more. Montane species such as jax or fischeri will be more sensitive to fat-soluable vitamins than veileds or panthers, so the supplementation will need to reflect that. If you check the husbandry articles found under the forum's Resource tab you can read more about the differences. Fast growing babies can eat every day...more smaller sized insects rather than fewer large ones is better. The only consideration will be whether you have a female egg layer...you don't want to overfeed them or you may end up with larger egg clutches, larger sized eggs, starting at a younger age.