New chameleon owner looking for advice

[thesarahwalker]

Hello, I am a beginner chameleon owner. I have had the little one for about a month. Bought him around 3 months old (Not sure if the seller rounded up or down) and he has been very healthy. Eats no problem and drinks as well, not shy. I'm looking to expand his diet and hornworms caught my interest. What would one recommend for quantity? He eats medium sized gutloaded crickets and wasn't sure how often or many hornworms he should eat with them. Also if anyone has any other advice I would love to hear it. I'm getting another baby in the next week hopefully if the breeder has them ready. I'm getting a new light setup to just have to have one uvb hood and not two separate ones and new heat lamps and bulbs. Heating is the one I've had a hard time with because everyone recommends different bulbs and fixtures. I just want to make sure im buying quality products for the little ones. Thank you

 

[jcarlsen]

Hello, I am a beginner chameleon owner. I have had the little one for about a month. Bought him around 3 months old (Not sure if the seller rounded up or down) and he has been very healthy. Eats no problem and drinks as well, not shy. I'm looking to expand his diet and hornworms caught my interest. What would one recommend for quantity? He eats medium sized gutloaded crickets and wasn't sure how often or many hornworms he should eat with them. Also if anyone has any other advice I would love to hear it. I'm getting another baby in the next week hopefully if the breeder has them ready. I'm getting a new light setup to just have to have one uvb hood and not two separate ones and new heat lamps and bulbs. Heating is the one I've had a hard time with because everyone recommends different bulbs and fixtures. I just want to make sure im buying quality products for the little ones. Thank you

Hornworms can be pretty filling and also good for keeping up hydration. I would just make sure you stick to feeding smaller ones at that age.

Can we see your current setup? Also, if you're adding another Cham, you wanna make sure it's got its own cage and they can't see one another. Just adds stress

 

[Virgil1972]

I would only buy one cup on 25 small ones at a time. Hornworms grow very fast and it wont take long for them to grow to big for your cham.

 

[thesarahwalker]

How would I mix it with his diet. One or two every other day with crickets?

 

[Virgil1972]

You could give him hornworms with the crickets or just give him hornworms alone. A few hornworms a week are good.

 

[thesarahwalker]

Hornworms can be pretty filling and also good for keeping up hydration. I would just make sure you stick to feeding smaller ones at that age.

Can we see your current setup? Also, if you're adding another Cham, you wanna make sure it's got its own cage and they can't see one another. Just adds stress

Yes, originally I went out and bought everything for the baby, but when i went to get him they had a special with his cage so I decided to do that instead so now I have another setup just sitting. I can upload a picture tomorrow. Right now he (that's what it looks like. Some people said female, but that was when I first brought the cham home. Now it's looking like a male, I'll upload a photo too) has a money tree, different vines, sticks, pothos plant, and a fake plant in the corner. I just wasn't sure how many I should feed him with crickets and how often.

Thank you

 

[Chachi]

3 months old, I fed mine as much and as often as she wanted when she was growing. They get their growth then knock it back to every other day so they eat good.

 

[thesarahwalker]

This is him. Don't see how he could be a female with the coloring but the bump is very minimal. Tried to include a photo with his tail visible. I imagine he is around 4 months old. Thoughts? Colors are blue/teal and green and red and the second one has more of his red visible. A picture of his cage is also included. Beautiful day in California so I'll put his cage outside with monitoring for heat and anything else that could ever go wrong.

 

[Andee]

Definitely a little male, just by the colors alone. He's gonna be a looker. I would add a few more horizontal pathways, such a wooden dowels in his enclosure to give him different perches to work his feet. Too many kinds of the same perch can be bad for their feet.

 

[Chachi]

Very handsome male. Watch him outside. My females do good but if the birds start chirping much jackson, male turns black. They are deathly afraid of birds . They are their natural enemies. My male knows that but the girls have no idea they are in danger

 

[thesarahwalker]

Thank you, very excited to see his full colorings! Still working on the cage. I have the branches, Just waiting for the ties to mount them to the side of the cage. New cage is built so waiting on the delivery today so I can decorate. I'll update a new picture of the final enclosure to make sure im not missing anything.

 

[thesarahwalker]

Very handsome male. Watch him outside. My females do good but if the birds start chirping much jackson, male turns black. They are deathly afraid of birds . They are their natural enemies. My male knows that but the girls have no idea they are in danger

Yeah! I'm normally always out there to check and doors stay open for that reason. (doors of house, not cage lol) but I have heard them so I'm always keeping an eye out and only let him outside if I'm home. I never leave if he is outside.

 

[cyberlocc]

Make sure you put a visual barrier between the 2 cages so they cant see each other. Other than that sounds good .

Also by expanding his diet, are you just feeding crickets prior? If so you should get some other worms or roaches or both as well. You need to have at least 5 different kinds of feeders more is always better .

Here is a great guide for diets.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/entry/feeders.74/

 

[thesarahwalker]

Perfect! Thank you for the link. I contacted a couple local reptile shops and a breeder who didn't say too much about feeding it different insects. Looked into it and saw hornworms and read a little but more but was at loss for more specifics so that's perfect. Would you recommend a good place to get branches or cage accessories? Someone recommended Hobby Lobby for sticks/small branches.

 

[cyberlocc]

Perfect! Thank you for the link. I contacted a couple local reptile shops and a breeder who didn't say too much about feeding it different insects. Looked into it and saw hornworms and read a little but more but was at loss for more specifics so that's perfect. Would you recommend a good place to get branches or cage accessories? Someone recommended Hobby Lobby for sticks/small branches.

Hobby lobby works good, I am a fan of the back yard for branches though . I am thinking of upgrading to grapewood myself but its pricey.

Wooden dowels work, can get them for walmart lowes ect. Also Bamboo sticks work good.

since its still small alot of people like kiwi branches, you can get those at florists sometimes for free.

If you get them from your yard or a florist, just bake them at 350 for like 30mins-1hour.

 

[Andee]

I personally don't like bamboo because it's too slick once it's moist and chameleons can slip off it especially if their larger around. I use wooden dowels, and branches from the backyard that have tight fitting bark that are easy to clean. I don't like exoterra vines very much because they are extremely hard to get completely clean unless bleach is used on a regular basis, and I'm talking at least twice a month. They hold onto bacteria way too well otherwise, and if they are purely what you use there is no difference in thickness. I have dealt with bumble foot before on my panther because of purely using exoterra vines. So I strongly suggest using multiple types like you plan AND cleaning your exoterra vines thoroughly.

 

[cyberlocc]

Oh that reminds me a note to above.

When I use dowels, I silicon them. I do not add peat moss just silicon. Wood will rot if you just put it in the way it comes and you will never get bacteria out of wood.

 

[Carlton]

Very handsome male. Watch him outside. My females do good but if the birds start chirping much jackson, male turns black. They are deathly afraid of birds . They are their natural enemies. My male knows that but the girls have no idea they are in danger

Um chams don't have external ears so can only hear very low frequency sounds (such as low frequency vibrations...bass speakers, rumbling of heavy vehicles, impacts from pedestrians close by). I doubt they can or would react to bird singing. They may be reacting to SEEING a lot of bird activity close by.

 

[thesarahwalker]

I personally don't like bamboo because it's too slick once it's moist and chameleons can slip off it especially if their larger around. I use wooden dowels, and branches from the backyard that have tight fitting bark that are easy to clean. I don't like exoterra vines very much because they are extremely hard to get completely clean unless bleach is used on a regular basis, and I'm talking at least twice a month. They hold onto bacteria way too well otherwise, and if they are purely what you use there is no difference in thickness. I have dealt with bumble foot before on my panther because of purely using exoterra vines. So I strongly suggest using multiple types like you plan AND cleaning your exoterra vines thoroughly.

I only have the one exoterra vine in there so if it's recommended to remove that's fine. Cleaning wise: How would I go about it to make sure it's as close to bacteria free as I could get it.

 

[Andee]

I would use a watered down bleach solution during each deep clean which should be done at least 2 times a month with exo terra vines in the enclosure. I think the strongest you can go is 1 part bleach to 4 parts water.