New Chameleon Owner

[Gyzmo]

Hi, guys, my girlfriend and I have a veiled chameleon named Gyzmo. He's approximately 5 months old and 4" in body length.

His current enclosure is seen in the attached images. It is 16" by 16" by 20". On top are a dripping system and UV and heating lamps. On the bottom, we have a small water collection system (with a grate) and paper towels. We mist his cage frequently throughout the day (even though he hates it, haha).

His diet consists of gut-fed (Fluker's complete orange) crickets only. We coat the crickets just before feeding 2-4 times each week, but all crickets are dusted before housed. We supplement their dusting with multivitamin and calcium with D3 on alternating weeks (so twice a month each).

He's beautiful boy and our first reptile ever. So much work, but he's super cool.

I think he's maturing since he's gotten more of a temper when we reach into the cage to feed him. At what age are they considered "subadults"? Adults? When should we start looking out for sperm plugs or other issues of this nature? When should we upgrade his cage to medium? To large? How do we know when his branches are definitely too small? He looked to comfortable on the branches when we got him a month and a half ago, but now he looks too big, but they don't give under his weight and he's still very mobile when hunting or finding water at the top of the cage.

Oh, and he's been eating A LOT of crickets lately. Should we be free feeding him at this time in his life, or do we need to ration the crickets?

Just looking for any comments or advice, thanks!

 

[Masked Gecko]

Hey welcome to the forums. Your setups looks good, do you have a Mercury vapor bulb inside the dome then?
I would change your gut load for the crickets, flukers crickets diet is what I use as well as fresh veggies.
The branches look ok for now, I would wait for him to grow a little more them upgrade to the XL.

 

[Gyzmo]

Hey welcome to the forums. Your setups looks good, do you have a Mercury vapor bulb inside the dome then?
I would change your gut load for the crickets, flukers crickets diet is what I use as well as fresh veggies.
The branches look ok for now, I would wait for him to grow a little more them upgrade to the XL.

I don't know what bulbs they are, unfortunately. It's a 2-bulb dome with one basking lamp and one uvb lamp.

Is there something wrong with our gut load, or you just have a preference. I think our's is the complete meal with calcium, other vitamins, water, etc. all in gelatinous orange cubes. Thanks for your suggestions! Too bare in his cage, or does the shrub cover look fine also?

 

[Masked Gecko]

O ok, I can kina see the one behind it now lol. I haven't heard good reviews on coiled UV bulbs for chams since they may have caused eye issues, I would switch it for a long linear one.

Same goes for the orange cubes, I've never used them but have seen the reviews by other keepers and breeders.

It wouldn't hurt to add a live plant for extra security and higher humidity.

 

[Blink]

Hello. Welcome to the forums! You've got a cutie there! (He's worth the work, right? ) I would add more foliage to his cage. Live plants are great for many reasons and I find that my chameleon likes them a lot better. I never hurts to add more branches of multiple different sizes. Make sure that you have enough horizontally places branches under and near the basking light.

O ok, I can kina see the one behind it now lol. I haven't heard good reviews on coiled UV bulbs for chams since they may have caused eye issues, I would switch it for a long linear one.

Same goes for the orange cubes, I've never used them but have seen the reviews by other keepers and breeders.

To the best of my knowledge, the issues with the coil reptisun UVB light have been fixed. I use compact and I have yet to encounter any eye problems. I know that many other members use them as well.

I'm not saying anything against Flukers, but from what I have heard and researched, their gut load is nowhere near the quality of other gut loads available. For dry gut loads, I highly recommend Repashy products such as Bug Burger and Superload or Cricket Crack. It is also good to gut load with fresh fruits and vegetables as well. You should check out Sandrachameleon's blog about gut loading. Also, this may also be helpful: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/food/
I put my veggies in a blender and then freeze the sauce for convenience. I also provide my bugs with dry gut load along with fresh unfrozen veggies. My family thinks I go overboard...... but I do it for the best interest of my chameleon's long term health.
I also noticed that your supplementing seemed a bit off. You should be dusting feeders with phosphorous-free calcium without D3 every feeding. Calcium with D3 twice a month alternating with multivitamin twice a month. Or if your multivitamin has D3 in it (like reptivite), just give that twice a month.
Also, more variety in feeders is always good for chameleons.
About the cage... you could probably wait a while more, but if he is having no trouble finding his food or he is cup feeding, you could even move him up to an extra large cage now. It is up to you and your chameleons capabilities, but there really is no reason to move up to another cage in-between his baby cage and adult cage.

If you have any other question feel free to ask. Good luck with you beautiful little guy!

 

[Gyzmo]

Thanks for your feedback. The vitamin schedule is heavy dusting 4 days per week and residual calcium dusting all the time; calcium with D3 twice a month; multi twice a month.

Should I feed him as many crickets as he will eat each day, or should I restrict
His diet? I know he'll slow down as an adult, but should be allowed to eat all he can while he's growing?

Will probably change guy loads once this stuff's gone, but can add other stuff to the regimen.

Thanks again!

 

[Blink]

This is the typical schedule according to age.

Neonates: as many small crickets as they can eat several times a day
Juveniles 3-6 months of age: 10-12 small crickets daily
Juveniles 6-12 months of age: 10-12 medium crickets every other day
Adults over 12 months of age: 7-10 medium-large crickets every other day

You are sure that he his a male, right? Because females have different feeding amounts. How much is he eating now on average? Some chameleons have different requirements. My little boy is... shall we say... a late bloomer. He's a runt. . i feed him as much as he will eat in hopes that he will grow.

 

[Gyzmo]

He's been eating 10-15 small-medium crickets daily and he eats them as soon as we put them in the cage. I don't know if he's starving or if they're simply opportunistic hunters (i.e., will eat whenever they can even if not hungry). Is there a way to tell? When he goes to e.o.d., will he just leave crickets in his enclosure or do we have to enforce this directly once he hits that age? Still a ways off, but wanna' make sure we're doing it right.

Thanks,
Gyz

 

[Blink]

Your current amount sounds fine to me. Chameleons are most definitely opportunistic eaters... it's how they survive in the wild. I do find that in the morning before my chameleon has eaten anything, he acts super ecstatic and hungrily eats the first several feeders, then slows down a bit and takes his time. He would, however, keep eating until he exploded, I believe. When he goes to every other day, feed him his food in the morning so that he has the entire day to eat (although if he's as ravenous as you describe, I doubt that the feeders will last that long ). All feeders should be removed at night...(I know how difficult that is...that's why i cup feed!) Then you would skip feeding him the next day. Then repeat the process. Hope this helps!