New chameleon

[Bluesimon]

Hi everyone, I'm new to keeping chameleons and I live in the uk. I bought a two year old blue bar ambilobe panther chameleon three days ago, he is in a 3ft high 2 1/2 width and 2 1/2 depth wooden vivarium, the temps are, basking 87f, lower temp is 77.7f and humidity is 62, I'm a bit worried about him as he hasn't eaten since we got him, I'm trying to feed him on locas as the reptile shop was feeding him on those, I understand he may be going through some stress as it is a new environment for him, is this normal. Also when he does start to eat I've bought nutribol which has calcium and vitamins, but I understand you only use the vitamins twice a month, is that wright if so what other calcium does he need more often, also what other kind of live food can I give him for a good balanced diet.

 

[Psychodrake]

Chameleons do have problems when it comes to getting used to new environments, my cham has had the problem twice now, once when we got him and second when I removed the substrate from his home (He noticed change and in common chameleon fashion, it made him grumpy). He hasn't eaten as much as I'd have liked him to but he's picking up, even had a fairly big silkworm the other day.

The strange thing with Nutrobal, I was told to use it twice a week. After reading up on what people do here, I bought some exo terra calcium and started using that every feed and have decided to use the Nutrobal 2-3 times a month instead. I can't give the best advice as its all a bit muddled up, researching really didn't help me when it came to supplementing as so many people do it differently, it's a matter of finding out whats best for your chameleon I guess. My guy gets quite a bit of basking time under the 5.0 UV bulb so I expect he'll be alright with Nutrobal 2-3 times a month.

Hopefully some more experienced members can give you better advice.

EDIT: I live in the UK too, northwest. It sure isn't easy.

 

[carol5208]

First of all welcome to the forums!! Most likely your chameleon is just stressed and nervous being in a new environment and hopefully he will start eating for you when he settles in. How are you providing the water for him? Dripper, mistings?? I do not know what is available in the UK for feeders. Here in the states some of the feeders are crickets, roaches, silkworms, superworms, hornworms, butterworms, phoenix worms. There are more but these are more of the popular ones. As far as the supplements, again do not know what is available over there. We use a plain calcium at every feeding, a calcium with d3 twice a month and a multi vitamin twice a month also. Your temps and humidity seem fine. When he does start eating I would feed every other day at his age about 6-7 feeders a day. Good not to over feed. Oh by the way, what kind of uvb are you using?

 

[Dave Bull]

Hi im Dave from Germany originally from UK give the fella time to settle in to new enviroment. Chameleons dont eat every day, but make sure he has water dripper or from pipette manually. All will be ok i stressed when i got my first but patience is a virtue

 

[Bluesimon]

Thanks for the replies I'm useing a 5 percent uv strip light, what kind of calcium are you using which I can use daily. Many thanks

 

[Bluesimon]

I mist him and the vivaruim twice a day.

 

[carol5208]

I use a brand called Sticky Tongue Farms Miner-all Outdoor Formula. It is a calcium without d3. Again, do not know if that is sold in the UK. Good on the 5.0 tube light!!!

 

[Bluesimon]

Thanks everyone for the information it makes me feel better now

 

[Bluesimon]

Hi, everyone I was thinking when my chameleon starts to feed, I've heard of dusting and pre loading the food, and here comes a silly question, when you dust the food won't the dust come off the locus or crickets when you put them in the viv as they jump around?.

 

[Dave Bull]

Put yer crickets in a deep feeding dish your cham will eat them before they get a chance to jump out if he is hungry enough

 

[Dave Bull]

Litle tip put them in fridge for 10 mins before you put hem in terra they calm down so you dont have to chase them ound the room

 

[Bluesimon]

Hi dave, what about the locus they climb out of anything.

 

[Psychodrake]

I find that locusts prefer to bask under the heat lamp. This makes them easy for the chameleon to get as opposed to crickets which crawl around everywhere and hide in small holes.

You could also try silkworms. I had some trouble finding any being a UK resident also, but I found this site

http://www.silkwormstore.co.uk/

I ordered 3 boxes of 20 small silkworms. They're a bit bigger than you think, but they're fantastic and chameleons love them, and they're very nutritional. When they arrived, a few were dead but its to be expected as they're very fragile worms. They absolutely love the mulberry chow that is sold on there too, so gutloading them isn't a problem. They also sell morio worms which I believe are super worms, I've heard they're great for older chameleons.

 

[Bluesimon]

Thanks psychodrake, that's a good website I shall start ordering as soon as my chameleon starts to munch on the locus thanks again.

 

[Psychodrake]

That's quite alright. I'm guessing at 2 years old, your guy is about as big as he'll get, so go for the medium or large silkworms. They may seem quite big but unlike a lot of insects they aren't really made up of chitin, they're full of moisture.

The Calci-worms (Phoenix worms) are good too. Mine isn't big enough for morios/phoenix worms yet but I'm sure some other members here can give you some info on them. I know silkworms are generally good though.

 

[Bluesimon]

Hi psychodrake what chameleon have you got and what age is he or she. I'm thinking in a couple of months of getting another panther but as a baby so you can watch the chameleon grow up.

 

[Psychodrake]

I bought my chameleon 2 weeks ago, I wasn't too sure on his age but somebody estimated from photos that he should be around 3 1/2 months old and I recall the shop owner saying he was about 12-13 weeks. Do a ton of research before you buy a young one, I thought I did adequate research but I always learn new things. This forum is a fantastic place to research, theres a lot of really experienced chameleon owners, it's helped me a lot already (Namely getting rid of substrate, using a shower curtain to keep humidity in the vivarium).

But yeah, my chameleon is a male blue bar ambilobe. His colors are rapidly coming in compared to what he had 2 weeks ago and he's grown noticably. Not a voracious eater but he's eating between 6 and 10 a day currently, he also had a rather large silkworm which ended up as a large turd, I suspect he's getting used to his vivarium since I took the substrate out and ended up having to move some vines.

 

[Bluesimon]

That's good I'm a bit naughty really I've put some sort of mud as substrate I bought it in the reptile shop, I have a friend next door who has bark for substrate he says it helps with his humidity and if his chameleon falls off it's a bit of a cushion, I've read today that substrate causes germs is that wright, I might take mine out but then my humidity will drop to 30 my friend has had substrate for about a year with no probes, but knowing my luck my chameleon will get a blockage, someone did say mud from the reptile shop is safer than bark.

 

[Psychodrake]

The substrate is a breeding ground for bacteria and if he swallows it, it could cause digestion problems/impaction is what I've been told. I thought better safe than sorry, and honestly, they do live really high up in trees so it isn't really natural for them to have substrate. Better safe than sorry really but wait until your first big viv cleaning if you decide to remove it and try to put everything else back in how you had it.

I use a shower curtain for humidity, wrapped around 3 sides of the viv. My first misting of the day, I usually let the humidity hit around 70-80% and it never goes below 50% as long as I do my 2 follow up mistings.

 

[Bluesimon]

Thanks pyschodrake I think I shall take it all out to night yes my main concern is when he falls off and hits the glass bottom as my viv was custom made, also I do understand about the germs building up what do you use for the bottom of your viv.