New, Female Veil (Petri)

[eat2muchrice]

Hello everyone, new here with a new Veil Chameleon named Petri. We bought her for my wife from Petco on Saturday during their half off reptile sale. Petri is a very clam little lizard that doesn’t mind being held, I know people say they will stress them out, but I think she is cool with it, enjoying outdoors sun bathing, free roaming on our household plants and even taking naps on our hands. I have spent the past few days reading everything I can find on veil chameleons, but still need help, input and estimate her age.

Our new cage is one of those hybrids 36’x18’x18’ half screen and glass, it was highly recommended by the owner of East Bay Vivarium. It is a beautiful cage that lets us view our chameleon through the front glass while the sides and top are screens allowing for airflow. We really don’t have that much setup right now, just a large umbrella tree, IR heat lamp, UVB basking lamp and dripper. I use a digital thermostat to monitor her two basking areas at 80 and 85 degrees F. The dipper is set at about 1 per 15 seconds and I mist her tank about three times a day.

I was hand feeding her superworms, but has stopped eating after throwing up a few worms one night. I guess the worms they sold me were too big or I fed her too late and didn’t have time to digest them. The “experts” at petco said she was a good eater, but then again they also said she was a male. So I’m getting worried about her eating, I hate crickets but bought some for her last night and she only ate one (hand fed), she ignores the rest that sit at the bottom of her cage. I have read that she should be eating about 8-10 crickets early in the day, but she has not eaten anything near that and her belly has started to shrink. I’m hoping she just still needs time to break into her new home and will pig out soon. Not sure what else I can do to get her to eat more and would appreciate any advice.

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forum and the world of chameleons! She's a cutey!

If you are handling her too much it may be stressing her out even though you don't think it is.

If she is out of her cage a lot and therefore not in an environment with a proper temperature she may not be getting warm enough to digest the food. She is also not getting exposure to the UVB so she won't be able to use the calcium in her system properly roaming the plants in the room if she is out a lot.

If she is sleeping during the day on your hand it could be because she is cold or because she's not getting enough nutrition if she's always in the wrong temperature.

Is she drinking? Pooping?


Do you know about proper supplementing and gutloading/feeding the insects? Also do you know that once sexually mature they can lay eggs without having mated?

 

[eat2muchrice]

Welcome to the forum and the world of chameleons! She's a cutey!

If you are handling her too much it may be stressing her out even though you don't think it is.

If she is out of her cage a lot and therefore not in an environment with a proper temperature she may not be getting warm enough to digest the food. She is also not getting exposure to the UVB so she won't be able to use the calcium in her system properly roaming the plants in the room if she is out a lot.

If she is sleeping during the day on your hand it could be because she is cold or because she's not getting enough nutrition if she's always in the wrong temperature.

Is she drinking? Pooping?


Do you know about proper supplementing and gutloading/feeding the insects? Also do you know that once sexually mature they can lay eggs without having mated?

Yes, we must be handling her too much, it’s hard to resist holding her let her, she is so cute. She has sat in the cage for 2 days now, I guess she needs more time to get settled or maybe I shouldn’t keep her next to my Arizona King Snake Cage (I’ll put up a divider). In her cage she has found the two basking area’s and will turn slightly darker when warming up. She is drinking water and pooping just fine, the poop looks like a normal lizard droppings so I don’t suspect any illness.

I have read up about gut-loading, egg laying and supplements. I have been feeding the feeders scrap foods like carrots, bananas, apples and oranges, just whatever we have around the house. We are nervous about egg lying, but I’m sure when the time comes it will go ok. As for supplements I have the spray calcium and the powered calcium with d3.

 

[eat2muchrice]

How old do you think she is?

 

[kinyonga]

She definitely shouldn't be able to see the snake!!!

Do you have a substrate in the cage?

For feeding/gutloading insects you can/should use a wide assortment of greens such as collards, escarole, endive, dandelion greens, kale, etc and veggies such as carrots, sweet red pepper, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, etc.

I'm not a fan of the spray calciums. I use Rep-call phosphorous - free calcium powder at most feedings to make up for the usually poor ratio of calcium to phosphorous found in most feeder insects.

its recommended that you use a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A twice a month. PrOformed sources cannot build up in the system like prEformed sources can and if leaves the control of the prEformed vitamin A up to you to control.

It's recommended that you dust twice a month with a phosphorous - free calcium D3 powder twice a month to ensure that the chameleon has some vitamin D3 without overdosing it and leaving the chameleon to produce the rest of the D3 from its exposure to the UVB. UVB from the light will not likely build up in the system and lead to overdoses as long as the chameleon can move in and out of the UVB when it wants to.

Calcium, vitamin A, vitamin D3 and phosphorous are all important for bone health and other things in the system and need to be in balance.

Appropriate temperatures aid in proper digestion and thus indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Regarding egglaying....If you overfeed them once they become sexually mature they will likely lay large clutches and may have issues with the laying and health. Once she is sexually mature its important to have a proper egglaying container in the cage so she can dig to show you she needs to lay eggs so she won't become eggbound.

 

[eat2muchrice]

Went out a few hours and came back to see her shedding, she has just finished peeling and ate it all . I hope this is why she stopped eating, tomarrow I'll offer her some grubs, Hope she eats.

 

[eat2muchrice]

She definitely shouldn't be able to see the snake!!!

Do you have a substrate in the cage?

For feeding/gutloading insects you can/should use a wide assortment of greens such as collards, escarole, endive, dandelion greens, kale, etc and veggies such as carrots, sweet red pepper, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, etc.

I'm not a fan of the spray calciums. I use Rep-call phosphorous - free calcium powder at most feedings to make up for the usually poor ratio of calcium to phosphorous found in most feeder insects.

its recommended that you use a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A twice a month. PrOformed sources cannot build up in the system like prEformed sources can and if leaves the control of the prEformed vitamin A up to you to control.

It's recommended that you dust twice a month with a phosphorous - free calcium D3 powder twice a month to ensure that the chameleon has some vitamin D3 without overdosing it and leaving the chameleon to produce the rest of the D3 from its exposure to the UVB. UVB from the light will not likely build up in the system and lead to overdoses as long as the chameleon can move in and out of the UVB when it wants to.

Calcium, vitamin A, vitamin D3 and phosphorous are all important for bone health and other things in the system and need to be in balance.

Appropriate temperatures aid in proper digestion and thus indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Regarding egglaying....If you overfeed them once they become sexually mature they will likely lay large clutches and may have issues with the laying and health. Once she is sexually mature its important to have a proper egglaying container in the cage so she can dig to show you she needs to lay eggs so she won't become eggbound.

Thanks for all the advise, I will make good use of it all. So I think I have the right supplement, Zoo Med’s phosphorus-free Repti Calcium with D3. I’ll use it twice a month as you recommend. I’m nerves about egg laying, if I had known beforehand we would have got a male for our first Chameleon.

 

[eat2muchrice]

Yeah! She finally ate today. I spent the morning making a custom magnetic feeder cup to hang in her cage. The right after I put it in she climbed over to it and snagged two good sized crickets. . Going to put some more in soon. I'll post some pictures up soon later tonight.

 

[kinyonga]

Glad she's eating now!

It is recommended that you use the supplement with the D3 twice a month but you still need to use a phosphorous - free calcium powder at almost all the other feedings.

As long as your husbandry is good and you provide an egglaying site (opaque container at least 8" deep x 8" x12" in her cage for her when she is sexually mature (gets the mustard colored splotches and bright blue dots) you shouldn't have egglaying issues.

Btw..your (I assume) son is cute too!

 

[eat2muchrice]

Glad she's eating now!

Btw..your (I assume) son is cute too!

Thanks! Yes, that is my #1 son, #2 is only 10 months and I have no idea why I thought I could handle taking care of another animal when I bought Petri.

Finally got the a few picture, for some reason only 2 of 6 would upload. This is the homemade feeding cup that I made for Petri, she loves it and for the second day has been eating like a champ. I'm glad I found this idea on this forum, not sure if this is the reason why she started eating again but is sure helped alot.

Build was simple.

1. Painted the outside of a clear plastic container.
2. Cut the opening with a dremel.
3. Attached a magnetic backing.
3. Wrapped netting around a cardboard insert.
4. Stripped wire for the opening and glued on.
5. Add crickets and watch eat.

If I can upload the rest of the pictures I will detail a better build guild for people to follow.