New Keeper with Questions

ABCham

New Member
I recently got my new little guy last week and I have built out his enclosure which is small and temporary while I wait for his new larger enclosure to come in. I have been doing research for about a year and am very excited for this journey. If you’re asking why I have a small enclosure if I’ve been doing research for a year, it’s because my fiancé surprise me with getting my chameleon so I didn’t have the larger enclosure at the time. Should arrive tomorrow.

For reference he is a young veiled chameleon, got him literally last Thursday 7/10 and is maybe 3 months old.

I have a few questions while you are here!

1. Feeding - I am waiting for some black soldier fly larvae to come in and I am now a bit confused, can these be added as daily feeders or are they treat bugs? I see they are high in calcium and protein but I don’t want to over feed them if they are considered treats. I am also trying, very hard, to get my guy to eat dubia roaches but he will not touch them. Any tips on getting them to eat them? I’ve tried putting like 15 in his bowl so they have to crawl on top of each other but they eventually just stop moving and then he could care less. I can’t really offer them by hand or tongs because he’s still to scared of me. I tried placing one right in front of him, but it immediately ran off and is now somewhere in the enclosure. He has only eaten gut loaded crickets about 7 a day and 1 very small hornworm that I gave him yesterday.

2. I know it’s day 5 but I would love to know how others have gotten their chams more
comfortable with you being around. I’m talking about no longer running to hide when you come in the room, to then becoming comfortable enough to take food from my hand or tongs, to then eventually choice based handeling. I’m not trying to force anything I would just love to know what your steps were so I can start trying maybe in a month once he’s completely settled. Right now I am only near him when putting his feeders in and maybe to adjust his misters.

1. Drippers - Do you guys have a dripper going all day? where does the water drip into? A plant a container? Can anyone with a dripper send me some pics of your set up? What if you are out of town, I assume you don’t use the dripper and maybe mist the enclosure more often, if you have an automatic mister. If that’s the case then is a dripper even necessary? Seeing some people not even use them. My misters get the top cage wet as well and he’s been drinking water droplets from the mesh.

Any advice is welcome. Picture attached was taken right after I took him out of the travel box and then immediately placed into his enclosure. He wasn’t very happy.
 

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Here's a handy feeding guide. Variety is key. I'm fairly certain BSFL are just fine as daily feeders. They're very nutritious, especially as part of a bigger spread of other insects. I believe they also do not need to be dusted with calcium, but someone can chime in on that one for me.
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It's also worth noting that it can take a couple weeks for them to be comfortable enough to eat in their new environment. My chameleon ate a lot on his first two days and then was very shy to eat more for a week. It's very worrying, but this is normal. My chameleon was also not eating dubia roaches during that time, but now singles them out during feeding. Do keep offering food during this transitional stage, though!

Your chameleon will also hide a lot. it's just what they do. As they get older, they may become more comfortable with your presence in the room. For me, my guy has been staying out in the open in his enclosure these days, but will run and hide once it's opened. I think that they will get more confident as they grow up, though. There is a good trust building guide here, but I would personally wait for your chameleon to start eating on his own before offering food from your hand. That's how I ended up doing it, anyhow. I do think it's meaningful to just have him get used to you leaving the bugs in the feeder, managing the enclosure, and spot cleaning. He will be shy for a while, most likely, but in time he will become more used to you being there.

And I run my dripper for as long as it takes to run out every day. Usually a few hours. The dripper is mostly there for extra hydration opportunities. Of course, the morning and evening misting sessions are the most important, but there are a few reasons you would want to give the option for more drinking too. I don't think it's an absolute necessity, but if you already have one set up, it doesn't hurt!
I position my dripper so it runs over a leaf, dripping onto a branch. I feel this must seem natural in their brains.

Very lovely chameleon. I might be crazy, but he looks older than 3 months to me. Maybe more around 5 months? At least, that's when I started noticing my cham's vertical bars so distinctly.
 
I'm also going to say your little one looks more like 5ish months.

I feed both my chams mostly bsfl, and try to hatch them into flies for them to chase around. I don't dust them with calcium; they're the only feeders that I know of that don't need calcium dusting. I do dust them with Repashy calcium plus LoD twice a month with my vailed, and once a month with my Jackson. I also give them crickets as a staple. Roaches are hard to get in Canada and I'm on the wait-list with my supplier, so can't give advice on them. But I hear some people put them on their back to make them wiggle more. I also feed in moderation as treats waxworms, superwroms, and silkworms. I'm thinking of adding blue bottles and small hornworms to my next order.

It takes some time for them to be comfortable enough to eat from your hands. My vailed runs to me whenever I open the door, and won't even let me get the feeder in place lately... She climbs up my arm to get to the bowl before I get get it set up. I've had her since February and she was a baby, so she's SUPER used to me. But she also has her days where she just looks at me until I put the feeder in place.

My Jackson I've only had since May, he's a lot more shy! He's coming around though, he even peeks up and walks towards me when I open the door now, instead of hiding. With all the bsf that have hatched lately he even takes some from my hand before I get them on a stick.

I pretty much followed the guide @LizardLurkin provided for them to get accustomed to you.
 
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Here's a handy feeding guide. Variety is key. I'm fairly certain BSFL are just fine as daily feeders. They're very nutritious, especially as part of a bigger spread of other insects. I believe they also do not need to be dusted with calcium, but someone can chime in on that one for me.
View attachment 364872View attachment 364873
It's also worth noting that it can take a couple weeks for them to be comfortable enough to eat in their new environment. My chameleon ate a lot on his first two days and then was very shy to eat more for a week. It's very worrying, but this is normal. My chameleon was also not eating dubia roaches during that time, but now singles them out during feeding. Do keep offering food during this transitional stage, though!

Your chameleon will also hide a lot. it's just what they do. As they get older, they may become more comfortable with your presence in the room. For me, my guy has been staying out in the open in his enclosure these days, but will run and hide once it's opened. I think that they will get more confident as they grow up, though. There is a good trust building guide here, but I would personally wait for your chameleon to start eating on his own before offering food from your hand. That's how I ended up doing it, anyhow. I do think it's meaningful to just have him get used to you leaving the bugs in the feeder, managing the enclosure, and spot cleaning. He will be shy for a while, most likely, but in time he will become more used to you being there.

And I run my dripper for as long as it takes to run out every day. Usually a few hours. The dripper is mostly there for extra hydration opportunities. Of course, the morning and evening misting sessions are the most important, but there are a few reasons you would want to give the option for more drinking too. I don't think it's an absolute necessity, but if you already have one set up, it doesn't hurt!
I position my dripper so it runs over a leaf, dripping onto a branch. I feel this must seem natural in their brains.

Very lovely chameleon. I might be crazy, but he looks older than 3 months to me. Maybe more around 5 months? At least, that's when I started noticing my cham's vertical bars so distinctly.
Thanks you for the info and you may be right on the age I think I asked the people helping me a million questions and I am just now realizing I didn’t asks for old they were I just assumed 3 months.

Also some wild news he ate like 10 small
Dubias today I’m over the moon!
 
I'm also going to say your little one looks more like 5ish months.

I feed both my chams mostly bsfl, and try to hatch them into flies for them to chase around. I don't dust them with calcium; they're the only feeders that I know of that don't need calcium dusting. I do dust them with Repashy calcium plus LoD twice a month with my vailed, and once a month with my Jackson. I also give them crickets as a staple. Roaches are hard to get in Canada and I'm on the wait-list with my supplier, so can't give advice on them. But I hear some people put them on their back to make them wiggle more. I also feed in moderation as treats waxworms, superwroms, and silkworms. I'm thinking of adding blue bottles and small hornworms to my next order.

It takes some time for them to be comfortable enough to eat from your hands. My vailed runs to me whenever I open the door, and won't even let me get the feeder in place lately... She climbs up my arm to get to the bowl before I get get it set up. I've had her since February and she was a baby, so she's SUPER used to me. But she also has her days where she just looks at me until I put the feeder in place.

My Jackson I've only had since May, he's a lot more shy! He's coming around though, he even peeks up and walks towards me when I open the door now, instead of hiding. With all the bsf that have hatched lately he even takes some from my hand before I get them on a stick.

I pretty much followed the guide @LizardLurkin provided for them to get accustomed to you.
Thank you for your info! And yes I agree with your aging guess I think I just assumed he was younger. Looking at other around 5 months I can see he looks about the same. Do you also have a dropper set up? If you do where does the water collect?
 
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