New to chams!

[Teresa]

Hello all,
I have to veileds. That I got about a month ago. They seem to be doing fine except the female is half the size of the male now. Just seperated them yesterday. Iam not sure how old they are. The female just went through her first shed last week. I feed crickets and wax worms untill I found out wax worms were not all that good for them. My question is do the females grow slower than the males or is she just going to be small?
Thanx in advance.
Teresa

 

[jannb]

Hello and welcome to Chameleon Forums. Here is some recommended information to include when asking for help in the health clinic forum. By providing this information, you will receive more accurate and beneficial responses. It might not be necessary to answer all these questions, but the more you provide the better. Please remember that even the most knowledgeable person can only guess at what your problem may be. Only an experienced reptile veterinarian who can directly examine your animal can give a true diagnosis of your chameleon's health.


Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage construction (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and type of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Location - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Current Problem - The current problem that you are concerned about.

Pictures are helpful

 

[Teresa]

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage construction (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? They were in a 75 gal glass with screen top,male still in that. Female now in a 18x18x36 all screen.

Lighting - What brand, model, and type of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? Glass incloser 48in repsun5.0 100 wat baskin light. Screen incloser 15in 3% uvb and 100 wat baskin light.

Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? Both inclosers stay at about 80 in the day and drop to about 70-75 at night Basking spot unknown as I just have thermomter in both inclosers.

Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? Glass stays at about 40-80% I have a dial device to measure that in there. Screen incloser I still need to get one fo it. I mist 2x a dayfor aprox 5 min per cage and have a constent drip for the time I am at work.

Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? No live plants yet I do have Fake vines all over th cage

Location - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? Glass encloser in bedroom no fans or vents 51/2' from the floor. Screen encloser dinng room no vents or fans Top of cage is 61/2' from floor.


Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Both are veileds. I have Had them both about a month.
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? The male mabey every other day same for female. I am trying not to handler her as much as she does not like it.

Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? Crickets and wax worms untill I found out worms not the best for them. I give them 10 for the two of them. I feed in the morings. I gut load with a green jelly type stuff the store recomened.

Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? I dust crickets with non-d3 every day except the once a week I dust withd3.

Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? As far as water see above. I have seen the female drink but not the male.

Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Brown with white,firm,unsure.

History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. none

Current Problem - The current problem that you are concerned about.

 

[BigR]

I would not be too concerned about the size difference. When fully grown, males (20"-24")are about twice the length of a female (10"-12"). The female may have been stressed at having the male in the cage with her, now that you have them seperated, she may start to grow a little faster without having to compete for food.

Waxworms are not bad, but shouldn't be fed regularly, 1-2 a week as a treat is okay due to their high fat content.

The green stuff you use to gut load your crickets is likely just to supply water to keep your crickets hydrated, toss in some pieces of carrot and some of the non D3 dust into where you keep them to properly gutload your feeders.

For your lighting, make sure both setups have 5.0 tube style U.V. lights. For your heat bulb, I would be very careful, the heat produced by a 100 watt basking light is enourmous, try to ensure that your chams cannot get within a foot of the light until you know exactly what the basking temperature is. There are enough threads on chameleon burns.

Could you post the age, lengths and maybe the weights of your chameleons, as well as the size of the crickets, so we could ensure they are getting enough to eat. And pics would help.

My female veiled, at 3.5months is eating 10-12 1/2" crickets a day.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Welcome to the forums.
I am in Colorado as well!
Check this out:

http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

-Brad

 

[Teresa]

Ok guys,
I think I need to feed smaller crickets to her.
Thanx,
Teresa

 

[Teresa]

My male (Mello)
My female (Cammy)