New veiled chameleon advice please !

Pascal1

New Member
Hi all, I'm new to forum and to owning a reptile and wanted some advice and to make sure we're doing the best thing for our chameleon. I've filled out the care sheet below to give people an idea on general care of the chameleon

The problem I'm experiencing today is with his food since we got him (about two weeks ago) we've fed him on crickets and he's put on weight well and enjoyed them we decided to try him on some locusts (same size if not smaller than the crickets) and he appears intimidated by them and is avoiding where he normally sits as they are there !! Do we need to take them out of his viv ? He also has displayed stressed colourations since them being in there !!

Chameleon - Male Veiled chameleon got him at 10 weeks old owned him for about 2 weeks.

Location - London UK

Housing - Viv exotic arboreal vivarium (wood and glass but lots of vents at front and back) size 1ft,11 inch x 1ft,7inch x 3 ft. No substrate in viv decorated with jungle vine, plant vines, 2x fake plants, 2 largest branches and Exo terra rock background

Lighting - 1x repti glo 5.0 18inch uvb ( at top of viv) 1x 75 w heat lamb in exto terra light dome on lighting bracket outside on top of viv over mesh top. Controlled by lighting timer to provide 12 hours of uvb and light daily.

Tempretures - basking temp between 86-91 f, ambient temp of around 80f - 82f and night temp between about 72-74f (no heat lamps overnight) all temps controlled by microclimate mini stat. Humidity between 30-80% higher humidity post misting.

Food + supplements - main diet of crickets tend to put between 15-20 in daily of 6-10mm silent brown crickets ( so he can see them easier as viv quite large for him he doesn't eat them all then they're removed at night) as stated tried on locusts today but didn't seem interested and seemed intimidated and also previously tried on wax worms which he also did not take. Free range fed has not taken anything via cup feeding or hand feeding although have tried both. Supplemented on Exo Terra Calcium Liquid Magnesium Supplement or calcium dust (no d3) daily either or and nutrobal dusting weekly.

Watering - misting heavily twice daily and use of Big Dripper 2x daily for roughly 1 hour.

Handling - Done daily for up to 15-20 minutes appears calm when handled active (always try's to climb to top of your head!) and good colourings doesn't hiss does sometimes turn away from hand when trying to get out of viv and start displaying darker colours but when he does this we back away and leave him and only get him out when he is good colour and climbs onto hand voluntarily. I just ordered a mesh pop up Viv so in the summer can take him out for fresh air if warm enough I take him out on my hand for fresh air.

Faecal movements have observed half brown half white hard faecal matter in Viv since getting him

History - no problems known about or observed. Brought from a known breeder.

Does this seem right to everyone or is there anything we should be doing my profile pic is him on a normal day as stated today with the locusts he was displaying darker squares all over outlined black one locust jumped on his back and he shook it off but haven't seen any others bothering him in that way any suggestions on how to get him to eat more variety and if we need to take locusts out ?

Thanks in advance for any advice and suggestions
 
He may just not recognize them as food. Since these veiled chams come from a long line of captivity then it might be that they dont know what locusts are. I would either stop giving him them or you could get smaller ones so he easily recognizes them as food. Also after a couple days if he gets hungrier because he hasnt eaten any yet, then he will start looking for food and realize he can eat them. Then he will know that they are delicious.
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Welcome to the forums!

It's always good to see new cham owners asking questions.
It looks like you are off to a good start.


For such a young cham, his basking temps should be about 5 fahrenheit degrees lower.
It's important to allow the enclosure to dry out between mistings to prevent mold and bacteria from flourishing.

This caresheet was written by the chameleonforums moderators and has a great deal of valuable info https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

There are also other very useful pages in that section of the forum, with links to them on the left hand side.

I am unfamiliar with the Exoterra calcium/magnesium liquid supplement.
Here in the states, we generally use plain calcium dust daily (phosphorus -free) and a multivitamin powder 2x a month as well as a calcium dust with D3 2x a month.
Again, I'm not familiar with Nutrobal, so I don't know how often it should be used with chams.
You may want to send a PM to Miss Lily or one of our other longterm forum members who are in the UK to ask about the supplements they have found work best and how often they are used.

Don't forget that you can search the posts and may find that many questions have been asked and answered already.
This especially helps when dealing with the desire for knowledge while it is morning in the UK and the middle of nighttime throughout the US. :)
 
I wouldn't be trying locusts on a 10-12 week old chamleon just yet.

Stick to small crickets and small worms for now.

The general size of his feeders should be gauged on the space between his eyes.
 
Thanks for all the information I've moved the lighting away from the cage more to reach the desired tempreture for a baby veiled so thanks for that :) he's now having his first she'd and appears colour wise and temperament wise content .. the eco terra calcium liquid ingredients are water , calcium chloride 81%, magnesium chloride 11%, calcium lactate and the store we brought it from said this is what they use daily but we alternate with regular calcium dust as well just to try and be sure he's getting his calcium, the other calcium is calcium dust without d3 .. Nutrobal. Ingredients per gram: 200 mg calcium & 150 IU vitamin D3, plus vitamins A C E K B1 B2 B6 B12 folic, nicotinic & pantothenic acids; biotin choline niacin and minerals P Na Fe Co I Mn Zn Se Cu so this has the calcium d3 in it so we don't currently suppllement with any calcium d3 as its included in the nutrobal does this seem right from the ingriedients ? We do the nutrobal every week currently as they said to do this when he was younger then it will go down to monthly when he's over 4 months. I appreciate all the advice :) thanks again
 
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