Newbie here... I have a few general questions :)

Moto

New Member
Hello,

I bought a veiled Cham from the pet store. It's in a large enough enclosure, many branches, things to climb on. We mist twice a day, lights are on a timer, temps are good.

I feel like we aren't feeding the Cham enough... It eats whatever we put in his cage. Last week it ate 54 crickets some small, some larger size. It has the nubs on the rear feet, so I assume its a male, even though the lady that sold him to us said it was a female. She wasn't sure on its age, I'm only guessing 4 ,months old? I measured him tonight thinking maybe someone could give me a better estimate on the age... His body is a little over 3 1/2 inches, and from head to tail he measures 7 and a quarter inch. Already seeing the darker stripes when it changes colors, and its a good general light green color. I'm 99 percent sure its a male from the spur pictures I've seen online.

He is super social... He wants out of his cage to walk around all the time. He goes outside on the patio to get sunlight, he loves it. He is super active, seems to always be moving around climbing, or hunting food. And I really mean social, which is weird right? Everything I read says don't handle them much. But he crawls out anytime I open his cage and seems perfectly fine walking on my arm, or sitting on the tree by the couch. He basks on the limb in his cage, and when the lights go off, he crawls up to the top branch and closes his eyes, curls his tale and goes to sleep till morning. He sometimes changes colors at night to a light brown with green stripes, but not always. He was kinda brown in his cage for about a week when we first brought him home.... Was worried about him being stressed, but we learned when we handled him, he turned light green again and really seems to be better being social? Again confused, because I though chasms didn't really like this. Also... The last two days he has come down from his branches and started digging in the dirt... I am going to remove the dirt stuff the pet store gave us because I read that it could get eaten and cause huge problems.... But my bigger concern was why on earth is he digging? He has spurs for sure...he's eating, drinking, active, and sleeping well, so I don't think he is sick at all.... Do I just have like the ADHD Cham? I like that he's social, but just want to make sure we are doing things right, he's such a cool and interesting creature :) So any ideas or suggestions for my friend Moto?

I thought they didn't really "hunt".... Am I not feeding him enough? He sometimes let the crickets get near him, but 1/2 the time he will walk across the cage after them. (We are also dusting with calcium)

Worried about his real age... Would like to know approx growth rate so I can plan for a bigger enclosure.

Should we not be letting him out of his cage so much?


Thanks a million!

Sadie
 
chams dont need dirt on the bottom of the tank. If you have live plants you need to cover them with large river rock or some other 1" rock. This keeps the cham from the dirt, and the bugs from making nests in the dirt.

Its a male if it has heal spurs. It should be eating well over a dozen appropriately sized feeder items a day.

You can handle the cham all the time if the cham likes to be handled. Some will crawl on your hand, some will defend the cage from the evil hand till the bitter end. Its best to earn the chams trust with hand feeding and hand rides to sunny areas for basking.

Also yes babies like to hunt, they might not cup train right away, but you could try. at 7" hes in the 4-5 month zone depending on growth spurt.

PS you havent mentioned calcium or uv light yet..

As for a cage i would just go right for the full sized 24x24x48 standard cage most people use here for around $80-110 depending on options and shipping. I would recommend this cage early if you can get all the plants off the ground (so he can hunt and all the bugs cant hide) or if he is cup/bucket trained. if you feel this is still too big you can section off part of the cage and turn it into a 2ft cube. Most of my babies get raised in my baby cage that is 24x24x20 till around 6-8 months old or 8-10".


He will be growing at about 1" a month for the next 8-10 months, and then "fill out". He will be eating like mad at your size. Dont be surprised if you buy 1000 1/2" crickets and in a month hes doubled in weight and ready for 3/4" crickets on the next order.
 
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Welcome to the forum I am obviously also a newbie. First of all read as mush as you can. You will see all chameleons are different. It sounds like you are very lucky and have a social chameleon. I know you may want to sway adequate to avoid the frustration from bad posts, but everyone is very helpful on this site. So feel free to post the type, size, plants and lighting used on your chameleons home. Everyone here will give you the best information for a good environment.

Even a pic or two.
 
Welcome to the forums. This is a great place for information. Young chams eat a lot! From what I've heard, it's not unusual for a baby to eat up to 25 crickets a day. As long as he's eating, I would keep feeding him. Yes chams will hunt their food, just don't leave crickets in the cage over night or they might gang up and bite your little guy. My cham is also very social and loves coming out of the cage. I guess it just depends on their personality. That's really good that he curls up and goes to sleep when his lights go off. Just make sure he's in a dark room, lights keep them awake. Best of luck with your cham, things can get stressful, but remember to enjoy him :)
 
Welcome to the Chameleon Forums. This is a great place to learn about chameleons. I'd recommend not feeding large crickets until he's a little bigger. Medium size about 1/2 to 3/4 inch would be good. You need to offer a variety of feeders and at his size I'd say 12 to 16 a day depending on the size of the feeder. You could start a dubia colony for him and also buy some worms. I feed silkworms, butterworns, Phenix worms, super worms, and hornworms.

All my chameleons have always been very sociable. My veileds have always been the friendliest and show the best personalities. I have a blog for new keepers attached below for how I keep veileds successfully. I hope it will help you with your new guy.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

Here is another link to allot of great info: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/
 
You guys rock :)

Awesome thanks everyone for quick response!
His UVB 5.0, and his other light is a heat lamp.... I bought the start up kit, I believe the brand was xterra...temp is 80 with the light on about 70 with the light off, humidity is around 70.
Ok so I'll def feed him more- He's a hungry guy. I read he can eat some fruits and veggies? Is he to small for that now, or good bad idea?
Anyone have any ideas about him digging in that dirt? It was so weird. Dirt is gone now. But I have paper in the bottom.... I saw these mats online, should I use that instead?

Thanks!
 
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