Opinions & Reassurance from the experts Pls?

[Scotty]

Hi everyone,
I have a couple of questions with reference to my 3 month old male veiled "popeye".
Firstly, he seems healthy to me, feeds well, drinks when I mist the cage, I am feeding by the book, dusting cricks with calcium alternate days, calcium + D3, alternate days, multi-vitamen alternate days, nothing on Sunday. I have read posts here and it seems to be a good way to feed him. Is this regime cool?

Secondly, can you tell how he will colour up by looking at him now at 3 months old, please see pic, or is it way too early to tell?

Thirdly, how does he look to you guys, ie healthy, a potentially good looking guy like his Dad (me) lol, no signs of anything to worry about, how's he developing etc?

Thanks heaps in advance...
Regards
Scott.
1 pic was taken today @ 3 months old, the other when he was a week or so old.... how cute!!!

 

[Smitty]

I believe a lot of people will say to cut the Calcium +D3 dusting, along with the multivitamin dusting to twice a month for both. At least this is what I gathered from my research because the cham can't process those dustings as quickly as calcium by itself.

EDIT: He looks a lot like my guy! He looks good!

 

[Noseyambilobe22]

he looks good! with feeding vitamins you will read alot of different stuff, everyone has there own way to do it, but i agree with smitty it does seem a little too much. But you have a great looking cham regardless

 

[PardalisGirl]

Opinions, etc..

Your boy looks very good His limbs look strong and normal for his age. That's one good indicator. I would cut the dusting down too. I'm not too trusting with some of the information I see in books anymore. Some have pictures of insects totally coated in supplements as an example of how to dust. And a tiny bit goes a long way. The most important thing is to have your insects properly gut loaded. Then have proper UVB exposure in the cage. Then get him outside, if your climate permits, for some real sun as much as possible. Looks like you have got him off to a great start. I really like his patterning so far

 

[kinyonga]

Your chameleon looks good and healthy!

When trying to balance nutrition for bone health, etc. you need to look at not only what you are supplementing with but at what you feed the chameleon...including what you are using to feed the insects and gutload them with. For good bone health, the four main "players" are phosphorous, calcium, D3 and vitamin A. PREFORMED vitamin A and D3 from SUPPLEMENTS can build up in the system so you want to be careful with them. Excess preformed vitamin A can prevent the D3 from doing the job as well and lead to MBD. There is nothing written in stone about how much of what you need to give a chameleon...so the only things that you can do are figure it out for yourself or do what someone else does that has good healthy long-living chameleons IMHO.

Appropriate basking temperatures allow for good digestion and UVB exposure (the light must not pass through glass or plastic) allows for the production of D3 so they also play a part....and of course good hydration is always important.

Can't be sure of the color it will be as an adult yet....you'll just have to have patience!

 

[Scotty]

Thanks heaps guys & girls for the info, that has helped and reassured me immensley!!!
Soooo, I understand the calcium + D3 & vitamen dusting fortnightly, check, I honestly thought this regime was a little much, so should I dust with calcium everyday or what?
His diet consists primarily of small crickets & house flies & treats of baby roaches twice a week and small mealworms occasionaly. (I have these for my other dragons) I gut load my insects with, carrots, beans, broccoli leaves, choy sum, sweet potato & apples. I don't live in the USA so I may have different vegies etc to you guys!
This should be OK, shouldn't it?
Cheers...
Kind Regards
Scott.