Question on my veiled eating?

[plop9025]

I got my veieled on wensday in the mail and put him in his new cage. I have feed him crickets right now in a feeder cup. It seems like he only eats when im not around. How do I get him to eat infront of me. I have only seen him eat a few times while im in the room and he usually doesnt eat more then 4 crickets a day tops... He is a 4month male veiled, is 4 crickets a day normal for him or should he be eating alot more??? Also I would like to get him to handfeed. whats the best way to go about this to work my way up to getting him to eat out my hand.

 

[christyo2o2]

some chams will never be hand fed. my veild is funny and sometimes he hand feeds and eats in front of me and sometimes i have to hide and peek behinde the wall or something to watch him. he may get used to seeing you with the food and start to associate you with food and trust you more. all you can do is try to get him to hand feed. break the big legs off your crickets so they cant jump around and hold it out on your hand and be really still and see if he goes for it. just make sure you dont jerk your hand back if he misses and hits your hand so you dont damage his tounge! good luck

 

[plop9025]

K cool. What about 4 crickets a day for a 4month Veiled? Is this enough food? Ill be getting some worms soon but until then im feeding crickets and not sure if 4 crickets a day is normal?

 

[Chase]

I was feeding like 10-20 at that age with mine, then 10-20 every other day when he got to 6 Months old.

 

[christyo2o2]

i always feed mine as much as he wants to eat. at 4 months i was prob feeding him about half a dozen a day. just keep track of how many you put in there and try to track how much hes eating. if he snaps up the 4 your putting in there right away he may still be hungry.

 

[Zilla005]

since this topic is quite related, i didnt want to open a new thread. My cham seems to have a slight appetite loss in the past few days. He shed about 3 days ago and ate about 15 crickets that day, the past two days he's only eating 5-7 crickets. Im a little concerned about this and wondered if anyone had any ideas on what might be causing this.

 

[royden]

4 crickets a day for a 4 month old isn't normal. Sounds like he may just be adjusting to a new enviroment. It will take your cham up to 3 weeks to "settle down" and feel like he's at home.

But you might want to get a fecal done at your local vet to check for parasites if his appetite doesn't come back in the next month.


zilla- How old is your cham? most veileds go through a hunger strike at 8-10 months, and/or during the winter months. There is speculation about why, but you might want to try switching up feeders. A lot of veileds will just stop eating crickets one day and never touch them again.

dubia's are a good alternative.

 

[Zilla005]

He is only about 3-4 months old.

 

[plop9025]

Ok ima keep better count now on my cham eating crickets... I only put about 6 in there a day and sometimes i usually take out 1 or 2 the next day if he doesnt eat them and put fresh ones in there. They are all live crickets and they are about medium size. So far today he has ate 2 this morning. I just put 3 more in his feeder cup and hopefully he will eat those but yes it hasnt even been a week sence i have had him. Tommorow will be exactly a week so he still is probly getting used to his new cage. If I slowly walk up to him in his cage and look at him he runs to the other side... Is this normal? I hold him every day for about 5 mins so he gets use to me as a baby. He usualy stays green and unstressed when im holding him but if i put him down he will rapidly change colors so I just keep him on my hands for about 5 mins a day so he gets use to me. When hes in the cage tho he does run if I get close, He is also starting to hiss now if i slowly reach in to get him out but im pretty sure thats normal for a veiled cham. Hopefully after another week or so he will be eating more crickets.

Whats the normal amount for a 4-5 month old veiled cham to eat a day? some people are saying theres eats 15 a day and iv heard of 20+ so I just wanna make sure my guy has nothing wrong with him.

 

[royden]

zilla-
I don't know a ton, but 4 crickets for a 4 month old is way under I think. Mine ate as much as I would put in there, every day until he was about 7 months old. Generally 12 to 15 crickets a day. Then he stopped eating for up to a week at a time.

Sometimes appetites go down around sheds. Strange. I'd do fecals at your vet. It's good to get them done once a year anyways. No harm in being too careful, and fecals shouldn't be more then 4o bucks. They should do a float and a direct I believe for the first time.

plop-

If I slowly walk up to him in his cage and look at him he runs to the other side... Is this normal?
yup! give him a few weeks, even then, he'll never be totally used to you, he'll tolerate you.

He is also starting to hiss now if i slowly reach in to get him
Oh - it's gonna get worse as he gets older handling my veiled is literally like handling a venomous snake with legs and no fangs. He fights for his bloody life.

Holding him is ok, but understand he will probably never get used to you/like you/relax, no matter hoe much interaction you have with him. When your veiled is in your hands and stops running or being scared, he might relax slightly, but it's mostly the realization that he's lost all power and he's practically waiting for you to eat him.

This is a generalization - some veiled's ending up being mildly friendly. But I understand that they are freaks of nature!


I'd also recommend you do a fecal in a few weeks if his appetite doesn't pick up. It can't hurt. To be clear both of you should post your cage size/lighting/suppliments/plants/ all that good stuff, just to clear red flags.

 

[Julirs]

A wise man once told me if you have issues with your cham eating, first check your temps!

 

[plop9025]

Ok, Thanks for the info here is my setup with a few pics of the cage and the chameleon.


Cage Size: 28 1/2 " WIDE
38" Length
56" Tall

Lights: I use 1 75 watt normal bulb with a dome clamp lamp
and 1 5.0 UVB tube.

Suppliments: I have Herp Calcium Dust with vitamin D3. I dust 5 crickets lightly 2 times a month. (1 time every 2 weeks of the month).

Feeders / Gutloader: Right now I feed crickets about medoum size. I gutload with Oranges / Sweet potatoes until I go to the petstore and get some flukers cricket food.

Plants: I have 1 Pothos , 1 Ficus , 1 Schefflera Arboricola , Dracaena fragrans. And 3 6ft long Bio - Flex vines for some chameleon highways.

Watering : I mist him 3-5 times a day for about 3-5 minutes. I also use a milk jug that I poked a hold in the bottom to drip 1 drop of water every 1-2 seconds.

This is all I could think of to put on here, If there is anyother information I need to let you guys know let me know please.

His name is Yoshi, He is very active during the day and loves to climb all over his cage.

Also 1 more question! About the fecal checkup at the vet. Does this check for parasites? and if he has parasites would it be hard to cure? Would there be anyway I would just take a look at him and see him he has Parasites?

Here are some pics of Yoshi:

 

[Orchidartist]

Very nice enclosure! My veiled is about the same age as Yoshi, they look almost the same!
Maybe his crickets are too big? I still feed Wasabi the small crickets...not the teeny pinheads but a little bigger. He can down 15-20 easy. We have been hand feeding him from a cup since we bought him...now he runs down when he sees anyone holding his cup, even my kids!

 

[plop9025]

Hmm maby ill try to take a step down on the crickets and go smaller.

 

[Zilla005]

Cage Size:
24x24x36

Lighting:
Reptiglow 8.0 uvb
75w basking bulb (regular house bulb) inside a utility light (or dome light)

Temps:
Basking: 85.3
Ambient: 72.5

Plants:
1 Pothos, 1 umbrella plant (dont remember the actually name for it)
also have the fake vines, one medium sized and one small size for varried sizes to climb on for his little feets. I have also put some fake amapallo vines around the cage where coverage is needed and not provided by the real plants.

I mist the cage by hand with a garden mister, on the finest setting for 3-4 minutes, 3-4 times a day.

I am currently using crickets that are 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in size. Maybe I should go down to a smaller size cricket.
I dust about 5 crickets twice a month. Gut load the crickets with cricket food (gut loader) provide the crickets with Gut load cricket drink with calcium as a source of hydration for the crickets. Apples, grapes and potatoes are also available for the crickets.

I have been keeping an eye on his fecal droppings, they are mostly white and yellowish in color. every so often there is some darker fecal matter.

If I can provide you with any other information that will assist/help you with determining anything, please let me know, and I will get the information along as fast as I can. Thanks for your help.

 

[royden]

The other thing I forgot to mention, is to keep an eye how often they're defecating. Be aware of possible blockages. It doesn't look like either of you have any substrate which is good, but there are still things they can eat and become impacted by.

plop- try to get a basking and ambient temp if you can. Julirs is right about temps being linked to appetite.

Otherwise I have no other advice for either of you. Please keep us all updated.

 

[royden]

Also 1 more question! About the fecal checkup at the vet. Does this check for parasites? and if he has parasites would it be hard to cure? Would there be anyway I would just take a look at him and see him he has Parasites?

Missed your question.

Parasites are not hard to cure, they're just a pain to cure. They require dosing your cham with medication, and then gutting their cage (throwing everything away) scrubbing it down with bleach and water, and refurnishing the entire cage.

Funny you should ask, I'm in the middle of it right now, treating my veiled for trichomonas.

Only a vet, or a trained person with a microscope can spot these single celled SOB's in your cham's poop. Some parasite's have swelling in the belly (but that's hard to spot) or sub-dermis lumps (parasites that borrow under the skin).