Questions about Veiled housing

[kylocats]

Hello
My female veiled is now 4 months and one week old. Is is old enough to move her to her new home which is a screen cage 24x24x48? Also is one heat lamp at the top of the enclosure enough or do i need to have another in the middle? Another question I have is how many crickets should she be having now? Also what is the best basking temp for her age. Thanks in advance .

 

[kinyonga]

Its more a case of how big she is not how old she is when you are talking about moving her to that size cage.

One heat lamp at the top is enough if she can get close enough to make the basking area temperature right for her. The ambient temperature in the cage needs to be right too...so if it takes more than one lamp to attain the proper temperatures, then more than one may be necessary. Be careful not to position any lamps so that the chameleon could get burned though.

At that age, I usually have the basking temperature in the mid 80's.

Until a female is 5 or so months old I feed them as many crickets as they will eat in a minute or so. Once they approach sexual maturity, I slow them down so that they still get enough to grow up but I don't overfeed them. It can lead to large clutches of eggs which IMHO is not good for them. (You don't want to starve them by any means....just keep the diet and rate of growth controlled.)

One more thing...when your female is sexually mature, you should have a place for her to dig to lay eggs in the cage so you don't miss the sometimes subtle signs that she needs to lay eggs. (Veileds can lay eggs even when unmated.)

 

[kylocats]

Once they approach sexual maturity, I slow them down so that they still get enough to grow up but I don't overfeed them. It can lead to large clutches of eggs which IMHO is not good for them. (You don't want to starve them by any means....just keep the diet and rate of growth controlled.)


How do I tell when she has reached sexual maturity? Do I go by her age? She is very healthy as far as i know. I feed her silkworms about 3 or 4 a day and about 7 crickets. Once a week I feed her three wax worms and again 7 to 8 crickets. ALSO She hates to be sprayed. I have tried spraying here from above and also straight at her level?