Receiving my First Panter Cham soon

[Flabonsai]

First I would like to give thanks to all the members on here that give such great information and I'm thankful I came across this great forum.
I've been doing a lot of reading and still have plenty more to learn.

This will be my first chameleon.
I ordered a 6 month old female Ambanja panther from screameleons with the complete cage and setup. I'm going to start off feeding her mostly crickets at first. I'm going to build a storage container for the crickets out of a Rubbermaid tote and cut a square out on the lid and side's of the container and put a metal screen in place using hot glue.

This is where I'm a little confused about gut loading. I've read to gut load 24 hours before and I've seen some say to gut load all the time so the crickets can build up with nutrients though out there life. If I get like 500 crickets how would I gut load 24 hours before. Would I take out 10 to 15 and place them in another container to gut load them or feed all 500 the night before? I'm going to use a gut load supplement at first and later on use fresh vegetables.

Next I have a few questions about using vitamins and supplements.
She will be staying indoors all the time under a UVB lite for 12 hours a day.
From what I read is to use Calcium (without D3 or phosphorus) with almost every feeding. To use Calcium with D3 (without phosphorus) once every two weeks and to use a Multivitamin once every two weeks. Does this schedule sound right for a 6 month cham indoors. Should I get a Multivitamin supplement with out the D3 in it also?

 

[camaleonte82]

any food related questions you should post so you get a wide opinion but my fav opinion in this forum is sandrachameleon's

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/

and what i do is separate my crickets into diff containers. and rotate them. and i also switch up the gut loading food so they not only taste diff but the chams are getting a wide variety of vit and minerals etc...

 

[sandrachameleon]

... I've read to gut load 24 hours before and I've seen some say to gut load all the time so the crickets can build up with nutrients though out there life. If I get like 500 crickets how would I gut load 24 hours before. Would I take out 10 to 15 and place them in another container to gut load them or feed all 500 the night before? I'm going to use a gut load supplement at first and later on use fresh vegetables.

Hi
some people will take a small number of crickets out of the main cricket bin, and feed that small number better than the rest (gutloading in terms of what is better for the chameleon) in the hours (minimally 12, often 48hours) prior to feeding them to the chameleon. Others choose to feed all of their crickets well all the time, believing that the overall health and nutrition of the cricket is better.

I rarely buy more than 40 crickets at a time. As soon as I get them home I start to gutload them well, and minimally for 48 hours. If I bred crickets or bought hundreds, I'd probably feed all of them reasonably all of the time. Its not difficult and need not be expensive. But I still might not offer the more expensive gutload choices/ingredients except to those that are within a week of being chameleon food.

With other feeders that I do breed rather than buy, like superworms, terrestrial isopods and roaches, I feed them well all the time because I cant be bothered to remember to separate a few out a week in advance. It helps that some of the better gutload choices are inexpensive things (like alfalfa) and that I also have a garden to offer some free produce (like arugula and mustard greens) plus yummy weeds like dandelion

Your supplementing schedule is what most recommend - although you want to be thinking about how you gutoad, the types of prey you are offering, and the BRAND of supplements you are using (for example, some brands of calcium with D3 are much more potent (more D3) than other brands).
Here are some links to supplement info you may find helpful:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/174-whats-supplements-brand.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.html

 

[sandrachameleon]

any food related questions you should post so you get a wide opinion but my fav opinion in this forum is sandrachameleon's

thank you

... i also switch up the gut loading food so they not only taste diff but the chams are getting a wide variety of vit and minerals etc...

me too

 

[camaleonte82]

and chams really do have taste preferences. my veiled girls love them some super worms but my panthers wont touch em. zip (panther male) loves moths and flies but Jewel (panther female) prefers simpler things like crickets and maybe a silkworm or mantis here and there. my veiled girl Lulu actually ate a few guppy. it was by mistake. we had a small fountain set up by my Buddha statue (my meditation corner) and she was climbing on bamboo nearby and my friend had put feeder guppies from the pet store in the fountain (at that point we had a pet turtle that we fed them too) and anyways. Lulu saw em swimming and ate like three of them

 

[Flabonsai]

Thanks for the responses, Yeah at first I'll probably just buy maybe 50 crickets to get the hang of things and maybe try a few worms to see what she likes and to try and keep it simple at first.

 

[camaleonte82]

and screameleons is really good. they gave us the hatch days of our chams and what their diet up until we bought them had been

 

[Flabonsai]

and chams really do have taste preferences. my veiled girls love them some super worms but my panthers wont touch em. zip (panther male) loves moths and flies but Jewel (panther female) prefers simpler things like crickets and maybe a silkworm or mantis here and there. my veiled girl Lulu actually ate a few guppy. it was by mistake. we had a small fountain set up by my Buddha statue (my meditation corner) and she was climbing on bamboo nearby and my friend had put feeder guppies from the pet store in the fountain (at that point we had a pet turtle that we fed them too) and anyways. Lulu saw em swimming and ate like three of them

Wow she ate a few guppies. That must have been a site to see. I had to read that twice to make sure I read that correctly! You gave me a good laugh for the night.

 

[camaleonte82]

Wow she ate a few guppies. That must have been a site to see. I had to read that twice to make sure I read that correctly! You gave me a good laugh for the night.

yup. i honestly did not think she would. it was so cool i wish i would have recorded it. and i still cant figure out how she caught the thing in the water.

 

[Flabonsai]

and screameleons is really good. they gave us the hatch days of our chams and what their diet up until we bought them had been

Yeah I did a little research and they look like a good place to purchase from. I went with a female for my first chem. Maybe I Should have went with a male as I've read there a little easier because you don't have to worry about the eggs and they live a little longer. Oh well maybe in the future I can purchase a male after I get the hang of things. I'll need another cage for another one.