Should I continue to mist my Vailed cham if I have moving water?

[Minihuey]

Waterfalls are not a good choice with any chameleon.
They collect bacteria, chameleons love to poop in them, crickets love to commit suicide in them, etc.
Even with daily cleaning the water would not be clean enough.
Chameleons drink raindrops and dew (very clean sources of water compared to what is in your waterfall)
Additionally the enclosure needs to completely dry out between mistings to avoid respiratory infections, coccidia, mold, mildew and an army of other potential problems ... impossible with a water feature installed.

-Brad

haha suicide crickets. It totally seems like they do it on purpose back when I had those crappy waterfalls

 

[jojackson]

Some control over humidity is desireable.

 

[skip]

yup im misting and usually have ice cubes or a cup on there for dripping but back to my latest question lol how much do you feed your chams and do you feed them every day?

 

[laurie]

How old is you cham? You may have said ut I forgot. If he is and adult then feed him every other day. Over feeding will shorten life for him and make him a picky eater. He should have 5 feeders appropriate for his size ecvery other day. lso do you use supplements on your crickets & gutload them? Both are needed. Enjoy your cham & welcome to our group.

 

[Pure]

what about a filter like fuel in ur car.... ur car is equiped with a fuel filter same with your fride so can a water filter be added to the waterfall to help remove the bacteria and sucidial cricket debris im not saying that waterfalls are good but just curious if somehting like that could fix it?

The problem with a "filter" and why it wont work is:

As the poo/dead crickets decompose they release ammonia. When ammonia is introduced to a non chlorinated water source it starts a process called the nitrogen cycled. I
ll summarize (it takes a minute to type it up, Just google it if you don't know what it is) But basically it is the cultivation of Bacteria, granted this bacteria is beneficial, but it opens the door for a slew of other not so beneficial bacteria to become established.

Bad pathogens can be introduce in many different ways. Way to many for you to protect from them all.

 

[skip]

How old is you cham? You may have said ut I forgot. If he is and adult then feed him every other day. Over feeding will shorten life for him and make him a picky eater. He should have 5 feeders appropriate for his size ecvery other day. lso do you use supplements on your crickets & gutload them? Both are needed. Enjoy your cham & welcome to our group.

chilly is about 13 months old if the pet store gave me the right info when i got him. I use calcium no Phosphorus with D3 and it says 2:0 on the bottle if that helps lol, I usually feed my crickets Apples, Carrots, and a cut up potato.....would you suggest me gut loading any differently?

 

[Pure]

I would just add some leafy greens like turnips greens and kale.

 

[sandrachameleon]

chilly is about 13 months old if the pet store gave me the right info when i got him. I use calcium no Phosphorus with D3 and it says 2:0 on the bottle if that helps lol, I usually feed my crickets Apples, Carrots, and a cut up potato.....would you suggest me gut loading any differently?

You dont need to supplement with D3 everyday, but most crickets should be dusted with a phosphorus free calcium (no d3) powder. what brand of supplements are you using? Rep-Cal has 400,000 IU/kg of D3 whereas Miner-All (I) has 4,400 IU/kg of D3 and I think 150IU D3 in Nutribol (which also has Vit A so be wary of using this very often). That's a considerable difference in D3 strength. So your dustind schedule will depend on which brand, and on how much access to sunlight your cham gets.
Info on supplements: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.html


Info on gutloading: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition.html

The dry portion of a gutload can include (blend with a coffee grinder or food processor): quality whole grain cereal (Im currently using Kashi); spirulina; bee pollen; alfalfa; organic raw sunflower seeds; dried seaweed/kelp/dulse; oats; oak leaves; powered egg; ground almonds; ground brazil nuts; wheat germ; hemp seed; fig powder; high quality monkey chow

A wet gutload (switch it up with a different couple of items every other day or so) can frequently includes things like: dandelion leaves, squash, carrot, yam, orange, mustard greens, pomegranet, collard greens, kale, romaine, apple, peas, blueberries, raspberries, alfalfa sprouts, sunflower sprouts, ... (avoid broccoli and spinach).

 

[skip]

You dont need to supplement with D3 everyday, but most crickets should be dusted with a phosphorus free calcium (no d3) powder. what brand of supplements are you using? Rep-Cal has 400,000 IU/kg of D3 whereas Miner-All (I) has 4,400 IU/kg of D3 and I think 150IU D3 in Nutribol (which also has Vit A so be wary of using this very often). That's a considerable difference in D3 strength. So your dustind schedule will depend on which brand, and on how much access to sunlight your cham gets.
Info on supplements: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.html


Info on gutloading: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition.html

The dry portion of a gutload can include (blend with a coffee grinder or food processor): quality whole grain cereal (Im currently using Kashi); spirulina; bee pollen; alfalfa; organic raw sunflower seeds; dried seaweed/kelp/dulse; oats; oak leaves; powered egg; ground almonds; ground brazil nuts; wheat germ; hemp seed; fig powder; high quality monkey chow

A wet gutload (switch it up with a different couple of items every other day or so) can frequently includes things like: dandelion leaves, squash, carrot, yam, orange, mustard greens, pomegranet, collard greens, kale, romaine, apple, peas, blueberries, raspberries, alfalfa sprouts, sunflower sprouts, ... (avoid broccoli and spinach).

Seems to be a brand named T-Rex anyone familiar with it?

 

[ciafardo 4]

I'm just saying with veilds i dust with d3 cal five days a week until they are about 5 months i have raised quite a few this way and never had any mbd or other problems after 5 months i dust with d3 cal once a week .I find that veilds have such a fast growth rate that this insures no bone problems and ive never had any ill affects . Of course they are being raised indoors i dont recomend this if they spend time in natural sunlight . I'm just saying this has worked well for me.

 

[summoner12]

I'm just saying with veilds i dust with d3 cal five days a week until they are about 5 months i have raised quite a few this way and never had any mbd or other problems after 5 months i dust with d3 cal once a week .I find that veilds have such a fast growth rate that this insures no bone problems and ive never had any ill affects . Of course they are being raised indoors i dont recomend this if they spend time in natural sunlight . I'm just saying this has worked well for me.

Even if they are raised indoors this isn't a very good practice if they have sufficient UVB, fake (UVB lamp) or real sun. If you are providing D3 to them, they can't 'shut it off', they must absorb it. They can OD on vit. D3, so you want to be careful. This is why it is recommended to be used only twice a week. It is a precautionary measure.

 

[SimonBolivar]

Redundancy is a virtue.

Waterfalls = death... or worse i dont know.

Infections from ingesting the water and stuff.. not worth the aesthetic looks of one.

 

[Pure]

Seems to be a brand named T-Rex anyone familiar with it?

Yep I am. On top of having a high amount of D3 (400,000 IU/kg) it also contains vitamin A. One more thing you have to keep in mind is they can OD on Vit A.

I would get some new powder asap. Get Rep-cal from LLL with D3 and without.