some questions of general care.

[Vince882]

Hi all. Im planing on getting a veiled chameleon but i have some questions that conserned me. First of ive seen the habitats that you have for them and in most of them you have live plants in pots and i was just wondering how do you feed them the insects? by hand or do you put them in leaves or inside the pot? The second one that i have is of the water care i have read a lot and i have seen that some people mist the habitat and have a dropper i dont understand this droper part is it like a shower or does it just drop one drop of water at a time? And well my last question is that im from Puerto Rico and i have seen that the people around here feed them crickets or mealworms could i have a stable diet of crckets and some times feed him meal worms? and if he's a 3 to 4 month old how many crickets would he be eating just to make sure that he's not starving himself? And well thats all im sorry for such stupid and asking a lot i just want to make sure that i learn as much as possible and that i can have everything perfect thank you very much for everything.

 

[coolmoon]

As far as the feeding, I prefer to cup feed especially if it is a young chameleon. You put a small plastic bowl or cup where they have good access to it and put their food in it.

Dripper will just do slow drops of water, it should be setup so it will drip on the leaves. They should also be misted every day a couple of times and it can be done with a regular spray bottle. It keeps the humidity up and will trigger the urge to drink.

Crickets are fine as a staple food source. You need to make sure you gutload them before you feed them.

No question is stupid, ask as many as you need to.

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."how do you feed them the insects?"...my cages are glass and screen and I let the dusted insects go in the cage.

You said..."i have seen that some people mist the habitat and have a dropper i dont understand this droper part is it like a shower or does it just drop one drop of water at a time?"...I think you mean dripper...it drips a drop of water at a time...all you need is a container with a tiny hole in the bottom of it so that the water drips from it at about the rate of 2 or 3 drops per second. I don't use a dripper on very young ones because I worry about them aspirating water and drowning.

You said..."could i have a stable diet of crckets and some times feed him meal worms?"...I don't use mealworms...but crickets (the brown ones, not the black ones) are easy to gutload and can make up most of the diet.

You said..."if he's a 3 to 4 month old how many crickets would he be eating just to make sure that he's not starving himself?"...it depends on the size of the chameleon and the size of the crickets. The crickets should be an appropriate size for the chameleon. I feed a male as much as he would eat in about a minute when they are still growing. They should be dusted with the proper supplements and gutloaded. Do you know about that??

Here are some good sites...
http://adcham.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20060502...als.com/vet/index.php?show=8.Gout.Basics.html
http://chameleonnews.com/
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/

 

[PardalisGirl]

Coolmoon is Right!

Coolmoon is right. This is the place to ask those questions. We all want you to have a happy experience with your cham and we want your cham to be healthy and thrive.

If you use a dripper you need to have something underneath to catch the water. One drop at a time does not sound like much but the plant it drips on can't absorb it all and some will drain out of the pot. You need to have the water go somewhere. There is nothing wrong with hand misting with a spray bottle. Good for humidity and it really does get them to drink. Make sure you get appropriate sized crickets for your new cham. Ask the person you buy it from what size cricket to buy. Search the forum for gut loading methods. A good thing to do is to get your cage set up and let it "run" for a few days (lighting, heating, dripper, etc.). Take pictures and post them on the forum for members to look at. Before buying the lighting and heating/basking supplies you might tell us what you are thinking of getting. We can help you get the right stuff the first time. Maybe save you a little money too.

Thanks for joining our group