Stupid question...........

[Crazy Pet Lady]

I've been putting about a dozen or so crickets of various sizes in my baby's (veiled male) viv daily. He has not been eating the mealworms I leave for him altho he did the first couple of days. I'm not finding any dead ones, but some may have escaped. I also offer dusted crickets in a small "dish" for him every other day or so. He sseems to be eating, he's not getting skinnier. How do I know if he's eating or not? If I stay to watch, he hides. I know he's still getting acclimated. Do you all pull off the legs of your crickets, or let them fend for themselves? I'm misting at least 2 times daily and providing a drip as well a couple of times a day. Open air topper on top of a 20 long, lots of plants, real mostly. Zilla vines of different thicknesses. Repti-sun 5.0, 18 inches long on top. The topper is the same size as the tank, effectively doubling the space. Temps vary from 85 to 90 in basking areas and about 70ish below. Humidity at about 75 to 80%. Should I be worried?

 

[gary1621]

Personally, when we first got Peanut I allowed some food to free roam and tweezered the legs off some crix and cupped them... that way she had food available because she wasnt used to the cup... slowly i reduced the roamers when i knew she used the cups.
Now i cup in the morning with the dusted crickets and in the afternoon i let some locust roam (they wont nibble her at night, but crix might). I find she enjoys the hunt too

Is he pooping ok?

All will be ok Keep us posted

Your day time temp seem a little high, bring them down a little if you can. Your cham will appreciate it.

 

[PNsSP]

How do I know if he's eating or not? Should I be worried?

is he pooping regularly?

 

[Crazy Pet Lady]

To be honest, I haven't seen any poop. At the risk of sounding even more stupid, I don't even know what it looks like. (other than posts on this forum) From what I understood, veileds like the higher temps in the day time but I will defer to those with more experience. Adjusting the temp is only a matter of moving the light away a little. I'm really concerned about him getting enough to eat. He doesn't seem interested in the mealies at all. He looks at the crickets with suspicion. Any way to help him out?

 

[nick barta]

Mealworms don't move enough to trigger consisitant feeding, superworms on the other hand do, and the external skin on a mealworm is tougher than a super, so I would switch. Hang the worm on the screen part of the enclosure near the Cham, and lower than the Cham. The worm will crawl up toward him and that will trigger feeding.

I would also recommend Blue Bottle Flies, young Chams can eat them, they fly within striking distance constantly, and too many in a cage will not hurt a Cham. Really takes the worry out of "is he eating"

You can buy small quantities of BB's at Mantisplace.com-they have a care sheet on how to hatch them.

Hornworms also can be placed on the screen, they can be purchased at Great lakes hornworms.com. Also at GLH, you can purchase small superworms, 1/2" to 1" would be a better size for a young Cham than the normal 2" size.

Hope this helps.



Nick

Just noticed your humidity-75% is WAY too high for a veiled. The Veileds come from Yemen which is mostly desert. If you are measuring the humidity after spraying, it may hit 60% plus, but normal readings should be 50% or less. Montane species require more, but not your little guy!!

 

[Crazy Pet Lady]

Ok..so do I mist less and drip more? I'm getting a pretty constant drip for a good half hour into the scheffelera (sp?). Twice a day in addition to misting. Which is better? Humidity is being measured at the top of the cage above this plant. How can I lessen humidity? Is it because of the aquarium bottom? He's always up top when I see him and sometimes I can't find him; hiding, I guess. He did fire up for me when I put the food in today. Too cute! darker markings along the sides.

 

[Crazy Pet Lady]

Anyone else have any suggestions? Please?

 

[Fate X]

85f-90f seems to warm for baby veileds.mine are 75f-80f

 

[coolmoon]

I would mist less and drip more for the humidity problem. His poop should be a small dark brown or black thing with a white end. It is very hard to find when they are that small. Try looking on the leaves under the area he sits most in the morning. I do cup feeding with all my chams, just use a small plastic dish and attach it to a plant or vine. Make sure it is low enough he can see into it and in an area near his heat. Try just a few crickets in there and see if he eats them. I also prefer silkworms as they are a good feeder and will help with hydration.

 

[warpdrive]

Hi crazy pet lady,
(boy I love your name.....lol)


here are a few ideas :

fist calm down.
as a new cham owner myself, I once thought my cham was not drinking on a regular basis...turns out he just waits untill he knows I'm not going to mist his cage anymore and he drinks like a fish (about 15 mins later).

the chances are he's eating...after all, some food is missing.

I like the idea of the blue bottlenose flys, but at his young age, I would use houseflys. you can get them at the same place mentioned already.

my guy didn't eat the first 2 days I got him, regardless that I was told he was eating fruit flys before he was shipped...but he didn't eat any fruit flys I gave him.
regardless that I think the fruit flys might have been too small for him to care, once I added in some houseflys my baby cham went crazy for them.
so try houseflys, you will see them disapear in under an hour.

if you want to watch him eat or anything else, get on the floor and sit a few feet away from the cage.
being lower then him will make him feel safe and secure.
my guy is now 6 1/2 months old, and he still gets alittle nervous if my head is above him, and as a baby he would be quite scared. so get low, and be still. don't move much at all if possable.

at this young age, try to leave him/her alone as much as posable.
yet at the same time, let him/her see you watching it from time to time while sitting low on the floor.
this will get you cham used to you while it walks around and hunts or basks in the lighted areas.

when feeding or misting, move slowly. no, ultra slow. the slower the better.
remember that you are a big monster in the cham's eyes, and it thinks that you might want to eat it.

I forgot where you live, but your humidity is too high right now.
so are your temps.
I would use a lower wattage lightbulb such as a 40W or lower.
I would mist less, maybe once in the morning and that's it.
to offer some water, I would just use a dripper 2 or 3 times a day.
he might be a shy drinker, or like mine just hates misting and getting wet...so just leave him alone and I'm sure he/she will drink behind your back.
(how do I know mine drinks behind my back? I used my video camera on a tripod to film him after I misted and drip water. )
by the way, if your room temps are too high (say 75F or higher) it will help give you ultra high temps and increase humidity...turning on some AC will help lower the temps and lower humidity as well.

at this young age it might be hard for you to find his/her poop and urates.
the urates from my cham at 6 weeks old was so hard to find, even though I was able to find his poops easy...so relax and calm down again. it will be fine.

keep feeding dusted crickets that are small enough for it to eat.
silkworms are another good choice but can be a pain for a newbie to care for.
they also grow quite fast and you'll be stuck with tons of silkies that are too big to eat.
such is life for a new owner of a baby...yes it sucks.
you can get small silkworms from mulbery farms...just ask for a cup of smalls, and they will send you like 50 tiny ones.
also ask for small butterworms...some might come too big, but they have alot of calcium and have plenty of water in them for hydration too.
(after buying so much bugs you'll wonder if your careing for a chameleon or are a crazy bug lady.... )

above all, stay calm. your fine, and so is your cham.
soon you'll find more and more poopies/urates and less food in the cage.
all will be well in the end.

good luck, and keep asking questions if needed.

Harry