Supplements

[breauxaustin]

I have a 7 month old Veiled Chameleon and feed him mainly crickets (medium sized) and super worms (large). He eats approximately 5-10 every day. 10 being for crickets. I gut load the crickets with a calcium block they have in their cage with some cricket food that apparently contains multiple nutrients (flukers cubes). I dust the worms and crickets with calcium with d3 every feeding and have just started using multivitamins once a week 1:1 dusting ratio. I've just recently read about using calcium without D3 and have read the entire post on supplementation and am still very confused. My chameleon has a UVB 5.0 light bar on top of his cage and is usually 6-12inchea from it throughout the day. His basking spot being approx. 5-6 inches from the light. How often should I dust with the D3 and without? And then also how often to use multivitamins? I've tried also feeding him some greens recommended in the care sheet but he only eats the pothos leaves in his cage occasionally. Doesn't seem to be big on the greens. Any changes feeding changes that are necessary or need to be altered please let me know Wanna make sure my chameleon is always healthy and never even comes close to developing any sort of disease such as MBD. Thanks already for any responses!

 

[jannb]

I keep veileds and I though you might find my blog below helpful. I would stop the calcium with D3 for awhile. Your chameleon can overdose on the D3. If he's not getting any outside time then you should dust with plain calcium with no D3 at just about every feeding. You should be using a multi vitamin every two to three weeks and normally use the calcium with D3 twice a month.

The orange cubes are useless. You need to gut load with a variety of fresh greens, veggies and fruits. I also recommend a good dry gut load such as Cricket Crack. I also recommend feeding him a large variety of feeders. Try adding some roaches, silkworms, butterworms and hornworms to his diet.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

 

[breauxaustin]

Thanks for the response! Have some calcium without d3 on the way since no local stores carry it. Unfortunately I'm gonna have to do some looking around for the variety of food. Stores here only carry crickets or superworms. Also, how much is to much feeding? Don't want my dude getting fat but don't want him to be hungry. Will they not eat when they're full or will he just eat him self into obesity?

 

[jannb]

Most chameleon supplies have to be ordered online. A good place to buy a variety of feeders is lindasgonebuggy.com Linda has value packs for like $20.00 with a small amount of 3 or 4 feeders just perfect for one chameleon.

Yes, they will overeat. Around 7 or 8 months old I cut my males back to every other day feelings if they are healthy and of good size. If you post a photo of your guy I can see how he looks.

 

[breauxaustin]

Here is a picture of Ziggy. Honestly wasn't easy so the angle isn't the best, every time he feels the doors start to open he immediately runs for hiding. Unfortunately don't have one of the friendly veileds Ive read about on here.'/ Tell me if it seems like anything is wrong please.

 

[sandrachameleon]

i agree with Jannb, that you likely are over doing the D3
what brand of supplement are you using?
how are you gutloading (the flukers crap isnt all you offer the crickets is it?)?
try to offer a wider range of prey (may mean convincing your pet store to bring other prey in, or ordering online, or joining a local reptile frog or spider club, or breeding your own bugs)

some other links that might be useful:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/92-hydration-importance.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...just-crickets-roaches-gutload-everything.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/

 

[ChameLIonLover]

I am also a fairly new to keeping chameleons and I do believe D3 at every feeding is not good. What I've heard suggested and what I have been doing is light calcium dusting w/o d3 at most every feeding... calcium w/d3 twice a month alternating with herptivite multivitamin twice a month.

So the schedule would look like this:
week 1:
Monday-->Saturday:calcium w/o d3
Sunday: calcium w/d3
week 2:
Monday-->Saturday:calcium w/o d3
Sunday: herptivite multivitamin
week 3:
Monday-->Saturday:calcium w/o d3
Sunday: calcium w/d3
week 4:
Monday-->Saturday:calcium w/o d3
Sunday: herptivite multivitamin

Depending on where you are at in the country, and if your cham gets much time in actual sun light, it will be a bit different. I do know for a fact that vitamin w/d3 at every feeding is not right.

 

[breauxaustin]

No no no.... The flukers cubes I use just to keep my crickets alive. I always throw in some of the recommended gut loading foods like kale, oranges, carrots, ext that's been suggested on this site. I just started using the cubes because my crickets were dying by the dozen. Once I started tossing a couple of those cubes in there they stopped dying. Im aware of the D3 being an issue already, that's why I made this post. First guy replying already set that straight. Just got my calcium without d3 in the mail today. I give him super worms and crickets only right now because I can't find any other options. I have been researching websites to get some others shipped in on a monthly basis.