Veiled 1. Pothos 0. Concerned...

[Justin18]

So lately my 7-8 month old veiled has taken a liking to his Pothos. Normal. I know veileds are notorious for eating plants and I expected him to pick up this behavior soon but man I had no idea he would eat so much plant. Today I had to go buy a new Pothos because the old one had become so small from the constant nibbling it made his cage seem almost bare. Anyways the point of this post is to ask what should I do when I feed him his crickets, worms, ect.? I'm confident that I am feeding him enough if not maybe a tiny bit more occasionally.

Should I take this behavior as a sign that he is not being feed enough and I should start feeding him more crickets, worms etc.?

Or

Should I decrease his feedings a little as a precaution as to not over feed him? (That route doesn't sound right to me)

Or

Should I keep his feedings the same as they are now?

 

[maxttu]

My concern would be that pothos is slightly toxic and if he's eating copious amounts...

 

[xxzmmorexx]

I am 90% sure pothos has toxins in it. As suggusted above! I would really watch the amount he consumes. A little isnt bad but it can build up. my suggestion would be to trade plants out if it continues!

 

[Justin18]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/plants-live-artificial-97846/

In this post SandraChameleon claims her veiled ate almost every leaf on a large Pothos and was fine. I was under the impression that while there are toxins in Pothos plants that it is physically impossible to ingest enough for it to cause any harm.

 

[xxzmmorexx]

She is an awesome source! You can put your trust in her. I would just double check that maybe age doesnt have to deal with it. Like a stronger immune system or something

 

[GabeCastro]

Great source. You're spot on with that one. Sandra knows best

I'd still be concerned, but you can stick with pothos since nothing drips from it when it's torn such as a ficus. Just a pain since me personally i'd always worry about my cham eating the plant. Then going to have to buy a new one. Hopefully sandra can chime in and give you other options or give you the OK to keep the pothos plant.

This threads funny because I was just talking to my girlfriend about Veileds being notorious for eating all their live plants haha. I told her we might have to buy a new pothos plant everytime we pick up feeders if we ended up with a veiled

I'll be showing her this thread aswell lol

 

[Justin18]

I'm definently open minded to switching plants if nessecary. I always keep my chameleons best intrest in mind. I've just seen multiple post from credible people about Pothos being safe even if eaten which is why I'm no that worried about it.

I'm more concerned with how him eating a lot of his plant will affect how much I should be feeding if it even should affect how much at all. Does anybody have any insight on that?

 

[Justin18]

*bump*

Can anybody help me?

 

[AngieL]

When my girl destroyed her ficus plant I dealt with it by offering leafy greens regularly. I give her rocket mostly, kale sometimes and romaine. I'm sure your guy will be ok, might have a runny poop from all the veg matter

P. s. it's ok for him to eat plants, it doesn't really effect the amount of bugs to feed him.

 

[ChuWuti]

Seems he's looking for some greens in his diet; offering a variety will help prevent all kinds of problems by ensuring good nutrition.

Good luck!

 

[SSimsswiSS]

*bump*

Can anybody help me?

You need to supply your veil with more water. Via dripper / mistings. Leaf eating is more a moisture thing, than hunger. Your veil is trying to get moisture/hydration from leaves. Something most arid dwelling species do.

 

[dom1959]

agree with previous posts,
once my veiled started eating veg i started putting arugula,
kale and romaine in the feeding cup. whenever i see him going
to the plants i put more in the feeder. he seems to prefer prepared salad over
ripping leaves himself so problem solved mostly.

 

[Justin18]

Thanks for the replies and help guys! I'll start putting in some fresh greens for him to munch on. As for the water part, I already have a huge modified dripper that runs almost all day. But I will be ordering a mist king soon with my tax return money so that will provide more water for him than I could with a hand held mister and hopefully keep him from destroying his new plant lol