What do you tell cham-sitters?

[Amanda S]

I am going away for a few days and was wondering...

Taking care of chams is pretty complicated. Do you tell your chameleon sitters simplified versions?

I was thinking like....
-mist her a few times a day for a few minutes with water conditioner in H20(plus she has a crappy habba mist that drips every hour for a minute)

-feed daily, in the morning, 10 crickets(loose)/5 phoenix worms(in cup)(without supplement...I feel like it is a lot of explaining? Only for 3 days so she should need it anyway)

-Her lights are on timers



Hey I did another funny thing. At a reptile show yesterday I bought 1000 7day old crickets and they are wayyyy to small to feed her, I didn't think they'd be SO much smaller than the 2week ones. I hope they grow quick?? I have alllll these tiny bugs

 

[dodolah]

assuming that this cham sitter knows nothing about keeping chameleons, I would do the extra miles of writing him/her a schedule to follow.

such as:
6 AM turn all lights on
8 AM mist the whole cage (don't mist the chameleon directly) with the filtered water for 5 minutes.
9 AM put 10 crickets dusted with MinerAll 0.
11 AM mist the cage again
..... etc etc etc etc

I would even make the job easier for the cham sitter by putting a pinch amount of supplements in a ziplock bag so he/she just need to dump the crix inside the bag and shake shake shake.

Something to that effect

I am going away for a few days and was wondering...

Taking care of chams is pretty complicated. Do you tell your chameleon sitters simplified versions?

I was thinking like....
-mist her a few times a day for a few minutes with water conditioner in H20(plus she has a crappy habba mist that drips every hour for a minute)

-feed daily, in the morning, 10 crickets(loose)/5 phoenix worms(in cup)(without supplement...I feel like it is a lot of explaining? Only for 3 days so she should need it anyway)

-Her lights are on timers



Hey I did another funny thing. At a reptile show yesterday I bought 1000 7day old crickets and they are wayyyy to small to feed her, I didn't think they'd be SO much smaller than the 2week ones. I hope they grow quick?? I have alllll these tiny bugs

 

[sandrachameleon]

If its just a couple days, the limited instructions and duties are fine. Even skipping the dusting for a couple days and limiting the foods offered wont cause harm. Water is the main thing, really.

But longer than two or three days, then I suggest you need to go into a little more detail.

For abenses of more than two days, I leave very detailed, step-by-step instructions, inlcuding time of day to do this or that. I also walk the sitter through the ropes at least twice before - them watching me the first time, and them doing it following the written instructions while I "supervise" and clarify as needed. Luckily my sitter has done this for me five times now (the longest stretch being a week) and so is quite comfortable with the process. I can finally feel like I can take a short holiday without worrying!

 

[Kat77]

Honestly, the last time I was gone for two days (which wasn't that long ago) I wrote my cham sitter three pages of instructions. Don't be bashful. If the person has even an average IQ and your setup is good, they'll be able to figure it out for two days. And just leave your cell number !

 

[Vegas Darci]

Ya, whenever we leave our animals in the care of someone I just write out a list like the second person said. It's better to have too many details than not enough...mine are usually 2-3 pages long and then since we have different sizes of animals I even label their cages with what size crickets they each get just to make sure. It's hard when you just do it all daily without even thinking and then to have to explain it to someone who knows nothing. But they catch on quickly... =)

 

[Sepioteuthis]

I always like to keep it simple for my pet sitter. Even when we where gone for more than 2 weeks the reptile instructions were along the lines of:

- feed the chams each about X crickets a day (I never ask my petsitters to bother with dusting or different food items and my misting system is automatic), don't add more is they still have some.

- put some of the veggie mix (ziplock bags in fridge) in the iguana's bowl, some in the bearded dragons' bowl and some in the cricket and roach bins.

But most importantly I always give pet sitter a tour of the 'zoo' and show them what to do. During this visit you'll get an idea of how comfortable they will be with the tasks at hand and if you need to go into more detail.

And I leave emergency instructions such as:
-call the vet if a chameleon is:
- not eating for three days
- sleeping during the day
- sitting listless on the bottom
- etc

This kind of instructions have worked for 3 different vacations and 3 different pet sitters.

 

[Amanda S]

Okay sounds good. I like the idea of leaving notes at the bottom about danger signs and what to do if....whatever. I am actually having my grandfather watch her. I think he will catch on quick and he really likes the cham but I don't him to worry about not doing some paticular thing right. It is only 3 days, max. Thanks for all your advice!