T. Hoenelli Eating Issues?

Good evening everyone,

Was hoping to get some advice. I received this little dude about 2 months ago. He was born in October and is just shy of 7 months. At first when I was feeding him he would eat 5-7 small crickets a day or 4-6 meal/wax worm combination a day. I would rotate between different insects. He shed once about 3 weeks ago and now I barley notice him eat. When I was feeding him prior to shedding I would hold them with tongs, then he started to not go after them when I held them in the tongs, but would eat out of my hand. Then she started to not be interested in those and now I need to take him out of his cage and put him on top or in my hand while a meal/wax worm is crawling across the top of the cage... He will eat that. I know that handling him that much is not the best thing, but I would rather have him eat than not eat. I have added some feeder cups to his enclosure, I'm not sure if he's stressed by them or what but I really don't think he should be down to 1-3 worms/crickets a day. Would love some advice on this. I added some pictures of him to see if you can spot check he is healthy and not under/malnourished. Also there is a picture of his cage setup. Thanks for taking the time to read this! Greatly appreciated.
-KC

I know the appetite normally goes down for veileds during/after a shed. It should return in a few weeks though. Have you tried letting crickets free in the cage? He might just be bored with how he receives his food, and would enjoy the hunt. Your cage looks a bit bare for how small he is. Normally they like it to be more full to have hiding places and reduce stress. I'm sure someone has a more detailed response though! Good luck!

Hey thanks for the information. I've got some plants on the way to fill the gaps. Maybe I'll pick up some more fake ones just to hold me over.

Hello, I received my first pair of Hoe's a few weeks ago. (thanks Carl). Mine are about the same age as yours, they sure are tiny aren't they? Mine are in a smaller cage than yours and do not have any substrate in the bottom. I feed tiny 1/4 crickets, well gutloaded, and bean beetles which they really enjoy. I gave them a few small flys and they ate them, but were not excited as I expected.

What temp and humidity do ou keep yours at, and what is your misting schedule?

laurie said:

Hello, I received my first pair of Hoe's a few weeks ago. (thanks Carl). Mine are about the same age as yours, they sure are tiny aren't they? Mine are in a smaller cage than yours and do not have any substrate in the bottom. I feed tiny 1/4 crickets, well gutloaded, and bean beetles which they really enjoy. I gave them a few small flys and they ate them, but were not excited as I expected.

What temp and humidity do ou keep yours at, and what is your misting schedule?

Click to expand...

Congrats! Hope you love them! Yeah alot smaller than I expected lol. I put screening over the top of my substrate where my plants are so that he doesn't accidentally consume any. I'll go ahead and try and get some 1/4 crickets and see if he's up for those again... Do you use a feeding cup or let them free range for them? I just get nervous about letting the crickets free range in the cage thinking they might just find a corner on the ground and hide and he'll never find them under the planter bin I have in there. I want to see if I can set up a "bowl" if you will that is just wood/plastic sides and then just a screen bottom so I can put feeders in there and not worry about them getting out/drowning. I'll post some more pictures again when I figure that out.
My High temps for the day are between 78-82 and lows at night are between 64-68. I try to keep my humidity from 55 to 80 throughout the day. I did have a homemade misting system running every 2 hours starting at 8am and ending at 7:30 pm ish. But That seemed a bit much as there was water collecting under my planter bin not drying out between mistings. So I dropped that down to every 3.5 / 4 hours. I also have a humidifier hooked up to pump into the top left of the cage that keeps one side more humidified than the other. Please if you have any advice or questions let me know!

laurie said:

Hello, I received my first pair of Hoe's a few weeks ago. (thanks Carl). Mine are about the same age as yours, they sure are tiny aren't they? Mine are in a smaller cage than yours and do not have any substrate in the bottom. I feed tiny 1/4 crickets, well gutloaded, and bean beetles which they really enjoy. I gave them a few small flys and they ate them, but were not excited as I expected.

What temp and humidity do ou keep yours at, and what is your misting schedule?

Click to expand...

Also do you mind if I ask for Carl's handle on here or if you know if he has any females still available? I may be looking for one down line. Thanks again.

kcbunique said:

Also do you mind if I ask for Carl's handle on here or if you know if he has any females still available? I may be looking for one down line. Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Carl is leaving for Tanzania for a month. He has placed all his chams, some temp and some permanently. I have his last pair of hoes, and they will never leave me. If you look in the classified, one of the guys in Texas has a trio for sale.

Also you keep your hoe's warmer that mine. I only let mine get to about 70 and drop the to 60 at night. Not sure if that will help but it was all that jumps out at me.

laurie said:

Carl is leaving for Tanzania for a month. He has placed all his chams, some temp and some permanently. I have his last pair of hoes, and they will never leave me. If you look in the classified, one of the guys in Texas has a trio for sale.

Also you keep your hoe's warmer that mine. I only let mine get to about 70 and drop the to 60 at night. Not sure if that will help but it was all that jumps out at me.

Click to expand...

Ah okay, Very awesome :]. Yeah I saw that, Not sure if they wanted to seperate that trio but I may ask.

Okay yeah I'm gonna try and bring that temp down, because I started with a high of about 75/76 Might have to raise my mercury vapor bulb up a bit or shift it more off the side of the cage. Thanks for all your help! :]

We can grow our hoes up together and trade babies. We can also pm back and forth. I get an alert when I have a new pm.

Are they T.Hoenelli Hoenelli (Kenya) or T.Hoenelli altaeelgonis (Uganda)?

They look like my T.Hoenelli Hoenelli. My guys are also eating 1/4 inch crickets free range in a repti-breeze small.

IMHO you should not feel guilty about holding them if they are eating. Each chameleon is different so as keepers, we need to be able to know when to adapt.

Jason

laurie said:

We can grow our hoes up together and trade babies. We can also pm back and forth. I get an alert when I have a new pm.

Click to expand...

That would be amazing! I will definitely be looking forward to this :] Thank you for the offer!

biffle said:

Are they T.Hoenelli Hoenelli (Kenya) or T.Hoenelli altaeelgonis (Uganda)?

They look like my T.Hoenelli Hoenelli. My guys are also eating 1/4 inch crickets free range in a repti-breeze small.

IMHO you should not feel guilty about holding them if they are eating. Each chameleon is different so as keepers, we need to be able to know when to adapt.

Jason

Click to expand...

Awesome Thats good to know. Thanks for the info. Do you have any live plants in the cage? Could I ask for a picture of your setup if its not to much trouble? I just get nervous with free range where He won't find them if theyre hiding under the plant bin I have in there... I I was thinking of putting a layer of screen across the top of the bin to make a false bottom at the base of the plant stalks where the crickets couldnt get past.

This is a pic of my hoeh raising cage. I have a bare bottom. Since its 72 in the room the crickets go right to the top next to the heat lamp. The Hoehs love to pick them off while basking.

This is a pic of my minors current cage. I keep the real and fake folliage away from the sides of the cage so that the crickets have no where to hide. I raised the pot to keep the crickets from hiding there.

kcbunique said:

Awesome Thats good to know. Thanks for the info. Do you have any live plants in the cage? Could I ask for a picture of your setup if its not to much trouble? I just get nervous with free range where He won't find them if theyre hiding under the plant bin I have in there... I I was thinking of putting a layer of screen across the top of the bin to make a false bottom at the base of the plant stalks where the crickets couldnt get past.

Click to expand...

biffle said:

This is a pic of my hoeh raising cage. I have a bare bottom. Since its 72 in the room the crickets go right to the top next to the heat lamp. The Hoehs love to pick them off while basking.

This is a pic of my minors current cage. I keep the real and fake folliage away from the sides of the cage so that the crickets have no where to hide. I raised the pot to keep the crickets from hiding there.

Click to expand...

Awesome! those both look great!. I think this weekend I'm going to rework my cage, I'll tell you though I can't find umbrella plants anywhere! I ended up ordering some clippings online to see if I can grow them but for right now they are only going to be 1 foot stalks. I feel like the tree I do have in there is too talll and raises up too high. I'd like more basking spots at the top than having the foliage cover all the light coming down. Thank you for your help I really appreciate it!

And he is a T. Hoehnelli Hoehnelli (Kenya)

Mind if I ask the size of both of your cages?

Hello!

Have you had your chameleon checked for parasites? This might be a reason or maybe some impaction. I would recommend taking him to a vet if the chameleon doesn't get back to normal within 3 weeks as malnourishment can occur.

Best of luck,
Richard

rf9661 said:

Hello!

Have you had your chameleon checked for parasites? This might be a reason or maybe some impaction. I would recommend taking him to a vet if the chameleon doesn't get back to normal within 3 weeks as malnourishment can occur.

Best of luck,
Richard

Click to expand...

Thanks! Made an appointment for next week for the best local exotics vet around, or so i've been told. I'll update when we get back.

New Setup:

Mine are each in a 16x16x20 cage. I have a ficus that touches all four corners of the cages. I have lots of small sticks going every which way. I cheat, my two have their own bathroom. The cages sit on 2 bars across the tub. Misters are 1 1/2 minutes twice a day and a dripper goes most of the day. I have a piece of fabric on the side of one cage, to block view of the other one, the rest of the cages are just open screen. My feeding cups are just plastic cups with the bottom cut off a screen gluded on the bottom. They are worthless for these little ones! As soon as I put crickets in they Jump out, and bean beetles? They go where every they want!!
Mine are doing great and I love them to bits.