A few veiled questions and hello!

[KarmaMama]

Hi, I'm new!

I have had my first Cham for 6 weeks now and I have a couple of questions. I'm a fairly experienced herp keeper so I have a base knowledge and I'm enjoying the challenge of learning about my little guy. He has QUITE the personality.

First, is there a reliable way to determine his age? I got him from a rescue that took in a bunch of animals from a pet store that got shut down. He was less than 2 inches snout to vent. He was surprisingly healthy; I don't think he had been there long and was obviously very young. 6 weeks later he is about to have his 3rd shed since i got him. He is still mostly baby green but has lovely patterns and his gular pouch has vivid turquoise stripes!

Next, he is finicky and has begun to refuse dusted food. I've tried hiding his calcium in his veggies but he will chuck anything with powder out of the bowl. I gutload but I don't think that is a long term solution. It has only been a week of total refusal of dusted food but for the 2 weeks leading up to that he was getting pickier about it. What other options do I have? Liquid?

Finally, I'm not sure his feet are shedding well. He has great sheds--start to finish in a couple of hours. His poops look great so he is well hydrated. The thing is his feet are a different color than his body. I am worried he has layers of shed that haven't come off. The edge of the color change area looks slightly raised. I've tried to gently check it out but he doesn't like me to mess with his feet at all. I will try to get a good pic of his feet. It's not an obvious issue of retained shed---I'm just not sure. He had it when I got him.

 

[KarmaMama]

Here you can sorta see his foot situation, a couple weeks ago before his last shed. sorry for the bad pic...one of my hands is in a cast and it has been hard to get photos!

 

[heather89]

Cute! I'm not very experienced with shedding issues, but the feet look ok to me...

 

[xephyr17]

I don't dust my crickets, I just have them on a high calcium diet. He seems to do pretty good with that

 

[camimom]

I don't dust my crickets, I just have them on a high calcium diet. He seems to do pretty good with that

First, you should be dusting your crickets, there is no way to feed the bugs a balance enriched enough diet to avoid dusting. THis is asking for MBD to develop.

To the OP- the feet are fine, all veileds feet are a slightly different color than the body, its just how they are. in regards to the bugs and dusting, if you are dusting to heavily, they can and often are put off by the taste. you should be doing a very very light dusting, the bugs should only change by a shade or two, nothing more.

in regards to his age, the best thing we can do is guess based on size. from the pic you posted, he is probably around 4-5 months old.

 

[KarmaMama]

Thanks for your input!

I found an older photo that shows his feet better.

 

[camimom]

Thanks for your input!

I found an older photo that shows his feet better.

his feet are perfectly fine, thats just what veiled feet do. it will become less prominent as he grows up.

see?

 

[KarmaMama]

thank you! that totally makes sense about the feet. sometimes it just looks like unshed skin so I didn't want to have problems down the road.

I barely dust the crickets. barely. He is too smart for his own good. Maybe I need to try another brand of powder. I got a free sample of something with my last dubia order so I'll try that when he's done being Mr. Pre-shed Crabby McGrouchypants.

 

[camimom]

Yea chams get pissy when they shed as juvis.

what brand are you using?

Personally, I like repashy all in one calcium plus.

this makes it so i never had to switch between powders, and my chams are much happier with that than the other stuff.

and 5 chams and 11 crested geckos cant be wrong.

 

[Trace]

The pictures aren't very clear or not focused on the right area but I'm not necessarily seeing a tarsal spur, although it could be there. You may need to use the name Ms. Pre-shed Crabby McGrouchypants.

If you could get a picture of his/her back heels we can say for sure.

 

[Dagreek]

First, you should be dusting your crickets, there is no way to feed the bugs a balance enriched enough diet to avoid dusting. THis is asking for MBD to develop.

To the OP- the feet are fine, all veileds feet are a slightly different color than the body, its just how they are. in regards to the bugs and dusting, if you are dusting to heavily, they can and often are put off by the taste. you should be doing a very very light dusting, the bugs should only change by a shade or two, nothing more.

in regards to his age, the best thing we can do is guess based on size. from the pic you posted, he is probably around 4-5 months old.

Would I need to dust Phoenix worms when they have such an immense amount of calcium?

 

[camimom]

Would I need to dust Phoenix worms when they have such an immense amount of calcium?

I have never dusted pheonix worms because of that reason.

I dust the bugs that my chams are fed on a daily basis, whcih is crickets and dubias.

anything that i use for treates, which they get 1 or 2 bugs a week if that, i dont dust.

 

[KarmaMama]

I use RepCal for calcium.

Here's a old pic with his heel. I went up to take another and he ran away and hid in the back corner of his enclosure with some kale hanging out of his mouth. Sheesh, I wish he'd shed already.

 

[KarmaMama]

Yea chams get pissy when they shed as juvis.

what brand are you using?

Personally, I like repashy all in one calcium plus.

this makes it so i never had to switch between powders, and my chams are much happier with that than the other stuff.

and 5 chams and 11 crested geckos cant be wrong.

So with the repashy, is it mostly calcium so you can give it everyday and won't overdo the other vitamins? I've been additionally giving herptivite 1-2 time a week but it would be easier to just do one supplement so I don't forget.

 

[camimom]

So with the repashy, is it mostly calcium so you can give it everyday and won't overdo the other vitamins? I've been additionally giving herptivite 1-2 time a week but it would be easier to just do one supplement so I don't forget.

The repashy is formulated so that it can be given at every feeding.

the only time i ever gave anything else was to my females when they were producing eggs.

if you dont do repashy, the herptivite should be 2 times a month, not a week.

the regular schedule is:

calcium with no d3 every feeding
calcium with d3 twice a month
multivitamin twice a month

or repashy every feeding

 

[KarmaMama]

I will try the repashy with him. Thanks!! Hopefully he will take it. I wish it was easier to get samples. I hate wasting a bag.

 

[KarmaMama]

Did you see the heel pic up there? That's a boy, right?

 

[Trace]

Yes! I meant to reply yesterday but got busy doing other site business and didn't get back to it. Sorry about that. I just didn't see a significant heel in the previous photos and didn't want you to have any surprises with unexpected eggs down the line if he was a female.

 

[KarmaMama]

Yes! I meant to reply yesterday but got busy doing other site business and didn't get back to it. Sorry about that. I just didn't see a significant heel in the previous photos and didn't want you to have any surprises with unexpected eggs down the line if he was a female.

Yes I don't think we'd quite be up for that challenge yet. We just went through a whole spring full of anole eggs and hatchlings so we could use a break.