Baby Chameleon Food

[Shaner]

Hey All,

I just bought a new Ambanja Chameleon, he is only about 3" long max, right now I am feeding him twice a day and dusting his every feeding with Repti Calcium with D3 from Zoo Med.

Here is my problem, with the pet stores I have here, they don't stock 1/4" crix all the time, I just bought a batch of 500 last wednesday and they all died, I feel I have been ripped off but hey such is a bugs life, so I scramble by calling all of the petstores around that carry crix and am not always successful in finding these 1/4" crix. I have been lucky the past 2 times. But I want to know what else I can feed such a small guy?

Crix can't be the only staple food for the little ones can it? If any of you know of any other food I can feed him in case I can't get my hands on these crix it would be appreciated, and fruit flies are out of the question we can't get them at the pet stores here. I have even tried leaving out oranges and banana's to attract them but no such luck. We get alot of rain here, so leaving a water bottle with a paper towel in the bottle and some food doesn't even work.

Anything else I could do would be great. At least then I don't have to panic if I can't get any 1/4" crix.

Thanks
Shane

 

[chamboi18]

pheonix worms and butter worms are great foods high in calcium and come in small sizes and larger sizes also you dont have to feed them. you should't over do the dusting I recomend not dusting every feeding and esspecialy not pheonix and butter worms as they are already high in calcium

 

[mika]

If you feed the phoenix worms you would need to prick it.

Roaches are like crickets, great staple food & they can be gutloaded.

Silkworms are a great staple high in calcium. They come in very small sizes

If you want staple feeders, you need to find something that you can gutload.

Butterworms are fattening, I would not use it as a staple, more like a treat or just to add variety to the chams food. I don't believe you can gutload butterworms because they only eat the leaves from the Tebo Tree. I haven't tried gutloading them though.

 

[Shaner]

Thanks for the reply guys, much appreciated, any tips on giving the little guy some water? I am misting the cage once a day is that enough? I have never had a baby before so it is really cool and cute to have and I want to do it right.

I have not once seen him drink though from misting.

Any suggestions?

 

[Julirs]

You need to be misting 3-5X daily for up to or maybe even more then 5 minutes at a time. Once a day will not cut it and you will dehydrate the little guy. What is your set up like?

 

[Shaner]

I got the chameleon and the setup with lights and all at the Mississauga Reptile Expo on June the 15th weekend. I got it from a guy who works for Global Exotics Pets www.globalexoticpets.com if you want to check it out, he sold me everything that I needed and said the little guy would be good in this.

I have him in a Glass terrarium similar to the PT-2602 from exo-terra, the top is vented, and I leave the glass door open to keep air circulating in. I have a 32 Gallon Flexarium but I don't want to have to worry about him falling, and it is a bit too big for him for the time being.

I have a few vines in there for him to climb around on, he seems to be doing just fine, I don't think he likes the mist though lol he attempts to get to "safety" as fast as he can, and we all know that isn't very fast. But I will start misting him 3 - 5 times a day and see how that works out, de-hydration is what I was worried about and is the last think I want to happen to the little fella.

I hope that helps, oh he also has a 50W heat light and a 5.0 fluorescent light.

Thanks

 

[Julirs]

How do you think he might not get out if you leave the door open? I am sure he will be fine in the glass terrarium for now, but watch your temps, it is easy to overheat the glass cages not only causing dehydration but respiratory infections. I do keep 2-3 month old babies in 38 gallon Reptarium/Flexariums with no issues.
And just because people sell chameleons does not make them experts.

 

[Shaner]

noted and thanks for the help, I actually made a home made drip system and he is drinking from that like a champ, so I think I will be good with the watering thanks for your input it is appreciated. Also I only leave the door open when I am watching him for about 30 mins - 1hr a day I am responsible about it, I am just a rookie with babies, so please take it easy on me if I have done anything wrong, I am here to learn and grow with the lizard and see to it that it is healthy and has a good lifestyle.

Again though thanks for all your input.

Shane

 

[ChameleonsTree]

Check the humidity and add a dripper. If he drinks right away when you offer him water hes not getting enough. Also check his urates...are they white? Orange ones suggest dehydration.

 

[Julirs]

noted and thanks for the help, I actually made a home made drip system and he is drinking from that like a champ, so I think I will be good with the watering thanks for your input it is appreciated. Also I only leave the door open when I am watching him for about 30 mins - 1hr a day I am responsible about it, I am just a rookie with babies, so please take it easy on me if I have done anything wrong, I am here to learn and grow with the lizard and see to it that it is healthy and has a good lifestyle.

Again though thanks for all your input.

Shane

Shane you are here on the forum and asking questions and making adjustments and learning so you are a good chameleon owner in my opinion! Sorry if I was sounding harsh. We all had newbie growing pains. Do you have any pics of your little one? We love baby pics!

 

[Shaner]

I do but they are very large, I will see if I can post them.

 

[Shaner]

OK I managed to post some pics, they are fairly large as they were taken with a Digital SLR.

 

[Julirs]

Very pretty little one!

 

[peddro]

he's so cute!