baby crickets

[chameleon884]

it seems ive accidentally bred crickets! today when i was cleaning out my chams cage i thought i saw a bunch of little ants crawling around. and then they started jumping! there were a bunch of little crickets crawling around. the only downside is that theyre to small for him to see. and ive heard they can hatch hundreds and thousands at a time. guess ill have a lot of cleaning to do ! plus there were a bunch of eggs still in there.

 

[pssh]

Do you have a substrate? They breed in damp soil like stuff.

 

[chameleon884]

substrate

yeah. i have calium sand. and it sometimes gets a little wet when i spray him.

 

[pssh]

Generally substrate is not recommended as chameleons have been known to accidentally eat some of it while shooting for insects. Some will even eat it on their own free will. Unfortunately it can cause blockages/impactions which may result in a dead chameleon without vet care.

 

[sarroca808]

cal sand gives the worst impaction for any reptile

 

[kinyonga]

You should get the calcium sand out of the cage before you end up with an impacted chameleon. If you move it to a rubbermaid type container you could raise the crickets there by feeding them.

I would recommend that you fill out the form in this thread so we can help you set up your chameleon properly.

 

[chameleon884]

sand

look im no chameleon expert or anything, but on the bag it had a list of reptiles that the sand is sutable for, and chameleons were one of them. it said that the sand is edible or whatever. if thats REALLY the right thing to do, then i guess ill take it out. but i just bought it like 2 weeks ago and dont really want to waste all the money, but ill see what i gotta do. thanks 4 the info.

P.S. ill try to post some pics sometime. i know that i havent been putting cal. on the crics. i dont really know what MBD looks like, except for the "double knee" it doesnt look like that. but ill try to post some pics of him.
P.S.S this is what my cham looks like
name: Dynamite
sex: male
colors: light blue, basically any shade of green, brown, white, tan, a little black on the stripes.
age: 8 months
species: Yemen/ Vieled (same thing, i think )

 

[chameleon884]

substrate

also, if i do have to take out the substrate, what should i put at the bottom.
or if i should put anything at all

 

[pssh]

A better substrate would be rocks too big to fit in his mouth and/or sifted organic fertilizer free soil. I like a bare floor or some paper towels myself as it's waaaaay easier to clean and the bugs can't go crawling around and get lost.

you should start dusting immediately with calcium without d3 at every feeding (lightly of course) and use a calcium with d3 two or so times a month and use a multivitamin once a month. Make sure it only had proformed sources of vit A. Also start to gutload the feeders with high clacium greens like dandelion greens, turnip greens, collard greens, mustard greens, endive, and escarole, Use other veggies like squash, carrots, celery leaves, sweet potatoes, yams, and sweet peppers. You may add some fruit if you like (papaya, orange, other citrus, apple, raspberries, blue berries, and strawberries.)

 

[chameleon884]

substrate

i might just put the organic fertilizer or paper towel. cuz actually when i first got him (bout 7 months ago. hes 8 months old now) we put rocks/ pebbles on the bottom but the water from the misting would drip down to the bottom and a little bit of mold would form on some of the rocks, i havent had any other mold problems luckily. but thanks for the info.