Brand new Baby :D

N

Nate278

New Member
Problem - She won't eat but I saw her eat in the cage she was kept in at the breeder's house. I need suggestions to get her to eat.

So yesterday I got a new baby chameleon.. I haven't come up with a name for it yet but she's about 2-3 inches long. From what I see, she's extremely active and moves around a lot. I got (Im going to assume her to make it easier) from a friend who breeded two chameleons. I saw her ate it the cage she was enclosed in but as soon as I got her home to feed her, she didn't eat at all! I'm feeding her wingless fruit flies. Any suggestions to get her to eat? I'm pretty stressed out over it.
 
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“She” is stressed out over the whole situation too. Chams are not a big fan of change. Give her a few days and she will relax and eat. This is totally normal Cham behavior, no need to stress.
 
But to make sure your Cham is getting everything it needs from both you and her viv can we review your husbandry? Can you please answer the questions below and post pics of your Cham and viv?

Chameleon Info:

◦ Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?

◦ Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?

◦ Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?

◦ Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?

◦ Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?

◦ Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?

◦ History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.


Cage Info:

◦ Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?

◦ Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?

◦ Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?

◦ Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?

◦ Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?

◦ Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?

◦ Location - Where are you geographically located?


Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.


--------------


Please Note:

1 The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.

2 Photos can be very helpful.
 
Thanks for the response! I realized the title thing after about an hour of no response and I wasn't able to edit the title.
 
Chameleon Info:

◦ Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Veiled Chameleon, Sex unkown, Currently 3 weeks old.

◦ Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Well, I've probably handled her twice since I got her yesterday.. both times were taking her out to try and feed her and putting her back in.

◦ Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? I'm trying to feed her wingless fruit flies at the moment and it's hard to see when she eats it if she does.

◦ Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?

◦ Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? I mist the cage 7-10 times per day for about 30sec-1minute and from what I can see no, I can't see my chameleon drinking.

◦ Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Since I just got her yesterday I can't answer this question.

◦ History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. (I have none)


Cage Info:

◦ Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Screen, Wood around the edges.

◦ Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? This is my mothers pet, not mine. I'm just the guy who does the research and I forget what bulbs I got. I do know that I looked at a caresheet online, and got what it said and i also asked around in the pet store.

◦ Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? The cage floor temperature is about 75 degrees, and the top is about 81.6. The lowest overnight temp is nothing under 73 and I measure with a digital thermometer since they're more accurate than the cheap plastic ones you find at the pet store.

◦ Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? Humidity levels are about at 50-61%. I create and maintain these levels by spraying the enclosure 7-10 times per day.

◦ Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? Yes, I am using one Golden Pathos and one Hibiscus. The others are fake (WITHOUT SILK)

◦ Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? The cage is located in a room that my entire family goes into atleast once or more times a day. There is an air vent but it is being blocked by a dresser right now so it's not really close to it. The top of the cage is about 3 feet off of the room floor.

◦ Location - Where are you geographically located? Northern Ohio, Summers are warm Winters are cold.


Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

Well, earlier my Chameleon wasn't eating and about 3 hours after I posted this I saw it eat about 2 fruit flies. How many fruit flies should one 3 week old chameleon eat?

Picture of the viv (I know it is quite bare right now I'm working on buying more plants to put into the enclosure Also, that red basking light is getting replaced TODAY! We got it for temporary use and we will just be getting a normal basking bulb.) -
IMG_3520.jpg
IMG_3521.jpg
IMG_3519.jpg
IMG_3522.jpg

Pictures of my Chameleon -
IMG_3523.jpg
IMG_3514.jpg
IMG_3515.jpg
 
Not nearly enough plants and coverage in there. That's why she is so stressed. In order for her to feel safe she needs to hide in plants as high as her cage. Chameleons live in trees. It looks like it will be a great enclosure for her once you fill it up.
 
Here are my comments on how to improve your husbandry:

(1) Handling: You do not need to (and should not) handle her during feeding. Since she is so young and so new to your care, she is only going to be stressed out by you forcing her to be handled. Stressed out chameleons are less likely to eat. She needs a couple weeks of acclimation before even thinking about handling.

(2) Supplements: You left this field completely blank, which is pretty concerning. You know they are very sensitive and require very specific supplement regimens, right? You will need to dust her food with calcium powder w/out vitamin D3 at every feeding, with calcium+Vitamin D3 twice a month, and with a multivitamin twice a month as well. Just in case you weren't aware of this, this is a bare minimum requirement for longterm survival and health

(3) Misting: While it's great that you're misting so many times a day (the more the merrier), you are not misting for nearly long enough for her to reap the benefits. Chameleons need multiple daily mistings of at least 2-3 minutes, which is the average amount of time it takes to stimulate them to drink. I highly recommend investing in a MistKing for your own convenience and sanity.

(4) Lighting: Please check on what type of lights you're using... Pet stores are very bad sources of information when it comes to chameleon keeping, unless they specifically specialize in chameleons. From the looks of it, I think both your lights are actually the wrong choice. The basking bulb should not be red. Chameleons are very color sensitive and should only have white lights for basking spots (a regular household incandescent is all you need). And then does the other dome hold a compact UVB? If so, that one needs to go ASAP. For UVB (and forgive me if there is one of these that I just can't see in the pics), you need to be using a linear model. The compact ones do crap jobs of evenly distributing UVB and, especially with how young this girls is (dangerously young to have been sold to you if we're being honest), she will receive no benefit from the one you currently have.

(5) Cage setup: This is the biggest problem you have right now. The cage is not setup suitably for a chameleon. She needs many, many, many (I can't emphasize this enough) horizontal branches/vines/walkways at all levels of elevation in the cage - but especially in the top half. Chameleons are arboreal and need to be up as high as possible to feel comfortable and also need many options for moving around all 3 dimensions of the cage. This is probably why she is upside down in those pictures. She doesn't have enough options to feel comfortable.

And along those lines, she needs places to hide, which she is currently lacking. The live plants you have are great, but there are doing no good sitting in the bottom of the enclosure like that. Unless she can use them to climb and hide (high up in the cage), then they are good for little more than aesthetic purposes - which your cham does not care about. Some taller plants would do you good (ficus or schefflera are personal faves) and fill out the enclosure much better. As for horizontal walkways, I would recommend buying/finding branches (hard wood is good for filing down their nails) and attaching them with thumb tacs/garden wire/zip ties.

Really cool cabinet-to-chameleon home build, btw!
 
A lot of constructive criticism coming your way. Understand that none of it is said to put you down, chams are difficult anamals to care for. We are only trying to help you give your Cham the proper care he needs.
 
Another thing is that you could use a little cup to feed your chameleon. Mine never eats in front of me so I had to go through the concern and frustration of not knowing if he was eating or not for a couple of weeks too when I first got him. Now I usually have to leave the room for him to eat. By using a feeder cup you'll keep his food contained in one place and also be able to track his eating.

Edit: I've never had to deal with fruit flies. Not sure if they'd be able to get out of the container or not. Someone with more experience could confirm this :)
 
andrearamirezo91 said:
Another thing is that you could use a little cup to feed your chameleon. Mine never eats in front of me so I had to go through the concern and frustration of not knowing if he was eating or not for a couple of weeks too when I first got him. Now I usually have to leave the room for him to eat. By using a feeder cup you'll keep his food contained in one place and also be able to track his eating.

Edit: I've never had to deal with fruit flies. Not sure if they'd be able to get out of the container or not. Someone with more experience could confirm this :)
Click to expand...
Given how small your cham is and how big of an enclosure he is in, he is going to loose track of them pretty easily if they are not in some type of feeding cup. I have a bunch of hatchlings right now and what I do is put some calcium powder in a tall cup and put the flies in there. Shake well and then pour them into your feeding cup in the viv. When the flies come out they are totally white, it makes them stand out and the chams can track them way easier.
 
And the mirror is not good for them. They think they see another cham and can stress them out. Went threw that problem with my other set up. Til someone told me that can cause issues. So that can be it too. Try a matte finish spray. Or scuff the mirror up.
 
andrearamirezo91 said:
Another thing is that you could use a little cup to feed your chameleon. Mine never eats in front of me so I had to go through the concern and frustration of not knowing if he was eating or not for a couple of weeks too when I first got him. Now I usually have to leave the room for him to eat. By using a feeder cup you'll keep his food contained in one place and also be able to track his eating.

Edit: I've never had to deal with fruit flies. Not sure if they'd be able to get out of the container or not. Someone with more experience could confirm this :)
Click to expand...
I read that you can use Vaseline around the top portion of a cup will keep them from crawling out of the feeding cup
 
jagmom98 said:
I read that you can use Vaseline around the top portion of a cup will keep them from crawling out of the feeding cup
Click to expand...
Don’t put Vaseline in your cham’s enclosure or feeding cup, only in the feeder bins to make sure none escape. There are no escape feeding bowls and jugs
 
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