Feeding and Drinking Schedule?

[Spencejah]

How often should I be feeding my chameleon? It's a Jackson's chameleon. I'm not sure how old, but we've had it since Christmas. It's my brother's and I was gone for college and now I've been back for summer and basically the one that takes care of her.

I live in Hawai'i and have a fairly huge backyard right next to a huge gulch. I think many of you may be opposed to grabbing insects from outdoors and feeding it. Well, that's what I do. I just grab roaches from our backyard. We don't spray pesticides so there shouldn't be any problem with that.

But for the past week or two, I've been feeding her about 3-5 cockroaches every day. Only the past few days, have I been dipping the roaches in some kind of calcium powder that I just found my brother had bought and now she only eats two or three roaches at a time.

I would assume that she should be drinking water at least once a day? But she seems to only want water after she's had a roach or two.

So uhh, yeah. What's a good amount to feed and how often? Daily?

 

[kplatvoet]

Be careful with the calcium powder your feeding it - check the Jackson's care sheet you can kill it by dusting too much -

 

[Andee]

She should be misted (which is how they drink) every three-four hours for 2 minutes at least. Or until you are sure the cage is thoroughly dry and then you mist it. But I would just stick to the schedule. This is why I have the auto mister XD But drinking once a day is definitely not enough for a cham. Also no water bowls in the cage, in case you have one. Have you seen her fecal recently? Can you describe the coloration of it?

 

[Zen]

Feed the chameleon calcium every other day with around 7-10 crickets each day mist or squirt the cage whenever u find it dry. the more moisture the better.

 

[Olimpia]

What kind of calcium supplement? What's in it? Just calcium, or calcium and...?

How much are you coating each roach in the calcium?

Jackson's don't tend to be as gluttonous as other chameleons species, so if she's full grown she may just not be super interested in a lot of food (especially if they are large roaches). But you may be coating the bugs too much, which she finds distasteful. A fine powdery film is good enough, they don't need to look solid white.

Jackson's are all very high water-lovers. If she's in an outdoor cage I would be hooking up a hose to a sprayer or something and really let it shower for long periods of time. At least 10 minutes a couple times a day, with shorter periods throughout. One area of the cage can stay dry throughout the day but she should have access to water often, especially on hot days.

 

[Spencejah]

It was Fluker's calcium with Vitamin D. Turns out my cham was pregnant so maybe that might explain some of her changes in eating habits?

 

[Lovereps]

It was Fluker's calcium with Vitamin D. Turns out my cham was pregnant so maybe that might explain some of her changes in eating habits?

Yes, it sure does explain the appetite change.

Extremely important to know is to not use Fluker's calcium with Vitamin D3 more often than once a month for a Jackson's.

She should have calcium dusting without D3 most often--every other feeding is good.
She also should have her feeders dusted with a multivitamin 1x each month.
Jackson's are very easily OD'd with D3 and multivitamins, so don't do those more often than recommended.
Please get her the calcium without D3 without delay, as she must need the calcium even more now, after giving birth.

Here is a nice caresheet for Jackson's, that you may find helpful:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/jacksons/