feeding my young veiled chameleon

[rich]

hi people and cham lovers

iv'e had my first cham for about 3 weeks now, a young female veiled. i have been feeding about 8-12 crickets a day that are gut-loaded with pro-rep bug grub and fresh oranges.

today i got a red pepper, a butternut squash and a bag of kale, how do you feed these to your chams, ie what size and where to place in viv ??? all help will be great, and i know many people will have various methods but i want some guidance please

 

[Vic]

My Cham eats his veg out of a bowl most of the time, i do also hang some up with a peg.

 

[rich]

yea i use a bowl for feeding the crickets now because i have small bark substrate and i had seen her almost eat i small piece of bark with a cricket, a tip i found off this forum

but what about the butternut squash, how do you lot feed it ? can my cham (about 3-3 1/2 inch head/body) bite a piece of it ? do i need to cut it up very small ?

 

[Miss Lily]

You should remove the bark substrate - you've already seen her eat some. If she eats too much or a lump that's too big it may cause her to become impacted. Most keepers do not have any substrate at all to avoid this happening. The bark will also become damp with all the misting and it may get mouldy and smelly. Mould spores will not do your chams lungs much good either!

 

[rich]

ok calm down miss lily, i said almost eat lol.. thats why i use the bowl now, and since she has had some 100+ crickets from the bowl and 2 or 3 off the substrate. i understand why you say that because iv'e read lots threads say it can be a problem if a cham eats it (bark chips) but it can help hold some moisture from misting to maintain humidity, but not just all that its more natural ??? i not being careless and it has been changed twice



so any help with the butternut squash would be good !!!

 

[Vic]

I put the veg cut up in the bowl to instead of using his tongue mine will walk down and pick a piece up. You may find out like i did the bigger your cham gets the bigger the food my locust jump straight out now so the bark has had to go as my guy did start getting lumps stuck to his tongue. If your struggling with humidity i have at times used those soak up cloth's on the bottom they dont look as nice but they do the job and keep the humidity up

 

[jake01]

ok calm down miss lily, i said almost eat lol.. thats why i use the bowl now, and since she has had some 100+ crickets from the bowl and 2 or 3 off the substrate. i understand why you say that because iv'e read lots threads say it can be a problem if a cham eats it (bark chips) but it can help hold some moisture from misting to maintain humidity, but not just all that its more natural ??? i not being careless and it has been changed twice



so any help with the butternut squash would be good !!!

I would get rid of that substrate like Miss Lily suggested. Nothing on the bottom works well, or some well cleaned grass/turf. The substrate won't hold any noticeable amount of humidity for ur cham either that i can tell. The main concern is if a cricket gets out of the cup (it will happen), and ur cham goes for it on the floor and ingests it, u have a problem. Why not just avoid it now?

 

[Miss Lily]

ok calm down miss lily, i said almost eat lol.. thats why i use the bowl now, and since she has had some 100+ crickets from the bowl and 2 or 3 off the substrate. i understand why you say that because iv'e read lots threads say it can be a problem if a cham eats it (bark chips) but it can help hold some moisture from misting to maintain humidity, but not just all that its more natural ??? i not being careless and it has been changed twice



so any help with the butternut squash would be good !!!

I wasn't stressing, lol! Most people on here will tell you the same about the bark. Do you have live plants in the enclosure? They hold water droplets for the cham to drink from whe you mist and they are really good at helping to keep humidity up too. I use paper towels at the back of Amy's cage to catch the water that runs down the back.

 

[rich]

yes i did get a fiscus and umbrella plant, one of each. looks like the bark will have to go then

 

[rich]

any tips on feeding veg then ???

 

[CleaTheChameleon]

I don't know if the red pepper is good but i leave some Romanian lettuce in a cup and sometimes she does eat it. I will say try to feed her 4-6 crickets every day for now and when she hits 6 months feed her every other day. I feed my female chameleon Monday Wednesday Friday and Sunday and she is 7 months. As you feed her try putting in some of the veggies with the crickets so when she shoots for them she gets some veggies with her.

 

[rich]

ok thanks, did read a thread that said red pepper is ok and have today seen her eat a small piece !!! not sure now, but she has also eaten some butternut squash

 

[jake01]

I tried searching but came up empty. At approx what age is it ok to start trying to feed veileds some veg?

 

[Miss Lily]

They will eat veg from any age. Amy was already munching on her leaves when I got her at 12 - 14 weeks. They are all different though. Some eat a lot of veg and others won't eat any. Lily, my first veiled, only ever took one bite of a leaf, whereas Amy had eaten two 'umbrellas' off her plant within a couple of weeks!

 

[jake01]

I think my veiled eats umbrellas from my schefflera, but it could just be him snagging the water dropplets. Anyway thanks for the info going to try putting out some lettuce for him in his cup with crix.

 

[Miss Lily]

Try kale or wild rocket - lettuce has no nutritional value.

 

[jake01]

romaine lettuce has no nutritional value? i didn't write iceberg....i have no idea what wild rocket is either but ill google. i think perhaps this is classic USA vs UK diction confustion. over here lettuce is a general term for leafy salad greens of different sorts.

 

[Miss Lily]

You didn't specify which lettuce in your previous post. I do believe that Romaine lettuce is used. I prefer to use wild rocket - all the feeders seem to like it.

 

[rich]

still not seen her eat any kale but just got back from garden centre with this fiscus about 5ft £9.99 wow

 

[rich]

this fiscus !