Help completely New to this

[Karajs]

Hey

We got out Chameleon Friday, he is about 14 weeks old.
He has all that he needs in his cage.

But I suppose my real question is do people have a routine with theirs??
How many times are you feeding!?

We are feeding twice a day and spraying water a few times a day keeping his cage and plants nice and wet!!

Have looked all over the Internet for tips on the best care, so any advice welcome

 

[Wowbango]

Welcome to the forums and congratulations on your new addition! The care sheets on this website are a great source and provide all the specific information on caring for your chameleon depending on the type you got. Take a look!

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/

 

[junglefries]

Hey

We got out Chameleon Friday, he is about 14 weeks old.
He has all that he needs in his cage.

But I suppose my real question is do people have a routine with theirs??
How many times are you feeding!?

We are feeding twice a day and spraying water a few times a day keeping his cage and plants nice and wet!!

Have looked all over the Internet for tips on the best care, so any advice welcome

Following a routine helps them trust you. I wear the same colored shirt, same cleaning utensils, paper towels, misting bottle, etc.... the same time(s) of the day. Nothing varies. They somewhat learn to gauge you as a minimal threat after time. I go so far as to slide a clean cage bottom under the dirty one. Then slide out the dirty one, so I don't have to get all up in there while cleaning. You'll pick up tricks as you go.

Babies and youngins' eat more than adults. I feed my babies maybe 5+ times a day. You can tell when they are still hungry. I feed my adults maybe 2-3 times a day. Lots of things factor into feeding: size and variety of prey, gravid females, breeding males, soft bodied vs hard bodied prey, etc...

 

[perkinschammie]

Routines

Usually, with my three I have a process. I hold them around the same time each day, I feed them around the same time, I mist them in hourly intervals, etcetera. Depending on the age of the chameleon is how much it will eat. For instance, my 3 month old boy Zeke eats as many crickets as we can feed him, which is perfectly fine. You don't have to worry about overfeeding until about six months of age, as they are still growing and need food to grow. Be sure to dust your crickets with calcium and gutload them with greens. My female, before she laid her eggs, would eat a lot, mainly because the eggs were absorbing nutrition from her. When she's not pregnant she usually eats about ten large crickets a day.

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the world of chameleons!
Do you know about supplements, appropriate basking temperatures, proper feeding/gutloading, UVB light?

 

[Swiftchameleon]

I feed mine twice a day at the same time every day. When my veiled was a baby he ate around 15 crickets a day. Now he eats 10 each day at 7-8 months old. I mist him at 7am, noon, and 3pm. I also use a timer for the lights so they go on and off at the same time so it doesn't matter wether I wake up at 6am or noon.

 

[Karajs]

hey guys thanks for the replies

JoJo (named by my 5yr old lol) is a Yemen born in July we were told at the pet shop.

He has his two lights a nice spot for basking, it's all on a thermostat and he is on a timer so 12 hours on 12 hours off (6.30 am - 6.30pm). I'm feeding him at the moment every morning and then late afternoon, but a few days I have done 3 times but then he seems to leave a few?? I'm gut loading his crickets and we've dusted once. How many times do you dust??
We've just brought him a live ficus plant today which he had a climb on out of his cage and he within minutes really went bright green and yellow!? Which I'm reading means he was very happy?

I've not really done too much handling at the moment as I wanted him to settle in and see how he coped being in the quieter end of the room but still noise with my kids as I've read they don't do well with lots of noise, so we do have a reserve space for him but so far he seems to be going ok. But when I have had him out on me I've made sure it's around the same time along with everything else we are doing

 

[Swiftchameleon]

hey guys thanks for the replies

JoJo (named by my 5yr old lol) is a Yemen born in July we were told at the pet shop.

He has his two lights a nice spot for basking, it's all on a thermostat and he is on a timer so 12 hours on 12 hours off (6.30 am - 6.30pm). I'm feeding him at the moment every morning and then late afternoon, but a few days I have done 3 times but then he seems to leave a few?? I'm gut loading his crickets and we've dusted once. How many times do you dust?

Every feeding with calcium, 2x a month calcium with d3, 2x a month with a multivitamin