How does Max (veiled) look?

[Steve A]

How does Max look? Generally speaking. I've gone over her husbandry with some awesome people on here. Ty so much. With that being said, last week she started (and I believe is finished) shedding. Since then, her appetite hasn't been the same. She seems to have lost interest in crickets, I bought Dubia roaches which she seems uninterested in (they.may also be too big), and she has eaten some BSFL if I place them in front of her. I moved her dish over to where she likes to hang out so she eats the BSFL. with that being said I believe she ate a good amount the other day but it doesn't really look like she has since then.

Side note: she seems to be extremely distracted by houseflies outside the cage. So I caught a couple of them and she literally rums across the cage to eat them. Pretty quickly. She seems to get real excited over them. So I wonder if it has to do with that.

 

[Lindasjackson]

Can you attach a picture so we can see your Cham?

 

[Steve A]

Can you attach a picture so we can see your Cham?

I did but they didn't show up at first I'm sorry. They're up now. Trying to get more but she's being shy. It's almost time for her to sleep lol

 

[Lindasjackson]

I’m going to tag in a couple people because I don’t keep veilds.
@MissSkittles @Beman

 

[Steve A]

Can you attach a picture so we can see your Cham?

Ok I attached more pictures. She got really mad at me lol As you can see in the pictures. But I think those are better.

 

[MissSkittles]

She does look a bit thin. Getting the correct sized feeders is super important. You may need to order some as most of the pet stores don’t carry really small crickets and other feeders. It’s better to have a bit too small than too big. It takes a bit of time, but if you let the bsfl pupate, they turn into fun flying treats. I don’t know if you have a Pet Supermarket near you or if all of their stores are offering the same, but I was so surprised earlier today to see they are now carrying roaches (discoid since I’m in Florida).

 

[Steve A]

She does look a bit thin. Getting the correct sized feeders is super important. You may need to order some as most of the pet stores don’t carry really small crickets and other feeders. It’s better to have a bit too small than too big. It takes a bit of time, but if you let the bsfl pupate, they turn into fun flying treats. I don’t know if you have a Pet Supermarket near you or if all of their stores are offering the same, but I was so surprised earlier today to see they are now carrying roaches (discoid since I’m in Florida).

I've always been getting the same crickets, and some of them are still pretty small but I don't see her eating those either. With that being said, maybe I will let these guys go and just get some really small ones in petsmart to see if that makes a difference. It is possible they're growing fast because I am feeding them + giving them the cricket water gel stuff. She doesn't seem to get overly excited for the BSFL either though. I know they'll pupate, I put some in the plant pot in hopes they will hatch and she will eat them.


With that being said.... is it possible they've been hatching and she's been eating them? I have yet to SEE that happen. Not sure how long it takes for them to pupate then hatch as flies. But at least some of them have been in there a couple weeks now.

It is also possible shes been eating the remaining free roaming crickets. Although I recently added the shooting gallery (she used it the first day she got it... now I havent seen her go back to it), and then cleaned most of those out. I just added the cricket feeder too and they're just hanging out in her face and she doesn't seem to be eating them. Although she may have eaten a few today. I didn't get a good count.

As far her being skinny is concerned...there are times shes all puffed out and bigger looking lol and then sometimes she shrivels up like this. But shes not always like this. idk... its so hard to tell. On one hand I am extremely worried. On the other hand, I wonder if I am going in there too much to check on her (I've been changing her habitat a bit lately to improve it... and then some more to help her eat....).


She's also home all day by herself so I just don't know what to think right now.

 

[MissSkittles]

On the other hand, I wonder if I am going in there too much to check on her (I've been changing her habitat a bit lately to improve it... and then some more to help her eat....).

This may be the problem. Chameleons don’t like change very much and if you’re going in and moving or adding things daily, no matter how small of a change, it’s going to bother her. Let things be for a few days and let her settle down. Hopefully that will get her eating better. When making any changes, it’s best to save them all up and do all at once.

 

[Steve A]

This may be the problem. Chameleons don’t like change very much and if you’re going in and moving or adding things daily, no matter how small of a change, it’s going to bother her. Let things be for a few days and let her settle down. Hopefully that will get her eating better. When making any changes, it’s best to save them all up and do all at once.

Thank you. With that being said should I go to petsmart and just get some really small crickets and throw them in there and remove the other ones? Or do you think I should flat out leave her alone with what she has? She has about a dozen BSFL in her dish, and then maybe 8-12 crickets and some dubia roaches in her feeder.


Perhaps I should release the crickets I have in my cricket carrier... refill with smaller crickets. gutload them tomorrow and then feed her them sunday?

 

[Steve A]

@MissSkittles Slight update. So leaving her alone did not go as planned. We kind of had an emergency situation with a bunch of water at the bottom of her cage in the substrate bin. I had some things ready to set up her cage so that her plant would be resting on a wire rack, instead of the upside down plant pot. This way I can easily pull out the substrate tray whenever I need to. So, I pulled Max out of her cage, and put her on the Ficus plant while I fixed this around (which.... she seemed to like? She legit seemed to be in a better mood hanging out there while I worked on her cage lol..). Now the water is gone, and after I fixed everything up, she ran over to her shooting gallery and ate a cricket. She only ate one, then walked away. I refilled her BSFL tray, and put some dubia roaches in a bin at the bottom of her cage on the wire rack. So now I'll have a better gauge on how much she is eating soon. Tomorrow will be the day I completely leave her alone except for turning her lights on/off. She was climbing the roof of the cage a lot today until I fix this stuff today. Now shes back hanging around the vines and the pothos. I moved her heating lamp because the temps are in the mid 70s with the lamp far way, at minimum anyway, and I don't want her to burn herself.

 

[Steve A]

@MissSkittles I had to manually turn on her mister because I made adjustments to it earlier and it just needs the first time to be manual. So I got some pics of her real quick. She seems happy/content?? I moved up her branches a little bit earlier because I wanted to deter her from climbing to the top of the cage. Looks like it's working so far. I had moved them down trying to be perfect with recommendations of distance from the lights, but I'm starting to feel like I need to make some adjustments for Max as an individual. I feel like she has showing me her on preferences.

 

[MissSkittles]

It’s impossible to tell if they’re happy or not as we think of happiness. I think happiness for a chameleon is contentment of having everything it needs, being healthy and feeling secure. The best we can do is try to read their colors and body language. She looks relaxed so one could assume she’s content. She could use some more branches, but as I said earlier, make whatever changes you need all at once and then leave her alone. I know all too well wanting to add or change something, but we need to let that urge go and save the changes.

 

[Steve A]

It’s impossible to tell if they’re happy or not as we think of happiness. I think happiness for a chameleon is contentment of having everything it needs, being healthy and feeling secure. The best we can do is try to read their colors and body language. She looks relaxed so one could assume she’s content. She could use some more branches, but as I said earlier, make whatever changes you need all at once and then leave her alone. I know all too well wanting to add or change something, but we need to let that urge go and save the changes.

Thank you. I will wait a couple days and then add a few more branches and then leave it as it is from there.

 

[Steve A]

@MissSkittles so I think I figured out what was wrong. I think I made a mistake reading your recommendation for her basking area by turning that down to about 80f. After doing a bunch of research it looks like I should be doing that when she gets older. I raised her basking Temps back up to mid 80s-low 90sf and since then she's been doing much better. Shes eaten last 2 days. Today I even came home to her hunting in her shooting gallery