How long can veileds go without food?

[CamrynTheCham22]

So, I ordered more dubia roaches, and then ran out that same day. It has been about 4 days, and I went to the pet store today and bought some crickets to see if I could feed them to my veiled, who is a year and a half old female veiled. I could only get two in the cage, which she ate both, but the package with my treasured roaches in it will probably be here on Monday!! Too long. So how long can my chameleon go without food? Poor girl, I never imagined this dilemma! Oh, and the worst part is that the only store in this area that sold roaches closed about a month ago! I can't find them anywhere but online and multiple cities away. Does anyone have easy ways to get the blasted crickets in the cage??
Also, this is an event that will never happen again, now that I've learned not to trust projected arrival dates
Gosh darn those crickets

 

[martyfrost]

my chameleon longest time without eating was about 3 days but thats cause she didn't wanna eat and its pretty much all up to a Cham but she'll be fine just not over a week or later and sure as soon as you get those roaches you give it to her

 

[Mawtyplant]

one of my chameleon was sick (wc with parasite) he survive 7 month with a single meal every 2 week (the meal was carnivore care in force feeding..) so.. this was a melleri..

I think this should be ok but I don't got veiled

 

[Mawtyplant]

is there any place you can buy canned food? like.. locust, cricket, silk canned from zoomed? just for now or the next time?

 

[blue_cham]

Not sure about length without food... But feeding crickets the first few times is a hell and a half, I remember it well.

Since you probably don't plan on crickets long term, the simplest solution I can think of: whatever conatiner you are keeping crickets in, place egg crate pieces (small pieces, one egg sized) or, my favorite, empty toliet paper rolls. Crickets will chill inside the carboard pieces and you can fish out the entire piece of TP roll or egg crate with fingers or tweezers.

To dust and get into cage, I'd recommend ziplocks. Anything plastic will make it hard for crickets to climb. Ziplocks are nice because you can narrow the opening to dump. Place TP roll into ziplock and shake the little buggers off. Add calcium and shake bag, then dump into cage.

I probably made that sound super complicated, lol, sorry and good luck!

 

[JapSolum]

so your main question is just how to get crickets In a cage? like @blue_cham said just pretty much dump them in.... dusting them is obviously preferred but if you're having issues with that, just dump them in the cage, most will climb up the cage to hang out by the lights which is probably where your cham is anyway. if she's hungry enough she will eat them if not then I'd say you have time to wait for the roaches. veileds also will eat fruits and veggies maybe you could try that in in a feeder cup just to get something in her system. just make sure you are getting her high vitamin/low phosphorus veggies or I'm sure there's a store somewhere that at least sells worms or something.

 

[CamrynTheCham22]

I actually refrigerated the crickets for maybe half an hour and hand fed about 9 to her real quick before they really knew what was going on. I am just glad I got something in her. Now I know what will be my fail-safe in case I don't have any roaches on hand.

 

[Miss Lily]

My first female Veiled didn't eat for 10 days before she laid her first clutch.

 

[CamrynTheCham22]

I only bough about 20 because I only needed them for literally a single feeding, and thank goodness I can have some peace of mind now that she has eaten. I had crickets long-term once before and looking back on it, I can't believe I ever started with crickets. At that point, I was a beginner and didn't know any more, but they freak me out and they escape everything! The roaches are just perfect for my cham and I, especially compared to crickets. I don't think Camryn cared, because she ate them without hesitation, but I'm glad the roaches will be here tomorrow. Thanks for the input everyone!

 

[blue_cham]

I never thought of flash cooling crickets Why haven't I thought of that?? I learned something new! Glad she has a food source until the Dubias arrive!

 

[VerucaSalt]

I hate the crickets as well, but feed them daily 8-12 with a mix of worms & roaches...

I take a small sandwich bagieb, with a little calcuim loaded already & my crickets come in longer plastic baggie... (If I think of it this am, I'll take a pic of how I do it)

It took a couple days but no escapes usually...

I just kinda form a 2nd air pocket in the crickets bigger bag, and hold it off from their gut load and water source, then shake into the small calcuim baggie and seal. (Then seal long bag too) .I just open small baggie in cage and shake on a hammock thing we bought mainly for feeding.

I'll take some picks when Gus eats tho, it's hard to explain lol.

I hated the crickets and spemt many nites searching for escapees and screaming when finding in the basement lol.

 

[Alexander1]

I had my veiled refuse to eat for about 2-3 weeks

 

[Mr. J hahaha]

Why don’t you breed the Dubai’s? It’s super easy and they breed quick. 1 female can produce up to 30 babies sometimes more. I ha e been breeding my veilds Dubai’s for 3 months now and I have hundreds. By the time I get my veild I should have close to 1k roaches. The only thing that sucks is to start a good colony going you need to start off with quite a few females cuz they can take up to 7 months to mature to breeding age

 

[CamrynTheCham22]

Why don’t you breed the Dubai’s? It’s super easy and they breed quick. 1 female can produce up to 30 babies sometimes more. I ha e been breeding my veilds Dubai’s for 3 months now and I have hundreds. By the time I get my veild I should have close to 1k roaches. The only thing that sucks is to start a good colony going you need to start off with quite a few females cuz they can take up to 7 months to mature to breeding age

Well I just do not have that much space, and I have them in a medium storage bin right now with a mesh feed dish and crystals for humidity and calcium as well as fresh greens. They have egg cartons and everything, but I just moved them into the bin with egg cartons a few days ago on Monday but I don't know if they'll start breeding. I know for a fact that I have at least one sexually mature male and female. I am just worried about the bigger dubias eating the nymphs. I recently checked in on them and I saw a very small dubia, but only one, so I thought maybe he just tagged along when I was sent the roaches. I don't know, but hopefully something happens.

 

[Mr. J hahaha]

Well I just do not have that much space, and I have them in a medium storage bin right now with a mesh feed dish and crystals for humidity and calcium as well as fresh greens. They have egg cartons and everything, but I just moved them into the bin with egg cartons a few days ago on Monday but I don't know if they'll start breeding. I know for a fact that I have at least one sexually mature male and female. I am just worried about the bigger dubias eating the nymphs. I recently checked in on them and I saw a very small dubia, but only one, so I thought maybe he just tagged along when I was sent the roaches. I don't know, but hopefully something happens.

I haven’t seen any of my adults eating any of the small babies. To start off that would be perfect to breed in. The only thing you need to add is a heating pad to get temps up to 85-88 degrees. A female roach will give birth every 2 months. If you can order more females and males. Have 3-5 females per male and that will get you going fast. I use a medium storage bin as well and I have a 10g tank that I will take out the feeders for my Cham. If you feed them oranges they breed faster for some reason. I feed my roaches a all natural dry mix roach food, oranges, strawberries, Roman lettuce, dandelion greens, and sometimes left over bread as a treat. You don’t need to go to the extent I do for feeding but I don’t mind as it’s good for the Cham and I already have all this food for my wife’s box turtle.

 

[CamrynTheCham22]

I haven’t seen any of my adults eating any of the small babies. To start off that would be perfect to breed in. The only thing you need to add is a heating pad to get temps up to 85-88 degrees. A female roach will give birth every 2 months. If you can order more females and males. Have 3-5 females per male and that will get you going fast. I use a medium storage bin as well and I have a 10g tank that I will take out the feeders for my Cham. If you feed them oranges they breed faster for some reason. I feed my roaches a all natural dry mix roach food, oranges, strawberries, Roman lettuce, dandelion greens, and sometimes left over bread as a treat. You don’t need to go to the extent I do for feeding but I don’t mind as it’s good for the Cham and I already have all this food for my wife’s box turtle.

Thanks for all of the info! I have been wanting to breed them for a while. They are currently in my garage where it gets pretty warm, especially during the day. It stays about 60 degrees outside at night, at its lowest, and the garage stays about room temp throughout the night. I will see how it goes without a heating pad and then if they are still not breeding I will probably go and buy one. I have quite a few dubias that are adults but not quite sexually mature yet. I just had one big male die which is unfortunate but the cycle is starting again, so I am glad. Thanks again!