How many crickets per day?

[OZZtin]

So I just bought this new veiled female and she basically will eat until there’s nothing in her cage. Idk wether to call her a juvenile or not but for the first like 2 or three days I was feeding her medium sized crickets which I thought might be wrong because they were a lot bigger than the distance from her left eye to her right eye, and she was eating like 15 of those a day and then she was kinda getting a little fat so I started buying small crickets and I swear if I put like 25 in her cage she would eat them all. So for now I put like 13 small crickets in a day and still seems like she’s hungry running around her cage. Just wanna know for her size how many is the average of her size need to eat so it doesn’t look like she’s running around the cage looking more hungry, or if she’ll do that anyway

 

[ZEROPILOT]

My 2 guys are about that size and eat 7 to 12 a day.
I don't know what "normal" would be. But a good appetite seems to be a good indicator of health.
Watch those plastic plants. Veiled chams eat leaves and mine have eaten several bites out of my POTHOS plants in the short bit of time I've had them.

 

[OZZtin]

Thanks for your fast reply. Ya she tried to take a bite out of the artificial plants when I first got her and haven’t seen her do it again. I just hope I’m giving her enough crickets without her feeling like she can’t sleep because she’s still hungry or something. That’s my main concern.

 

[kinyonga]

The dilemma with female veileds is that you want them to grow to adult size but if you over feed them as they reach sexual maturity they can produce large clutches as a result...and suffer from health issues too. (You do know that female veileds can lay infertile eggs without having been mated and you need an egglaying container in the cage at all times once she gets her big girl colours.)

 

[Gingero]

How much to feed your chameleon:

 

[Gingero]

Can you also fill out this form? And paste your answers. Looks like your husbandry could have some tweaks.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/

 

[OZZtin]

Ya I know she needs an egg laying container. Thanks for your reply. So is it pretty much a guessing game of how much to feed her and every chameleons different when it comes to feeding them crickets? I’ve searched a lot of different forums and I like this one and most sites give you completely different answers so I’m just like do I just see how she eats until it seems like she isn’t hungry anymore? It’s the over feeding and under feeding I worry a lot about. 13 small crickets a day seems fair, right? That’s not under doing it or over doing to me for her size

 

[OZZtin]

Oh sorry, I was just rushing to get an answer cuz I was super worried. I’ll pay attention to that thanks

 

[OZZtin]

Thanks for the YouTube vid. That helped me out a lot! I should’ve checked YouTube if anything. There’s literally hundreds of how to’s when it comes to chameleons

 

[Gingero]

Thanks for the YouTube vid. That helped me out a lot! I should’ve checked YouTube if anything. There’s literally hundreds of how to’s when it comes to chameleons

There are a lot of chameleon videos. BUT a lot of the info is wrong in my opinion.

Feel free to check out my chameleon YouTube channel. The info comes from this forum, the chameleon breeder podcast, my own personal experiences keeping chameleons, and other keeper’s experiences.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3n4S2GRkOGfk2U8-xhaw6Q

 

[OZZtin]

I’m tryna find a ficus plant that’s already grown cuz I heard it’s safe to eat the leaves off of them and trying to get a monsoon misting system going on instead of trying to spray her down cuz she’s always running away when I try to spray her. But yea I’ll definitely check out your channel for more info thanks

 

[Gingero]

Ficus is a great option. Just make sure you repot it and scrubbed it down to avoid introducing any pesticides or unknown substances into the enclosure.



I’ve never used a monsoon mister, but I’ve heard they can be hit or miss. Most people (including myself) use the mistking misting system.

 

[Tihshho]

If you're Cham is having an issue with a spray down then it won't matter if you're doing it or an auto system is doing it. What I've found works in these situations are the rain nozzles that are made for MistKing setups. They are a standard nozzle that are arranged differently and mounted on the exterior of the enclosure to spray against the screen from the top to create a rainfall effect. My Cham's responded much more positively to this!

I run a MistKing on my adults and subadults and they love the rain and are more reactive to drink when I'm around when the mister goes off. For my juveniles/babies I run a Monsoon and I have to say that I don't get as positive of an immediate reaction.

 

[OZZtin]

Yea the reviews on the monsoon are pretty terrible but it sounds like a hit or miss kinda thing so if it doesn’t work out I’ll have to end up getting a mistking

I had the zoo med reptirain for like a day and took it back because it wasn’t a fine mist which for some reason I thought it would be. She reacted fine to it and didn’t run away. I’d just rather have something that mist

 

[Tihshho]

The Monsoon is far from a fine most, just FYI.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I’m tryna find a ficus plant that’s already grown cuz I heard it’s safe to eat the leaves off of them and trying to get a monsoon misting system going on instead of trying to spray her down cuz she’s always running away when I try to spray her. But yea I’ll definitely check out your channel for more info thanks

There are large, grown FICUS and POTHOS at Walmart much less expensively than the Depot stores.
I got two 4' tall Pothos growing on posts. I know about the possibility systemic pesticides. So I swapped out the soil. And almost immediately both of my Veileds began taking bites out of the leaves.
Hopefully they'll be fine.
They seem to be.
I'm not sure if they are treated heavily. If at all. The Pothos I have outside never seem to get insect eaten. Just my tortoises and fish eat them when they can reach.