How much should a male veiled weigh?

[summoner12]

I have two male veiled chameleons. Jake and Fred. I recently moved them into new cages. They have not been eating very much since I moved them. I find them walking on the ground and screen a lot. Jake is now missing two claws. I put BNP ointment on the tip of his finger where the nail is missing. Do I need to do anything more than just dabbing some on?

The boys show no interest in the food I give them. I find fresh poo and I see Fred doing his business in the morning when I'm getting ready for work.

This morning I put two butter worms and about 6-8 med. phoenix worms in a dish in each cage. Jake and Fred both ate all of the phoenix worms. Fred ate both butter worms and Jake only ate one. I offered them more butter worms when I came home for lunch, they didn't eat them. When I got home after work I gave them more phoenix worms, they still haven't had any.

So this afternoon around 3:30pm I weighed both of them. They came in at 88 grams. Jake is 6-6.5 months old and Fred is maybe 6.5-7 months old. Fred has always been larger than Jake. Jake has recently caught up in over all size (maybe a little smaller but he had a growing spurt last month)

Tomorrow I have an appointment at the vet for some poop investigation and a check up for Jake.

 

[DarkRapture]

well, they're not full grown yet, but they do slow down on their eating when they mature. i feed my 5 month old as much as he wants and he consumes a few super worms, a butter worm and about 5-6 1/2"-full size crix. that's on a good day. when he eats less, he will usually accept food in the evening a couple hours before lights out. are they housed seperately? what are the cage sizes, misting freq., basking and ambient temps, uv source and supplements? do you turn off all lights/heat source at night?

 

[summoner12]

well, they're not full grown yet, but they do slow down on their eating when they mature. i feed my 5 month old as much as he wants and he consumes a few super worms, a butter worm and about 5-6 1/2"-full size crix. that's on a good day. when he eats less, he will usually accept food in the evening a couple hours before lights out. are they housed seperately? what are the cage sizes, misting freq., basking and ambient temps, uv source and supplements? do you turn off all lights/heat source at night?

They have their own cages. 24x24x48. They get lights from 5:30am-5:30pm. Misting is 7 times a day starting at 6am and going to 3pm spaced about every hour. basking 84-92ish and ambient around 72-84ish. I have dual reptisun 10.0 tubes and they can't get closer than 8-10" to the lamps. They have no heat at night except central air that is kept at 70-72.

 

[DarkRapture]

nice setup! it looks great

it sounds like you have things how they should. when they get older they do tend to eat a lot less...

are there any recent changes? i find that if there is more traffic or noise or changes in Marley's environment his appetite diminishes. i have heard that full grown adults eat half as much as growing youths, but it seems that they are still a bit young to be uninterested.

how are the poops? brown with white urates? do they have energy? they might just be slowing down in growth and don't require so much food... i know i don't have the best advice because my dude is only about 5 months.

do you have closeup pics of them? maybe someone else will have something more informative, but as long as they aren't getting really skinny i think that they are ok?

 

[AFH]

Misting is 7 times a day starting at 6am and going to 3pm spaced about every hour.

Is this new to them? Did you mist them this often in the old cages? My chams generally stop down during their misting and a few I have flee for dryer areas and it takes a while before they come back and drink, etc. I'm far from an expert, but raining on them every hour may be disrupting them from their "old" routine.

AFH

 

[summoner12]

Is this new to them? Did you mist them this often in the old cages? My chams generally stop down during their misting and a few I have flee for dryer areas and it takes a while before they come back and drink, etc. I'm far from an expert, but raining on them every hour may be disrupting them from their "old" routine.

AFH

The watering routine hasn't changed as far as timing... But my watering jets aren't in the same place... I think I need to rearrange them.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I think they had plenty to eat today!
I do think the misting is awfully heavy. I think they would do great with 2 ... maybe 3, 30 second to 1 minute mistings a day, timed 3 to 4 hours apart.
Do they each have access to a dripper?

-Brad

 

[summoner12]

I think they had plenty to eat today!
I do think the misting is awfully heavy. I think they would do great with 2 ... maybe 3, 30 second to 1 minute mistings a day, timed 3 to 4 hours apart.
Do they each have access to a dripper?

-Brad

I do not use a dripper. Fred used to take a shower almost every time the mister would run. Jake has never really liked water... but he does get under the mist sometimes.

 

[PardalisGirl]

Nice Setup

You have a very nice setup there. Everything looks great. I agree with Brad about the misting. Two times a day is plenty. Think about the location their species comes from. It takes some time to get used to a new cage. Also, I know you live in California, but you are still subject to seasonal changes. Most of my chams have slowed down in eating and activity level now that it gets dark outside earlier. They have great cage lighting but they still sense the change through windows, etc. Fecal tests are always a good idea if you have not had one done. Captive bred chams can have parasites too. Getting fecal tests done will give you a measure of peace. I'd like to see pictures of your boys too. Just to see them. There is no ideal weight for a male cham of any variety. There are too many variables. You can assess a healthy weight by looking at them. They should be filled out but not fat. Some can be a little more lanky than others and still be healthy. Weighing chams is a good idea if you suspect something is wrong. Tracking weight so that you can identify a real weight loss would be helpful in that case.

 

[summoner12]

So I took Jake to the vet today. They said he seemed pretty thin. We told the doc he wasn't eating and showed him the picture of out setup, the same I showed you above. He was impressed by my setup. I was going to bring in a poop sample but was running short on time and ran out the door with only Jake. So I will bring some poop in on Monday. The vet was also impressed with how strong Jake is for how thin he is. He sent us home with some baytril and a poop tube. He told us not to worry about the missing nails on his front feet because they would grow back.

here is a picture of Jake today.

I was wondering if anyone has a male veiled that humps their hand. Jake will walk around my hand for a bit, then he'll turn dark and hunker down and hold on tight and start to slide his body back and forth on my hand. I have to pry him off! Today he did this.. then I put him on the stick you see in the picture above and he paced back and forth trying to get to my hand. I would hold the stick from one end and as he would walk to my hand I would use my other hand to grab the other end of the stick and he would turn around and walk to the other end... back and forth until he got tired of it. He stayed fired up like he is in that picture the whole time. I asked the nurse about it and she said it could be a dominate act... not necessarily trying to mate. It got me thinking, would it be good to have a female for the boys to mate with even if I don't incubate the eggs? Maybe it might get some frustrations out?

This is a picture of Fred.

 

[summoner12]

Here is Jake humping my hand... it isn't as dramatic in this video. He was thrusting much more just before i was able to get my camera out. Also, watch his tail.