Introducing: Sterling Mallory Archer!

[leafling424]

My boyfriend and I finally broke down and bought a new chameleon after our first veiled female, Ernie, ran away. I never would have thought that I would fall in love chameleons! Three years ago we first took her home and fell in love with every little thing she did. After going 2 years without her, we couldn't take it anymore and bought Sterling from Backwater Reptiles.

He is SO tiny I can hardly believe it, but in very good health! His "birthday" is July 1, 2015 and has eaten 5 mealworms since then (fruit flies were delayed in the mail, so I grabbed some baby worms from my bin at work!). We chose a male this time because of the brighter colors, higher casque and especially the lack of eggs. I was so worried when Ernie laid her first clutch...

I've been refreshing myself on husbandry the past couple days and am resolved to have a tamer chammy this time around, which I'm optimistic for because he already seems so chill and relaxed. We are so psyched to be back at it!

 

[carol5208]

Hi and welcome back to chameleon ownership! So they sold you a chameleon that was 2 days old? I hope they are selling them to people with previous experience such as yourself, otherwise that is a poor decision on their part. Are you sure this little one is a male? I cannot tell from the pics if he has the tarsal spurs on his back heels. That is the only way to tell at this age, incase you are not aware of that. I would not just be feeding meal worms and would get him some pinhead crickets also. Make sure to dust with calcium with no d3 as I assume you already know about from having one before.

 

[Lathis]

Do you want ants?!? This is how we get ants!!! (Sorry, I couldn't resist, haha)

 

[leafling424]

So they sold you a chameleon that was 2 days old? I hope they are selling them to people with previous experience such as yourself, otherwise that is a poor decision on their part. Are you sure this little one is a male? I cannot tell from the pics if he has the tarsal spurs on his back heels. That is the only way to tell at this age, incase you are not aware of that. I would not just be feeding meal worms and would get him some pinhead crickets also. Make sure to dust with calcium with no d3 as I assume you already know about from having one before.

Thanks for the reply He is not actually two days old, as inferred by the quotes around birthday. It's just the day we received him. The company seems to be in good reputation so I am not not worried about that. Yes he is a male; has the tiniest little tarsal spurs you could imagine, but they're impossible to miss! Thanks for the pinhead reminder, I'll definitely pick some of those up as well..and yes, I do understand how to keep them healthy with multi vitamins and d3/no d3 etc.

However, I do have a pressing question! How do I make sure he is eating enough without stressing him out? I have a very small bowl in his cage now for his worms, but once the fruit flies and crickets arrive, how do I feed them to him? Fruit flies go EVERYWHERE, and crickets are hard to contain too. I have a hanging feeder made out of a milk carton w/ screen backing (for crickets) for when he is a bit bigger. I'm worried that he is too small and may fall in if I put it in now. With Ernie, I removed her from cage every day into a large Tupperware with sticks and fruit flies, but she became very distrustful even though she was eating her fill and I want to keep Sterling as tame and calm as possible. I feel that removing him would be a mistake. Do I just let them roam and he'll eat as he please? But then there's the dusting issue...it will all rub off of them throughout the day. I'll be doing more reading to see what others do, but any additional insight would be tremendously helpful.

 

[leafling424]

Do you want ants?!? This is how we get ants!!! (Sorry, I couldn't resist, haha)

Hilarious! Sterling has a built-in nose sound too! *boop*

 

[PascalsWager]

I'm glad to see you got another. Your story about Ernie was so sad.

Your new little guy is adorable! He'll be big in no time.

I'd try the pinhead crix, and see how he does. If he has any problems, break their legs and cripple them. One will do enough damage to keep them in a smaller area so Sterling has a better chance of catching them.

 

[carol5208]

You can just use a cup and suspend it from a branch for the crickets. About the size of a deli cup would work but something not too see through. If it is too transparent, he might shoot at bugs from the outside and injure his tongue on the cup. The flies can just be released and you would be amazed on how his little tongue will catch them! You could release the crickets also, but they do tend to hide and then come out at night and you don't want a bunch of them loose in the cage with the possibility of harming your chameleon. He should be able to eat atleast 25 small feeders a day. They are little eating machines! And yes, I was thinking that he looked older than a few days! I would say he is about a month old which is still too young to ship out in my opinion.

 

[sapphira80]

With Ernie, I removed her from cage every day into a large Tupperware with sticks and fruit flies, but she became very distrustful even though she was eating her fill and I want to keep Sterling as tame and calm as possible. I feel that removing him would be a mistake. Do I just let them roam and he'll eat as he please? But then there's the dusting issue...it will all rub off of them throughout the day. I'll be doing more reading to see what others do, but any additional insight would be tremendously helpful.

If you figure out a way to keep your veiled tame and calm during handling, please let me know! I thought maybe I was doing something wrong because, although mine will tolerate me now without getting stressed, gaping or "firing up" during feeding/cleaning, they are not friendly or tame in any sense of the word. I only handle them when I have to because they get so upset about it. But anyway, from my what I gleaned from research, veileds are just not that friendly, and are the most aggressive breed of chams, especially males. It seems like a few people get lucky with individuals that don't mind/like to be held, but they seem to be the vast minority.

So anyway, if you figure something out, let me know!