letting her decide? or might this not be a good idea. pls help me out

[niels99]

since im getting my first juvenile veiled in a couple of weeks. i was wondering if the method i kinda invented would work and if any of you are familiair with it.

-when i get her, ill leave her in her cage for one or two days to acclimate.

-the following two days. ill try to hand feed her just to be sure she eats.(some crickets)

-the two days after that if she has not eaten ill force feed her.(ive done quit some research on that)

-if she has eaten, ill still feed her a bit from my hand but throw some crickets in a cup in her cage.

-as soon as i know she eats from the cup. ill put more then enough crickets in there and write down how many crickets she eats a day.

-doing that for a week, and then give her the average amount of crickets she has eaten a day per morning.

-when she is a lil bit older, ill try the same method with dubia's



please let me know what you think of this. and expect it to work.

i think this is a good way to know what is the best amount to feed your chameleon,.

im just a beginner, this is gonna be my first so im totally worthless when it comes to experience. so if this is a stupid idea just comment below. i wont get angry, only wiser

p.s.

as soon as i get her, ill give u guys pictures of her and her enclosure.

 

[wavingsnail]

No. Don't force feed her. I'm curious as to which part of your research made this seem like a good idea after two days of not feeding.

I'd also let her acclimate for more than two days. More like two weeks. Go about your business, let her get used to you doing basic cage maintenance and just being in the same room as her, but that's it.

You can determine whether or not she's feeding by cup feeding and monitoring for feces.

It's really that easy.

 

[Miss Lily]

It can take them several weeks to get used to new surroundings, cage and people. The chameleon will eat when it feels comfortable. You will be better off just leaving it settle in for at least a week whilst just carrying out the daily misting & feeding required and keeping your presence to a minimum. Force feeding will do more harm than good.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Welcome to the forums! It sounds like you've really been researching and want to have a good game plan. As others have mentioned, it can take them a bit longer than you'd expect to acclimate to new surroundings and get comfortable. A week would be the minimum in my opinion as well. Handling them can be a huge source of stress so it's much better to introduce that very slowly. Hand feeding is the best way to get them to feel safe around you but even that can take some time. If she doesn't eat for a whole week I really wouldn't be too worried. Reptiles' metabolism is much slower than mammals so while you wouldn't let a dog or cat go that long in the reptile world that is really not much to them.

 

[niels99]

ty for replying, i think ill just leave her in her cage for a week or two with plenbty of dusted crickets.

 

[niels99]

the daily misting & feeding required

you mist once a day? i was planning on doing three two min sessions per day. is that to much?

 

[KapitalJ]

you mist once a day? i was planning on doing three two min sessions per day. is that to much?

That will be fine. Just try to let the cage dry out in between misting.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[JaniP]

Welcome to the forum!

To echo what others have said, she needs more acclimation time than that and force feeding her on day 3 when she doesn't need it is a sure way to break trust for a very long time.

Can't wait to see her and her enclosure!

 

[jajeanpierre]

since im getting my first juvenile veiled in a couple of weeks. i was wondering if the method i kinda invented would work and if any of you are familiair with it.

-when i get her, ill leave her in her cage for one or two days to acclimate.

-the following two days. ill try to hand feed her just to be sure she eats.(some crickets)

-the two days after that if she has not eaten ill force feed her.(ive done quit some research on that)

-if she has eaten, ill still feed her a bit from my hand but throw some crickets in a cup in her cage.

-as soon as i know she eats from the cup. ill put more then enough crickets in there and write down how many crickets she eats a day.

-doing that for a week, and then give her the average amount of crickets she has eaten a day per morning.

-when she is a lil bit older, ill try the same method with dubia's



please let me know what you think of this. and expect it to work.

i think this is a good way to know what is the best amount to feed your chameleon,.

im just a beginner, this is gonna be my first so im totally worthless when it comes to experience. so if this is a stupid idea just comment below. i wont get angry, only wiser

p.s
as soon as i get her, ill give u guys pictures of her and her enclosure.

Oh my goodness, this is not a good plan.

Let's just look at this in a little more depth. Is this a captive bred baby veiled? Where are you purchasing her from? Why are you getting a female? Males are SOOOOOOO much easier, especially for a beginner. They don't lay eggs and that is a big problem for veiled females. It shortens their lives and ultimately they end up dying from a reproduction disorder. I wish no female veiled were ever born, it causes that many problems for so most of them ESPECIALLY in the hands of beginners.

Please get yourself a male.

The next issue is why would a chameleon, especially a young chameleon not eat? There really is only four reasons they don't eat: They are full and have already eaten enough; the prey items are inappropriate; they are sick; or, they are stressed. Since you are controlling what goes in the cage, we can probably eliminate the HE is full. Probably. You might not see him eating. I almost never see mine eating or drinking.

That leaves three other reasons. If you know the size of prey and type from whomever raised him, you can eliminate that problem. That leaves two reasons and neither of which are good. Stress is probably the biggest issue facing chameleons in captivity and causes the death of most of them excluding reproductive deaths. Chameleons are very robust when they are in their natural habitats yet very fragile in captivity, especially in the hands of beginners. Someone posted this and I think you should have a listen. I haven't finished listening to it yet but agree with what Bill Strand says.

http://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-6-chameleons-and-stress/

One of the reasons beginners end up killing their chameleons--I honestly don't believe they just die, but that they are killed by poor care even if it is unintentional poor care--is they don't have a good understanding of what normal looks like. They end up setting up enclosures that are stressful for their animal. They insist on handling the animals. Chronic stress leads to poor health because the stress hormones suppress the immune system. One other thing stress hormones do is suppress appetite, but not always. Sometimes a stressed animal will actually have an increased appetite. I've seen that response--eating will very stressed--in newly imported wild caughts and I mistook it for the animal doing well. (I watched a full grown mellers I thought looked gravid and who was completely black snap up quite a few grasshoppers at the importers. The eating suggested she was not stressed, but looking at her you could see her colors screaming she was really stressed out.)

If you have an new animal that is not eating, look to stress first. Find out what is wrong with the set up, because something usually is. Is it too hot (beginners often keep them far too hot in the day and don't let them cool down at night)? Is there enough cover for the animal to be able to feel secure. Is there enough water available in a way that this chameleon will take it. I can't stress that enough. A dripper in the corner for a baby won't cut it. I would never trust a chameleon to find its way over to a dripper, especially a baby. Mist many times a day. The younger they are the more vulnerable they are to dehydration and the less confident they might be to move around the cage. Don't count on them finding the water. They are not known for their problem-solving ability, especially when young.

Learn their natural history so you know where your chameleon is found in the wild so you know what kind of habitat they want. It's not all the same for each species or for individuals in the species.

Fear for their life is a huge issue for chameleons in captivity. Constantly being afraid they will be eaten causes incredible stress to the animal. If they don't have appropriate cover where they can hide and feel safe, they will feel exposed and stressed all the time. The younger they are, the more fearful they are naturally. As they grow larger, they gain more self confidence because fewer predators can eat them.

When you get your new baby, like everyone else who has something so new, so wanted and so exciting, you will likely keep peering in the cage or want to get him out. Who wouldn't? I feel exactly the same way, too. Buying new chameleons is like Christmas morning for me. I want to look at them, too, but when we do, we stress them. Predators have forward facing eyes--they stare at their prey, so just looking at them tells them you are hunting them. I used to breed Thoroughbreds and raised them on a big commercial breeding farm. I would go up to look at and photograph my yearlings several times a year. They were kept in a fairly large herd of same-sex yearlings. I would be in the middle of this herd of youngsters and they would all be gathered around poking at me and generally being pests, invariably blocking clear photos of the yearling I was trying to photograph. I found it incredibly fascinating that these domesticated animals who were not afraid of people or my camera would slink away and hide in the herd whenever I singled one out to photograph. If I stopped trying to take that one's picture, the one who had hidden from me would be in my face blocking my shots, but as soon as I focused back on them, they melted back into the herd. Only predators fix their eyes on a prey animal and these tame yearlings instinctively knew it.

Keep in mind, your baby chameleon thinks you are a chameleon-eating monster. It will do you well to always believe your chameleon thinks you are a predator who is just waiting to one day snatch him up and eat him. You will be a little slower and more cautious as you handle him throughout his life, which will only build up trust. Don't look directly at him--look at him out of the corner of your eye. Don't think of trust as a decision the animal makes, think of it as a bank account. Every time you stress the animal, you withdraw from that account. When you have interactions with no stress, especially if food is involved, you deposit into that account. You always want a big fat positive balance in your trust account.

If your new baby chameleon is unwell, it will not eat. That's the next step after you have really solved any stress issues unless the animal is giving obvious signs of illness.

Also, when you buy an animal in a store, they will likely be quite active and alert. It might simply be the stress that is making them alert. As soon as you put them in a safe situation where they are not on guard all the time fearing for their life constantly, they will allow themselves the luxury of crashing. That will be when you see the true health of the animal. They can fool even experienced chameleon keepers. An otherwise healthy animal might crash when you first get them, especially if it is a wild caught. That crash still needs to be addressed immediately so the animal doesn't continue their downward spiral. That's when you have to get creative with food (green active insects and flying insects are the most stimulating for a chameleon). Sometimes just getting them started eating--getting a few calories in and something in their gut--will start them back to eating.

Any time you handle an animal, you stress them because they are expecting death. If your animal truly needs force feeding, you need a good reptile vet to guide you. I hope this helped.

 

[Miss Lily]

you mist once a day? i was planning on doing three two min sessions per day. is that to much?

I mist twice a day unless we are having a really hot and dry spell.

 

[niels99]

Jajean Pierre ande mis Lily. Ty for replies. Really helps me. Im Super excited but Will be aware of the fact that im the Predator.( do Monkeys wat chams? My mother Always calls me a Chimp)

 

[jajeanpierre]

Yes, monkeys eat chameleons.