Lief is growing up!

[stephga]

He has had his first shed (since I've owned him), and survived the care of my husband while I was out of town...so, I thought some pics were in order! LOL

I have no idea how old he is, but I feel like maybe he is a bit skinny. And, his eye turrets look sunken to me. He never drinks, that I have seen. He hates the shower, so that has always been a fail. I have just ordered him some silks, hornworms and some dubia roaches. Up to now he has just been eating gut loaded and dusted crickets from my local chain pet store, calciworms occasionally and superworms now and then.

Anyway, here he is

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[kimbad93]

I would like to warn you that you should never feed your litte guys super worms. there has been cases were the worms were not successfuly chewed and actually ate their way out of the chameleons stomach. killing them. most people dont know about this and if he isnt drinking enouph get some leaves that would cup water nicely and spray them with a mister also the glass. the little one will lick it off the glass hope that helps.

 

[stephga]

I have heard that, but thought it was a myth... We feed them to our bearded dragon, but will probably skip them once we add all of the other feeders that I mentioned.
I have an umbrella plant and a pothos in his enclosure, with an aquazamp rain dome. I don't have any glass to mist, but the plants get lots of good drips on them when it "rains".

 

[Tanner Grisak]

Do you have a water dripper to use during the day? If not get one and let it drip about a drip every second onto your plant leaves.

 

[stephga]

Do you have a water dripper to use during the day? If not get one and let it drip about a drip every second onto your plant leaves.

I don't...okay, I will pick one up when I go out to get crickets. So dripping all day and misting every 3 hours from 8-5 sound okay?

 

[Tanner Grisak]

Yeah that would def help but also leave your lights on to match the hours of sun outside

 

[stephga]

I was under the impression that I should leave his lights on for about 12 hours a day. Here is is getting light at 7 and dark at 9. Is that too much?

 

[stephga]

He is loving his worms, and now seems to have no interest in crickets. I can't get him to eat the Dubias. I will try again in the morning when he is hungriest.

 

[bugboy]

Wow.........where do I start haha? Probably the best way to begin would be to tell you that you are doing fine. Everything sounds good, even the foliage he's hanging on looks perfect. Just wanted to clear that up as it seems you've been bombarded with some information that might steer you to think otherwise. He looks good to me, and if you are nervous that he may be dehydrated just check his urate. If it's white or close to white, he has plenty of water. If it's orange or yellowish, you can offer more water. If you have a misting system there is no need to add a dripper. You can if you want, but it'll probably just end up being more water to clean up. Usually you only combine the two when you have a WC animal or a montane that would require pretty consistent watering; veileds are easy in that they require much less when watering. The misting schedule you posted without the dripper should be enough for the day, but if not you can always adjust accordingly.
The superworm thing is a complete load. I've fed them out numerous times without ever having problems. It is 100% a myth. In fact, the only way I can see something like that happening is if the animal ingesting the worm is seconds from death. All my animals thoroughly chew their food to mush before swallowing. With that said, I see no reason to exclude superworms completely from his diet. The only reason (which brings me to my next subject) would be if he's refusing other food items (which it sounds like he is haha). If he's really liking the worms and won't eat crickets/dubia you can try starving him a couple days or more, then try throwing him some crickets. My male panther is a turd about this; I can't give him much aside from crickets because he LOVES worms. He loves them so much that if I give him one or two, he WILL refuse his crickets for around a week. When I say refuse I mean he'll let them roam the cage til he realizes I'm not coming back with a worm, so eventually he gives in and eats them. He's like a little kid who won't eat his vegetables haha, so he doesn't get to eat anything unless he eats what's in front of him.
And as far as lighting goes, you are correct. Twelve hours on, twelve hours off, that's all you need. If you WANT to drive yourself crazy you can set it to outside hours haha, but that's getting a little extreme.
Hope I cleared some things up a bit, but don't worry yourself too much as you seem to be doing just fine. In fact, you seem to have done your homework from what you've been replying with to the other posters. Any more questions and I'd be happy to help but again, TRUST YOURSELF!! haha

 

[stephga]

bugboy-thanks so much for your encouragement, it is appreciated!
Love your signature by the way. LOL

I ended up giving him a few silks and a hornworm after he went all morning and afternoon without touching the crickets that were roaming around in his "house". It is nice to know that he won't starve if I let him go a while and build up an appetite.

 

[bugboy]

No problem at all, you seemed to have everything right and then you had a plethora of info just spat at you haha. Figured I'd clear it up before it caused mass confusion haha. Yeah the sig....after trying several times to include my current collection I just couldn't find a reason to care anymore haha.

Well no wonder he won't eat his crix, especially if you're gonna just give in with silkies and hornworms haha! They go absolutely nuts for these two-they are probably the top 2 favorites with my animals. The silkies aren't a problem to feed every day, but they aren't easy to find all the time which could pose an issue if that's all he'll eat. Hornworms are really a treat anyway so at the most I've used them maybe twice a week. I usually just stick to crickets and if I'm feeling generous I'll offer some variety. Variety is important, but if you have an animal like my panther who thinks HE gets to decide what he eats then ya gotta do what you can to beat that habit.