looking for a good feeding schedule

[WendyK8]

Im getting ready to purchase my first panther (male) in the next month or two and right now Im trying to figure out a good schedule of feeding/dusting and what I should dust with. Most of what Ive read says to dust w/ calcium (no D3) every day, calcium w/ D3 once every 2 weeks, a multi vit once a month and reptivite w/out D3 once a month. does this sound about right? also, I am planning on getting one about 4m old, would the supplement requirements be different? I have also noticed that the best option for buying feeders is online (by mail) and not the local pet store, however, the quantities sold online seem to mostly be in bulk (500-1000 crix) would that be worth it for 1 cham? how long should I expect crix, mealworms etc to last for? I want to feed him a good variety of feeders and crix will most likely be the staple. I plan on feeding the crix a mix of commercial gutload w/ some fresh homemade gutload too. Any suggestions on brands of dust/vit/gutloads?

 

[agavrysh]

For the vitamins I just use rep-cal herptivite 2-3 times a month, and calcium as you said. I order worms online such as butterworms, silkworms, etc. As for crickets i just buy like 50 each week at my local reptile store.

 

[gratefulj]

REPASHY CALCIUM PLUS period...... makes life easy and it is a top quality product....

 

[brandon1]

Im getting ready to purchase my first panther (male) in the next month or two and right now Im trying to figure out a good schedule of feeding/dusting and what I should dust with. Most of what Ive read says to dust w/ calcium (no D3) every day, calcium w/ D3 once every 2 weeks, a multi vit once a month and reptivite w/out D3 once a month. does this sound about right? also, I am planning on getting one about 4m old, would the supplement requirements be different? I have also noticed that the best option for buying feeders is online (by mail) and not the local pet store, however, the quantities sold online seem to mostly be in bulk (500-1000 crix) would that be worth it for 1 cham? how long should I expect crix, mealworms etc to last for? I want to feed him a good variety of feeders and crix will most likely be the staple. I plan on feeding the crix a mix of commercial gutload w/ some fresh homemade gutload too. Any suggestions on brands of dust/vit/gutloads?

From what I've heard you could solve your supplement problem by just purchasing Repashy All In One Calcium Plus. It can replace all those you listed and be used either everyday or every other day. I havn't used it personally but I plan on trying it and have heard nothing but positive reviews from it. If you're going to use crickets I would suggest buying them weekly from you local pet store. You shouldn't use mealworms too ofter because they are not a very healthy feeder. I would recommend purchasing Hornworm and Silkworm eggs from online and raising them, and either purchasing crickets every week or also purchasing roaches (Discoids are what I use and Dubias are highly recommended) from online and starting a colony with them. If you're going to do roaches you should get them ASAP so they can go ahead and start breeding to give you babies to feed off. For the Silkworm and Hornworm eggs it will take the Silks about a week tops to hatch and an approximately another 2 weeks to get to a size that you would want to feed them, and the Hornworms will hatch within a couple of days and you'll probably want to wait around the same amount of time as the Silks before you feed them off.

 

[WendyK8]

Thanks guys! I was already looking at the Repashy products and thinking about using them, they seemed great but, too good to be true? This will be my first cham and I just want everything to be right before I order. Def sounds like this is the way to go. This forum is great! I have learned so much more on here, all of the commercial websites seem to be somewhat contradicting and I start to get confused after reading so many of them, then I come back here and everything makes sense again. Thx again guys! Also, I have noticed that the Reptisun 5.0 comes in a long fluo bulb and a compact one, is there any reason that I shouldnt buy a double dome and keep a heat bulb in one and the 5.0 in the other or should I just buy the 2 separate fixtures?

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums Wendy. I'm sure with the research you are doing you will do fine with your panther. I still use the old fashion supplements because the all in one is fairly new and I'm waiting for awhile to switch. So far though I have heard nothing but good reports from fellow cham keepers. Even when I only had one cham I would still buy 500 crickets at the time. I'd buy on the small side because they do grow. I'd only buy about once a month and they were so cheap. I use Lazy H bait and the owner Brad is so nice. It's a small personally owner cricket farm here in FL. If you have not found my blog for new keepers yet, I'm attaching it below. Jann

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

 

[whereswaldo]

ive been using repshy plus for like 2 months now they love it even has a nice smell like bannanas my cham and beardie go nuts over it. ive seen no health problems and any eye issues we did have are gone... i have ordered online since i got waldo my first reptile it makes so much beter sence youll be suprised how much they eat 1000 cri last 2 weeks in my house if i got worms too lol

 

[WendyK8]

well, I just got back from my local petstores (which unfortunately consist of 1 petco and 1 petsmart) and confirmed my decision about purchasing crix online. Petco and Petsmart have unfortunately run all of the GOOD small businesses out of town and left us w/ CRAP! (sry) I went to petco first to see what they charged for crickets and what kind of condition they sold them in, well...for $5.49/box of 36 you can expect to recieve maybe 2-3 live crickets! I opened all of the worm containers and cricket containers to find only a couple living in each! off to petsmart I went, to find they didnt recieve their shipment this week, hopefully next week (not so reliable already! good thing I didnt ACTUALLY need any today) and on top of that they charge 10cents per cricket (regardless of how many you want) sry, not gonna pay $50 for 500 crickets when I can buy them from a reputable source online for $20
sorry for the rant, just get so aggrivated that big name companies can offer such poor services/products and still run the little guys out of town who actually knew what they were doing and took pride in it!

 

[Rottsko]

Welcome to the forum! Buying in bulk online for crickets is the way to go. Much cheaper and if u get them small enough, you won't need to buy more for awhile. I recommend the repashy calcium plus as well. I use it every day and I've had no problems with my chams.