My Panther is eating the Biovine

[Klinger]

Looked through the posts and couldn't find an answer. Has anyone else had this with their cham?
Mine is Ambanja mix male about a year. He eats normal. I dust with Zoomed Repti calcium without D3 about 4 times per week. Use Trex (vitamin & mineral supplement) Repashy Superfoods Chameleon calcium plus about 2X per month. I gutload my crickets with Fluker's high calcium grain diet, and R zilla cricket drink with calcium. They also get Bearded dragon pellets, various brands mixed, and piece or two of ferret food now and again.
My main concern is this behavior will lead to impaction. Right now my cham has a fecal about everyother day. He doesnt drink as much as I think he should, but I have seen him drink. I have a dripper and a auto sprayer. It sprays usually every hour for 1 min. Sometimes I turn it down to every three hours or so for 1 min.
He did initially container feed for me, but for some reason he just stopped. So not wanting him to hunger strike, I have since let him free feed.
I had to silicone the removable screens on my cage because crix were hiding in the seams. Now that they cant do this, I dont mind letting him hunt his crix down. I also offer Butter and Pheonix worms but he rarely takes them. I do add flys that I can catch and he attacks those with gusto.
But this Biovine eating has gone on ever since I got him. The Biovine came with him. I added prepared branches to that and his plants are a giant leaved varigated Pothos, and a hibiscus bush. Both have organic soil. One the dirt is covered one is not. He eats the vine dry and when its wet. Of course when its wet he actually trys prying chunks off cause it is then softer.
I really really love the Biovine but do you guys suggest I remove it? Have any of you come across this before?

 

[Murrdox]

I've never heard of that... but geez yes remove the biovine. I'm sure it can't be good for him, and it's obviously a risk for impaction.

I don't know what kind of biovine you have, but there are several different brands. Try a different type. He has real plants in his cage... why he wants to eat the vine is beyond me.

Instead of letting your insects roam, try putting a feeding cup in his cage. You can make a cool one out of the side of a milk carton by gluing some screen material to the back that the crickets and worms will crawl on. I'd post a link to the Youtube video I saw awhile back on making them... but I'm blocked at work.

The fact that he's not hand feeding anymore is normal. A lot of chameleons grow out of it when they get older.

 

[Klinger]

I will remove the vine. I have 2 feeder cups. I did the milk carton one with the screen run for the crickets and I have the type screameleons use that is like a deli cup opaque not clear. He lets the insects sit until they die.
The previous owner of him free ranged his crix. I started switching him to a cup. Had cham since august and he did use cup up until about 3 weeks ago. Then he just stopped.
The Bio vine i think is made from little cork like pebble type pieces to coat the wire. Awe that sucks. I really like the versatility of this stuff.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to a safe bendable vine?
I do have a another type of vine in there too which he leaves alone. It looks like rose stems. But dont know what brand it is and it is very small in diameter. I need something a bit thicker.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Try buying a length of thick elecrtical wire (as used to wire homes for speakers or lighting) in a nice brown or green or black and use that instead. You can use it just like a biovine, twist and bend and hang it, but it will be easier to clean and near impossible for the chameleon to take bites out of.

I had a female panther that would try to eat anything. Rocks, twigs, bugs, my fingers, my eyeball, anything that moved, anything that might maybe move.... I had to severly edit her enclosure to just indestructable things.

Consider using Fresh Fruit and Vegetables as your primary gutload. This will reduce the chance that your chameleon is not getting something in its diet that makes it want to eat biovine.

 

[Klinger]

Electrical wire. Awsome idea. I will definatly do that. What do you do with the ends of exposed wire? Could you clip the wire and stretch the covering to cover end?
Love your blog by the way. I have visited it several times.
I also raise the crix for my Beardie. Whenever I try adding fresh things, it gets too humid in the enclosure and crix start dying. Am I doing it wrong? I add a small amount like a collard green leaf or chunk of summer squash.
My bin is a 65 quart latch cover plastic rubber maid container. Top is cut in a large square with screen hot glued over opening. I use cardboard egg crate and toilet paper rolls.

 

[Chamgels of Avalon]

my cham has never tried to eat his bio vine that I am aware of. That is strange, I would remove it and possibly try just using dowel rods, their cheap, and come in different sizes for your cham to hang out on. You can purchase them for like a buck from home depot or lowes. They are kind of long so if you need to cut them they are pretty easy to cut with a knife. If you cut them to the size of your cage then you can place it in the cage and put thumb tacks on the outerside of the cage to hold them in place. I have a few in my cage, different sizes too. My cham loves hanging out on them under the basking light :]

 

[sandrachameleon]

Electrical wire. Awsome idea. I will definatly do that. What do you do with the ends of exposed wire?

I purposfully strip a couple inches on each end to expose the raw wire, so that i can pull those ends through my cages sides and bend/afix. If you've a screen cage or something that is hard to affix stuff to, consider a small blob of silicone on the ends, if you are concerned about rust or such.

Love your blog by the way. I have visited it several times.

thanks for the feedback! glad you like it.

I also raise the crix for my Beardie. Whenever I try adding fresh things, it gets too humid in the enclosure and crix start dying. Am I doing it wrong? I add a small amount like a collard green leaf or chunk of summer squash. My bin is a 65 quart latch cover plastic rubber maid container. Top is cut in a large square with screen hot glued over opening. I use cardboard egg crate and toilet paper rolls.

Perhaps the number of crickets is a factor. Maybe add a metal screen panel to one lower side. I dont breed crickets so am not the best person to answer. I buy only about 30 crickets a week, and keep them in a tall 5 gallon bucket with 80% of the lid replaced with screen.

 

[Klinger]

No. I used to, up until this past month, only buy from nearest store maybe 6 doz at a time. Clearly way enough room for that many. I just bought my first shipment of Butter worms and split crickets with my work pal and other herp nut from Mulberry farms. We were both having a hard time keeping the crix alive for anything other than maybe 2-3 weeks if that even. NOW...there are only sheds in the bottom of our buckets...not dead crix. So i dont know maybe the supplier has more to do with it. And I have not tried any fresh stuff with these. I will try. They were 3 week when we got them and now they are near full size. They are growing well. But I dont breed them either. I just dont want to. I am a vet assistant, work 10 hour days and have a house full...2 Mastiffs, a beardie, cham, Basset, a indoor pond, SW 125g tank, FW 15g tank and 3 ferrets. I think thats it. Dont think i missed anyone. Dont have time to breed crix. easier for me to buy.
I have thought about wooden dowels but I wanted the more natural look that the biovine provides. So I will give the wire a try. My cage is screen and wood. The panels have areas to attach things. What I do is use eye hooks to screw into the wood and wala I can attach most anything with zip strips (cable ties). No the rust doesnt bother me. I just did not want any pokey things sticking out from the wire ends to scratch my cham.

 

[ChameleonAlley]

My little girl is trying to eat her biovine today! What the hell?? I've seen her try to do it twice, also when it is wet. She really starts to get into it, and tries pulling off chunks. I mist her quickly and she stops doing it and runs away. Guess I'm going to have to remove mine too? It's a pretty thick rubber. I can't tell if she's getting anything off it. I don't think she is

 

[jamncristian]

Electrical wire. Awsome idea. I will definatly do that. What do you do with the ends of exposed wire? Could you clip the wire and stretch the covering to cover end?
Love your blog by the way. I have visited it several times.
I also raise the crix for my Beardie. Whenever I try adding fresh things, it gets too humid in the enclosure and crix start dying. Am I doing it wrong? I add a small amount like a collard green leaf or chunk of summer squash.
My bin is a 65 quart latch cover plastic rubber maid container. Top is cut in a large square with screen hot glued over opening. I use cardboard egg crate and toilet paper rolls.

this web site will help you alot!! with your cricket problem

http://www.veiled-chameleon.com/weblog/archives/000258.html