New Cham mom.. Any advice welcome

[Cstone0501]

I have had my baby Jackson for a month now and he seems to be doing very well. He is 3 months old today. I work for petsmart and we had a female come in pregnant, she had 12 babies in store, which a manager took home, they started to die off so I asked for one hoping one on one care would be best. My baby is the only one still living! I'm going to post a picture of my cage and details looking for any and all advice to keep my baby happy and healthy!

My cage is an FLX zilla half screen half glass habitat 18x18x20.
I have reptisoil as the substrate so I could plant my plants, but I have a fake moss mat on top of it so my Cham doesn't accidentally eat the soil and get impacted. I am keeping live plants to help with the humidity (not sure the types).
As far as lighting I have a deep double dome lamp about 6 inches from the cage with a 75 watt neodymium bulb (not letting the temp get over 80) and a 5.0 reptisun UVB bulb. (Is this strong enough?)
I have a big dripper which I have only been using a little bit. We mist about every 3-4 hours so he can drink.

For food I am doing a combo of fruitflies and very tiny crickets. He has food available all day. I let a lot of flightless fruitflies out in his cage in the morning and feed 3 crickets twice a day. When do I need to start adding calcium to the crickets? Anything I left out you think I need to be concerned about please feel free to ask!

-before I forget, ignore the blue tape. We recently had a carpenter ant problem & need to keep them out until they die off.

 

[Cstone0501]

My 3 month old jackson

 

[Kate]

Welcome to the forum you will find a lot of info on here.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/
I would not ration his food at this age they should eat a lot. Try cup feeding crickets, that way they shouldn't escape into the cage. I have given you a link above and hopefully you will find a supplement schedule there

 

[Cstone0501]

Any advice on how to get him to eat from a cup? I want him to be cup fed but he shows no interest, he wants them out and running around, which I know is not too great because they can bite him at night

 

[KingJulian]

It's ok to let the crickets jump around the cage during the day...You should always take the crickets out at night because they will bite him and he can get an infection...Personally, we offer my cham food throughout the day, but if he doesn't eat it, we take it out right away. I like knowing exactly what he eats and how much. We tried the hunting method and it was very hectic. I thought he was eating, but it turned out he wasn't, the crickets were climbing under his plant and dying. Plus I was told that they will lay eggs if left unattended and then you will have pinheads all over the place. Good luck with everything

 

[Cstone0501]

Thanks! I will keep trying to cup feed. I've been putting one cricket in at a time in a location where they will climb straight to him & I watch him eat at least 3 before I leave him alone. I do that twice if not 3 times a day. There are very few loose crickets in the cage, and that is due to the fact he's a clumsy baby and misses sometimes and knocks the crickets down where I can't get them. I left a clear cup yesterday in the cage because I was in a hurry and he never ate any out of it not sure what steps I need to take to get him to be okay with the cup

 

[KingJulian]

Maybe try taking an empty cup and place one at a time and let him watch you put the cricket in there, if he eats it, put another in there...He probably just doesn't know what to do with the cup.

 

[Chromashumans]

We have a new veiled chameleon as well (our first reptile ever) and have been monitoring her feeding as much as possible. We are cup feeding her, and switched from a clear one to a white one, because she kept trying to reach them from the outside of the cup. Now she sees the cup, and will climb nearly all the way down in it, and snag her meal. Good luck!

And thanks to everyone on these forums that offers well researched and experienced advice. You all have been so helpful!