New Veiled Chameleon.. General Tips Please

[filius_peter]

Hi,

A friend of mine left for an internshp and asked me to take care of his about 8 weeks old male veiled.

I have him set up in a terrarium about 1m x 0.8m x 0.5m, 2 sides glass, 2 sides thread mesh.

a) How many crickets should he eat everyday? Is 5 enough?
b) How many times should I mist? How much water? What warmth of the water?
c) Should I coat the crickets with calcium and vitamins on alternative days?
d) How often should I clean the cage?
e) I have wood bark on the ground now, but I want sand in there. My friend left me a bag of playground sand. What is the difference between the two? I guess the bark would preserve more humidity?

Thanks for posting your replies.

 

[westcoastchameleons]

well, let start off with eating...

he should be fed 7-12 crickets daily...probably smalls.

misted up to 3 times a day no less than once, with warm water, and for a couple minutes..on rare ocasions

liddy kammer gave me a dusting scedule..mon./thur. use mult. vit. with beta-coratine..teus./fri. use calcium with d3...wed./sat. use mineral O..(this dusting list was given to me by liddy kammer..)

prob. not a good idea to have anything on the floor!!! the chameleon can injest these thing and become sick...so dont use anything on the floor of the cage!


cleaning the cage every other day wouldnt be a bad idea!!!

 

[Brad Ramsey]

How fun for you!

He'll probably eat twice that many 1/4 - 1/2 inch crickets per day.
He needs a drip system for water and at least 2 or 3 quite warm water mistings per day (more on the plants etc. than actually on him).
You can create a dripper by putting a pin hole in the bottom of a deli cup, filling it w/ water and set it on top of the enclosure where it will drip onto some leaves or branches that he can reach.
Place a saucer or some other water collection vessel on the bottom to catch the excess.
I stretch mesh over my collection vessel to prevent drowned crickets and so that the cham himself can't fall in.
No substrate! Take the bark out, do not replace with sand. Use newspaper or paper towels. Easier clean-up plus he will ingest bark and sand and could become impacted.
My male veiled ate his first potting soil at 8 weeks old!
Phosphorous free calcium w/ D3 can be dusted on crickets daily or every other day at this age, vit. supplement once every other week or so.
Are gut loading the crickets?
What kind of lighting is on him?
-Brad

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Follow Kammer dusting schedule.
They know way more than me.
I clean poop daily. I only get one every morning.
I change out paper towels every 2 - 3 days.
-B.

 

[filius_peter]

Poop

Thanks for the replies!
Another question. what does healthy poop look like? i saw him poop once and it was white gooey slimy stuff. is that normal?

 

[scooter4n]

White is good, it's like pee part, and should be about same size black or dark brown too, thats a poop. If you see white part yellow or orange that is dehydration.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

It should look similar to a healthy bird poop.
Brown and white and "gooey" is good. That would indicate to me that there is moisture there.

-B.