over feeding?

robbh3

robbh3

Member
hi i have a quick question. i have pretty much letting my juvenile vailed chameleon eat about as much as he wants. this can be anywhere from 12-15 crickets and about 5-6 wax worms and a few small mealworms a day. he growing like crazy but I'm afraid i might be letting him gorge a bit much. he's a male if that factors in to anything. id love any help. thanks
 
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Still pretty small. Make sure you're gut loading well and let him eat daily a few more months.

If you'd like to go over the other aspects of hour husbandry let us know we would be happy to provide feedback.
 
yeah, id actually love to go over a few things. i keep reading many care sheets and many are similar in context some are not. what temps are best (nighttime, basking, ambient)? my guy seems to like his basking spot to be a bit on the hotter side it seems (94-96). also, what is the best humidity for this species and how often should he be misted. I had him about 2 months now and he seems to be doing really well. i would just like to hear what you think. thanks again.
 
Fill out the form below in as much detail as possible and an experienced veiled keeper will will review and give feedback.

Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
  • Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
  • Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

--------------

Please Note:
  1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
  2. Photos can be very helpful.
 
I dont think its possible to overfeed a juvenile male. Infact i find its the opposite, its a race to get in enough food to keep up with the explosive growth(doubling in weight every 4-6 weeks). A lot of breeders will give them as much as they can eat in a feeding, twice a day for the first few months. Then taper off to as much as they can eat in a feeding once a day. In the teens (9-12 months) it was not unheard of for mine to eat 2 dozen adult crickets in a feeding.

There used to be a joke where you just buy a box of 2 week old crickets, and by the time the crickets where adult sized, the cham had grown with the crickets and had no trouble with adults after 4-6 weeks of growth.
 
AnamCara said:
Fill out the form below in as much detail as possible and an experienced veiled keeper will will review and give feedback.

Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
  • Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
  • Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

--------------

Please Note:
  1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
  2. Photos can be very helpful.
Click to expand...
your chameleon - Chamaeleo calyptratus (Vailed Chameleon), sold as a male, not sure of age but he's close to 8"ish, he's been with me for about 3 months.
handling - only to remove him from the cage when cleaning.
feeding- at the moment he is eating around 8-10 lg crickets, 3-5 wax worms and possibly a sm super worm daily. meal worms and red runner roaches are offered but are rarely eaten. wax worms are the fav for sure.
supplements - Rep-Cal brand with both multi vit and calcium. food is dusted 6 days a week with calcium and 1 day a week with multi vit.
watering- using a waterfall machine and misting once a day for about 15-20 sec. i see him drink often.
fecal description - oblong shaped with around 1/4 urine (white) and the rest a dk brown. 1-2 pieces sometimes around 1-2 cm each. looks soft and wet when coming out but is a solid mass though.
history - i have no known history about him

cage type - reptibreeze, all screen, 18x18x24
lighting- 1 zoomed reptisun 5.0 12" beam in the back of cage, then in a double dome in the middle with his 60w daylight blue zoomed heating light plus another reptisun 5.0 bulb 13w. UVB lights are on for 12hrs a day.
temperature- basking 91-97, ambient 77ish, lowest overnight 68. i have a digital temp and humidity gauge placed in those spots.
humidity - levels are mostly in the high 30's to low 40's with out misting. there
Plants- i have a live ficus plant that he really seems to love and a few other smaller live plants that came from josh's frogs and were deemed safe to use. also i have a few larger fake plants which he also seems to like. there are also vines and spider wood.
placement - the cage is in the living room where there is some activity. i live alone so its pretty much only me moving about. i do have an 8lbs dog but she never goes near the cage and its up on a table about 3.5' up. the top of the cage 4.5' from the ground.
location - boulder, CO, USA

please give me much advice as to what i should be doing differently and better. i want this chameleon to thrive!
 
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sidenote - he stays an olive green most of the time. is this normal? he only gets really lime green when sleeping. also, he is also under a vent that is blowing cool air out sometimes. none of the air blows anywhere near him, but he is under it. was this really bad placement for his cage...?
 
You said sold to you as a male...have you looked at its heels to be sure?
https://www.adcham.com/html/husbandry/glossary/tarsalspur.html
If it's a male you won't have to worry so much about over feeding because he will let you know by getting fat.
If it's a female you don't want to over feed her especially once she reaches sexual maturity. You will know when she reaches maturity because she will develop mustardy yellow/brown splotches and blue dots.
 
kinyonga said:
You said sold to you as a male...have you looked at its heels to be sure?
https://www.adcham.com/html/husbandry/glossary/tarsalspur.html
If it's a male you won't have to worry so much about over feeding because he will let you know by getting fat.
If it's a female you don't want to over feed her especially once she reaches sexual maturity. You will know when she reaches maturity because she will develop mustardy yellow/brown splotches and blue dots.
Click to expand...

yeah, i just checked and he has the spurs.
 
Good to know!

You said..."
supplements - Rep-Cal brand with both multi vit and calcium. food is dusted 6 days a week with calcium and 1 day a week with multi vit"...I have dusted with RepCal products for years but I dust lightly with the phos free calcium powder at almost every feeding and twice a month lightly with the phos free calcium/D3 powder and twice a month lightly with the Herptivite.

I feed/gutload crickets, super worms, roaches, locusts etc with dandelion greens, kale, collards, endive, escarole, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, etc and a small amount of fruit such as melon, apples, pears, berries, etc.

You said..."watering- using a waterfall machine and misting once a day for about 15-20 sec. i see him drink often"... I don't recommend water falls because they are hard to keep clean/germ free.

Hope this helps!
 
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kinyonga said:
Good to know!

You said..."
supplements - Rep-Cal brand with both multi vit and calcium. food is dusted 6 days a week with calcium and 1 day a week with multi vit"...I have dusted with RepCal products for years but I dust lightly with the phos free calcium powder at almost every feeding and twice a month lightly with the phos free calcium/D3 powder and twice a month lightly with the Herptivite.

I feed/gutload crickets, super worms, roaches, locusts etc with dandelion greens, kale, collards, endive, escarole, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, etc and a small amount of fruit such as melon, apples, pears, berries, etc.

You said..."watering- using a waterfall machine and misting once a day for about 15-20 sec. i see him drink often"... I don't recommend water falls because they are hard to keep clean/germ free.

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
it totally does, thanks so much
 
You don’t really need the dome one as it doesn’t provide any substantial benefit. I don’t believe it’ll hurt to have it, but it isn’t really helping anything.
 
robbh3 said:
your chameleon - Chamaeleo calyptratus (Vailed Chameleon), sold as a male, not sure of age but he's close to 8"ish, he's been with me for about 3 months.
handling - only to remove him from the cage when cleaning.
feeding- at the moment he is eating around 8-10 lg crickets, 3-5 wax worms and possibly a sm super worm daily. meal worms and red runner roaches are offered but are rarely eaten. wax worms are the fav for sure.
supplements - Rep-Cal brand with both multi vit and calcium. food is dusted 6 days a week with calcium and 1 day a week with multi vit.
watering- using a waterfall machine and misting once a day for about 15-20 sec. i see him drink often.
fecal description - oblong shaped with around 1/4 urine (white) and the rest a dk brown. 1-2 pieces sometimes around 1-2 cm each. looks soft and wet when coming out but is a solid mass though.
history - i have no known history about him

cage type - reptibreeze, all screen, 18x18x24
lighting- 1 zoomed reptisun 5.0 12" beam in the back of cage, then in a double dome in the middle with his 60w daylight blue zoomed heating light plus another reptisun 5.0 bulb 13w. UVB lights are on for 12hrs a day.
temperature- basking 91-97, ambient 77ish, lowest overnight 68. i have a digital temp and humidity gauge placed in those spots.
humidity - levels are mostly in the high 30's to low 40's with out misting. there
Plants- i have a live ficus plant that he really seems to love and a few other smaller live plants that came from josh's frogs and were deemed safe to use. also i have a few larger fake plants which he also seems to like. there are also vines and spider wood.
placement - the cage is in the living room where there is some activity. i live alone so its pretty much only me moving about. i do have an 8lbs dog but she never goes near the cage and its up on a table about 3.5' up. the top of the cage 4.5' from the ground.
location - boulder, CO, USA

please give me much advice as to what i should be doing differently and better. i want this chameleon to thrive!
Click to expand...
Hi there I would be happy to go over your help form in detail for you tomorrow can you please add pictures of your setup lights down and pics of your Cham? If this is a young Cham your temps are much too hot at basking.
 
Beman said:
Hi there I would be happy to go over your help form in detail for you tomorrow can you please add pictures of your setup lights down and pics of your Cham? If this is a young Cham your temps are much too hot at basking.
Click to expand...
id love to go over stuff tomorrow. ill add those pics in for sure. he is a juvenile, about 8"ish. what should his basking temp be?
 
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