Muddyfeet
New Member
ok.. I have checked and read all the posts.. So please let me know if I have this down right.. I know it is basics.. but there is conflicting info.. so what to confirm..
My first offical cham.. after 15 years of wanting one..
current cage is a zoo med cage, Glass with vents and screen top.. moving to a larger screen mesh gage when larger..
So I have a baby veild.. not sure on excact age, but believe it is about 3-4 months old.. is a male.. I did not want to deal with egg laying and the problems.. I don't play or handle him except to clean the cage.. Avoid spraying him (2x a day) when wetting the cage.. his cage is up nice and high.. showing no intrest in reflections on the glass BTW..has live pothos, some artifical vine and plastic plants.. I have some Hydro ball substrate, Sorry looks nice, and traps any extra water from the dripper, and keeps crickets from being drownd.. it can be removed cleaned, baked to kill mold, bacteria, and fungus..should be big enough at this point to not be injested.. so why I chose it.. paper gets to nasty to fast.. the only soil is.. organic soil in the potted plant, I washed the plant, and replaced ALL the soil before putting it in the cage..I do have large river stones covering most of the soil.. cage is complety opened and air dried at least once a day to prevent standing water.. and mold or fungus growth..
So.. this is what I have collected..please let me know if this is ok,, or I am way off..
Normal household temps ok as a gradient..in the cage.say 70ish? however should have a basking area in the 80-90 range.. higher when older..
Do not need to use a heat source and better not to..at night.. as long as it stays resonable? say not below 60? This one was new to me.. Can they really be ok with as low as the high 50ties at night?
best to use a 5.0 UVB, 10.0 is too much? even with a screen top?
I "hope" that the exoterra CFL spiral is ok,, as I have a brand new compact hood.. I would like to hold off on a liner fixture when I move to the screen mesh cage..
Should I go up to 10.O at this point because of cage size and also it is screen?
use a Calcium W/O d3 daily, or when older couple times a week.. use calcium w d3 1-2 times a month..at most? both are phos free..
Do you need a powdered vit supplement if really gutloading, or using REPASHY superfood gutload? AND fress greens and veggies?
Diet, crickets (main) Butterworms, Phenox worms.. Frutflys, and house flies (I have 6 dogs so have lots of flys in the summer he could enjoy) and other wild caught bugs.. and if I can get them silkworms..
Avoid Mealworms untill older.. >6 months.. and use on occasion.. Waxworms as a treat only..
use a veggie clip for greens, low oxalate types only.. Babies dont eat a lot of greens but older veilds tend to?
I free feed, put a specific amount of bugs into the cage.. I like to try cup feeding, but it seems far better to let them hunt some? Thinking about excersise and enrichment aspects of this..
also what if the cham is terrified of the cup?
I have Cricket gutload food, and water, and some kale in the floor of the cage that they can eat so will not "nibble" on the cham or at night if not consumed.. and also acts as a kind of feeding station as the bugs collect there..
Sorry again.. I know this is all basic stuff, and been covered.. just looking to see if I got what I read correct or way off..
Amanda
My first offical cham.. after 15 years of wanting one..
current cage is a zoo med cage, Glass with vents and screen top.. moving to a larger screen mesh gage when larger..
So I have a baby veild.. not sure on excact age, but believe it is about 3-4 months old.. is a male.. I did not want to deal with egg laying and the problems.. I don't play or handle him except to clean the cage.. Avoid spraying him (2x a day) when wetting the cage.. his cage is up nice and high.. showing no intrest in reflections on the glass BTW..has live pothos, some artifical vine and plastic plants.. I have some Hydro ball substrate, Sorry looks nice, and traps any extra water from the dripper, and keeps crickets from being drownd.. it can be removed cleaned, baked to kill mold, bacteria, and fungus..should be big enough at this point to not be injested.. so why I chose it.. paper gets to nasty to fast.. the only soil is.. organic soil in the potted plant, I washed the plant, and replaced ALL the soil before putting it in the cage..I do have large river stones covering most of the soil.. cage is complety opened and air dried at least once a day to prevent standing water.. and mold or fungus growth..
So.. this is what I have collected..please let me know if this is ok,, or I am way off..
Normal household temps ok as a gradient..in the cage.say 70ish? however should have a basking area in the 80-90 range.. higher when older..
Do not need to use a heat source and better not to..at night.. as long as it stays resonable? say not below 60? This one was new to me.. Can they really be ok with as low as the high 50ties at night?
best to use a 5.0 UVB, 10.0 is too much? even with a screen top?
I "hope" that the exoterra CFL spiral is ok,, as I have a brand new compact hood.. I would like to hold off on a liner fixture when I move to the screen mesh cage..
Should I go up to 10.O at this point because of cage size and also it is screen?
use a Calcium W/O d3 daily, or when older couple times a week.. use calcium w d3 1-2 times a month..at most? both are phos free..
Do you need a powdered vit supplement if really gutloading, or using REPASHY superfood gutload? AND fress greens and veggies?
Diet, crickets (main) Butterworms, Phenox worms.. Frutflys, and house flies (I have 6 dogs so have lots of flys in the summer he could enjoy) and other wild caught bugs.. and if I can get them silkworms..
Avoid Mealworms untill older.. >6 months.. and use on occasion.. Waxworms as a treat only..
use a veggie clip for greens, low oxalate types only.. Babies dont eat a lot of greens but older veilds tend to?
I free feed, put a specific amount of bugs into the cage.. I like to try cup feeding, but it seems far better to let them hunt some? Thinking about excersise and enrichment aspects of this..
also what if the cham is terrified of the cup?
I have Cricket gutload food, and water, and some kale in the floor of the cage that they can eat so will not "nibble" on the cham or at night if not consumed.. and also acts as a kind of feeding station as the bugs collect there..
Sorry again.. I know this is all basic stuff, and been covered.. just looking to see if I got what I read correct or way off..
Amanda
