Ultimate Beginner Please Help

kinyonga said:
WELCOME TO THE FORUM!

I'M ANSWERING IN CAPS BECAUSE THERE IS NO LONGER A COLOR OPTION...
Hi, all! I have never owned a reptile, and I stupidly fell in love with a tiny little cham at PetSmart. I have had her for about three months now. However, I am a very anxious pet momma and I need to know what I'm doing wrong. Her name is melon and I will list her details and add pics of her and enclosure below.
SPECIES?.....
Sex: Female? LOOK AT THE HEELS. IF THERES A BUMP/SPUR THEN ITS MALE. IF NOT ITS FEMALE.
Age: around 4-6 months
Diet: mealworms, some fruit, and some dark leafy greens MEALWORMS ARE NOT THE BEST FEEDER. CRICKETS, LOCUSTS, ROACHES, SILKWORMS, BSFL ARE MUCH BETTER. WAXWORMS, HORNWORMS, SUPERWORMS CAN BE TREATS ONCE IN A WHILE.
AMOUNT FED EACH TIME? HOW OFTEN/SCHEDULE? WHAT DO YOU FEED THE INSECTS?
Supplements: repticalcium and reptivite or something like that
PLEASE BE SPECIFIC ....DO THEY CONTAIN PHOS, D3, PReFORMED VITAMIN A?
Handling: once or twice a week
Mood: usually grumpy but mostly green unless she's blending into her moss sticks.
WATERING? DO YOU USE A DRIPPER? SPRAYER?
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She is a veiled cham. I feed as much as she will eat daily around 5pm. Some veggies and 5+ worms daily. I spray her every other hour with a fine mist spray bottle for about a minute straight. Her supplements are phosphorus free the repti calcium has d3 and the reptivite has vitamin a
 
Britney said:
She is a veiled cham. I feed as much as she will eat daily around 5pm. Some veggies and 5+ worms daily. I spray her every other hour with a fine mist spray bottle for about a minute straight. Her supplements are phosphorus free the repti calcium has d3 and the reptivite has vitamin a
Click to expand...
Ok so I didn't see you say what kind of uvb you have? Is in a long linear one or the double dome?
 
Britney said:
Okay you and @AmandaS for your replies lol. I'm a struggling college student, and I'm unable to pay for housing and the crickets. Is it okay to feed the canned crickets until I'm able to rake up enough money.
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If you can get her to eat the canned gutloaded crickets dusted, then I'm sure they will be fine until you can get live crickets.

I feed as much as she will eat daily around 5pm.
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Most people will recommend feeding earlier in the day so they can bask and properly digest the food. Though, there are many people who have successfully kept chameleons by feeding them later in the day.
 
Britney said:
She is a veiled cham. I feed as much as she will eat daily around 5pm. Some veggies and 5+ worms daily. I spray her every other hour with a fine mist spray bottle for about a minute straight. Her supplements are phosphorus free the repti calcium has d3 and the reptivite has vitamin a
Click to expand...
Chameleons need to be fed in the morning, around 30 minutes or so after her basking bulb comes on is preferred. This gives them time to warm up and digest their food, as they’re cold-blooded. Try to do mistings only in the morning and late afternoon/night when her cage is cooler, if your humidity allows it. Mistings should be a minimum of 2-5+ minutes each time but can go longer. She needs phosphorus-free calcium without D3 (like Zoo Med ReptiCalcium without D3) every feeding, except for when using other supplements. Use a multivitamin with D3 (like Zoo Med Reptivite with D3) once every two weeks. Both of those should’ve come in the chameleon kit, which are also the only useful things in there, sadly

Edit: depending on her age, she might need to fed multiple times a day
 
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@kinyonga is there any research supporting this?:
Chameleons need to be fed in the morning, around 30 minutes or so after her basking bulb comes on is preferred. This gives them time to warm up and digest their food, as they’re cold-blooded.
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While I do prefer to feed them in the mornings, there are several people out there (not naming names) who feed in the afternoon or sometimes a couple hours before lights off with success. The poop comes out fully digested. And in the wild, people have observed them eating during sunset. They eat whenever given the chance. That is why they need nighttime drops to slow down their digestive tracks so they don't have a restless sleep.

(Not throwing shade your way @ERKleRose ;))
 
Also, unless you’re bioactive (which I don’t think you are), there should be no substrate in the bottom of her cage. Only a clear bottom with a proper lay bin. I would also take out all moss vines (unsanitary) and the wooden bridge (not meant for a chameleon). Real branches of multiple species and diameters (preferably from hardwood trees, definitely no branches that come from sap-producing trees), live and/or fake vines (fake without leaves only, also don’t buy Exo Terra vines, they can cause health issues), and live chameleon-safe plants (make sure they‘re properly cleaned off beforehand and have rocks too big for her to eat covering the soil in the pots) should be the only furnishings in a veiled cage, as they’ll try to take a chomp out of anything, which can lead to an impaction risk with fake plants

Edit: the live plant pots can be on the bottom, too, just no loose substrate
 
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She is a veiled cham.

I feed as much as she will eat daily around 5pm. Some veggies and 5+ worms daily. THATS NOT ENOUGH DEPENDING ON HOW OLD SHE REALLYBIS...AND PHOTOS OF HER ON SOMETHING THAT WOULD INDICATE HER SIZE WILL HELP WITH THAT.

I spray her every other hour with a fine mist spray bottle for about a minute straight. NO DRIPPER????

Her supplements are phosphorus free the repti calcium has d3 and the reptivite has vitamin a SHE SHOULD ONLY GET A PHOS FREE CALCIUM/D3 POWDER DUSTED ON THE CRICKETS TWICE A MONTHS, TWO WEEKS APART ON ONE FEEDING. SHE SHOULD GET VITAMINS ONCE EVERY TWO WEEKS ONE ONE FEEDING. SHE SHOULD GET PHOS FREE CALCIUM ON ALL OTHER FEEDINGS BUT THAT 4 FEEDINGS. THIS IS IMPORTANT IF YOU DONT WANT HER TO HAVE HEALTH ISSUES.

WHERE IS THE CAGE PLACED? NEAR A WINDOW OR FANS OR VENTS? ON THE FLOOR OR RAISED?
WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED?

WE STILL NEED PHOTOS.

SEXING...
https://www.adcham.com/html/husbandry/glossary/tarsalspur.html
 
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Mendez said:
@kinyonga is there any research supporting this?:

While I do prefer to feed them in the mornings, there are several people out there (not naming names) who feed in the afternoon or sometimes a couple hours before lights off with success. The poop comes out fully digested. And in the wild, people have observed them eating during sunset. They eat whenever given the chance. That is why they need nighttime drops to slow down their digestive tracks so they don't have a restless sleep.

(Not throwing shade your way @ERKleRose ;))
Click to expand...
Around 3 days for f.pardalis adult from swallow to deficate, young as quick as 24hrs
 
@Mendez said..."@kinyonga is there any research supporting this?"... I don't know if there are any studies on this. I prefer to feed them in the morning or early in the day but I leave the insects in he cage if they don't eat the so they can snack on them later and I've never found it to be a problem. That being said...I have no proof that it's better or needed.
 
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