Veiled chameleon feeding.

[Cham1807]

Hey guys. I'm a new chameleon owner, had my guys 3 days now. Not exactly sure of his age. When I got him the guy at the petstore said he's 7-9months old but to me he seems to small to be that old. I'm thinking he's no more than 3 months old...I'm just wondering how much I should be feeding him? When I first got him home I put 5 or 6 crickets dusted with calcium in his enclosure and he ate them up quickly. The next day I put another 5 or 6 in, dusted as well and he ate them. I decided to put a food dish in so he had easier access to the crickets because I had noticed they were staying near the bottom of the cage and he only got to them when they came up the sides...now that the food dish is in the cage he doesn't seem to notice it, only eats a cricket when it gets out and crawls up the cage...will he get used to where the dish is?

 

[chlobo]

your cham looks to be about 3 or 4 months old. definitely not close to looking 7-9 months old. shame on those pet store employees
the amount you are feeding him looks good, and as for the feeding dish, you might want to put it higher up guessing that he spends most of his time up there. he may not notice the crickets if they are so far down. if he still doesn't eat from that dish, you could try making one of those vertical feeders with a plastic container and some screen mesh. look up "milk jug chameleon feeder" and there are tons of pictures and some tutorials on how to make them.
good luck and let me know how it turns out!

 

[Nursemaia]

Yea you have a youngin' pet store employees don't often know what they're talking about. I'd put more climbing branchesin his enclosure and checkout the care sheets on here too

 

[Cham1807]

Thanks for the input ..it's funny cause as soon as I posted this he came down from where he's sitting in the picture and went straight for the food dish, ate one cricket and went back up..I'll keep and eye on it and if he doesn't start going to it on a regular basis I'll try moving it up..I'm going to get a few more branches in there soon and also get a different light. Lots of people are telling me to change it to a linear style T5 10.0 because they offer more coverage..they also said the curly tube style bulbs aren't good for the chameleons..what's your opinions on lights?

 

[Nursemaia]

I agree. Linear is much better. UVB bulbs also have to be changed every 6 months even if they are still putting out light because they may not be putting out uvb rays. If you can, splurge for Arcadia bulbs and fixtures from lightyourreptiles.com I just upgraded all my lights to T5 HO Arcadia bulbs 12% output. They onlyhave to be changed every year. Completely worth it

 

[chlobo]

Thanks for the input ..it's funny cause as soon as I posted this he came down from where he's sitting in the picture and went straight for the food dish, ate one cricket and went back up..I'll keep and eye on it and if he doesn't start going to it on a regular basis I'll try moving it up..I'm going to get a few more branches in there soon and also get a different light. Lots of people are telling me to change it to a linear style T5 10.0 because they offer more coverage..they also said the curly tube style bulbs aren't good for the chameleons..what's your opinions on lights?

the coil lights used to be linked to eye issues, but from what i've heard zoo med has fixed them. people tend to get the linear bulbs because they've never caused problems for chams or their owners. linear bulbs do provide more coverage. i use the zoo med T5 HO 10.0, and the one that i have lasts for a year as well. lots of people say the arcadia stuff is the best quality you can find. zoo med works great in my experience, although i've been eyeing the arcadia lights too .

 

[rminnis]

Lol aww 7-9 months in his little dreams cute

 

[Cham1807]

Lol aww 7-9 months in his little dreams cute

I know right, I was like no way!