what's the move?

[CrazyMango]

all advice welcome. I have a 3-4 month old veiled chameleon.
-I don't know the sex, and he is about 3 or 4 months
-I handle him about once per week.
-I feed him about 5 dusted crickets 2wice a day. I gut load and hydrate my crickets once a day for 24 hours with orange cubes from fluker and the hydrate from fluker, which I will be changing soon.
-I use multivitamins and calcium with D3 and calcium without D3, dusting multivitamins once per 2 weeks and calcium D3 once per week. Calcium without D3 is fed without
-I mist him twice a day for about 3 minutes all around the enclosure and provide a dripper once a day for about 20 minutes.
-his feces are black and white, and seem okay.
-he came from PetSmart as a baby

Cage Info:
-my cage is a reptibreeze x-large 4'x2'x2' screen.
-my lights will be fixed but right now he has two UVB bulbs 5.0 around the tank, and a 75 watt heat bulb that is about 3-4" away from the top since he is a baby and tends to climb on the top of his screen.
-the lowest temp in the night time is around 65 degrees. His basking bulb is about 85 degrees, and his daytime temp is around 70-73 degrees.
-it is about 30-50 percent humidity in the daytime, and at night around 60 percent humidity.
- i am not using live plants, which will probably change in the future.
- my cage location is on the bottom floor and is not exposed to direct sunlight or drafts.
-I am in virginia, where it gets pretty cold in the winter sometimes.
ALSO NOTE: I am getting ready to move and the inside of the reptibreeze setup is just temporary.

The question I have is that should I be feeding he/she greens once a week directly? Because I got some advice from online that said I should give he/she greens like kale and collard greens once a week for optimal health? Should I be doing this? Or should I not since he is a baby?

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi. If you post a pic, particularly of the back of the back feet, we can help you determine gender.
Your little one should be old enough to be fed once daily in the morning 10-12 feeders. In a couple of months you’ll want to reduce the amount.
Attaching feeder and gutload sheets. The orange cubes are essentially worthless for gutloading...a mistake most of us have made.
You should be dusting with calcium without D3 at every feeding except one per week. Then you’ll dust that one feeding with calcium with D3 one week and the next use the multivitamin.
Why do you have 2 uvb bulbs? One T5HO with a 5.0 bulb is sufficient. If you are using the coil bulbs, those don’t provide any adequate uvb no matter how many of them you use.
Basking temp is a bit high. You want it to be no higher than 80.
Yes, you need live plants! The sooner you get them, the better. Pothos is a great one to use. Your cham will nibble the plants so they need to be real and safe. Great list is here. https://chameleonacademy.com/plants/
Your cham doesn’t need anything other than live bugs. They aren’t able to digest greens, fruits and veggies. Yes, they eat their plants but it’s thought to be for roughage (but no one knows 100% why really). Give the greens to your crickets instead.
If you post some pics of your cham’s feet and your enclosure, you can get even more feedback.

 

[MissSkittles]

As usual, I forgot to attach the feeder and gutload sheets. Sorry and here ya go.

 

[CrazyMango]

@MissSkittles how do I feed locusts, do I take off their legs because I notice they have spikes.

 

[MissSkittles]

@MissSkittles how do I feed locusts, do I take off their legs because I notice they have spikes.

Eesh! I have no idea...I’ve never fed locusts. It sounds kind of mean though to remove their legs. Chams eat bees and other stinging things, so I would think leg spikes wouldn’t be a bother, but I don’t want to give wrong advice.

 

[CrazyMango]

Eesh! I have no idea...I’ve never fed locusts. It sounds kind of mean though to remove their legs. Chams eat bees and other stinging things, so I would think leg spikes wouldn’t be a bother, but I don’t want to give wrong advice.

Yea I was thinking it would be mean to take their legs off. If they're recommended they are probably fine the way they are.

 

[MissSkittles]

Yea I was thinking it would be mean to take their legs off. If they're recommended they are probably fine the way they are.

Just make sure your feeders are size appropriate. Anything larger than the space between your cham’s eyes is too big.

 

[CrazyMango]

Just make sure your feeders are size appropriate. Anything larger than the space between your cham’s eyes is too big.

So does this apply for hornworms and morio? because no chameleon's eyes are wide enough for these feeders.

 

[MissSkittles]

No, lol. That would be one massive cham! For a little one, you want to use maybe 1” - 1 1/2” worms...small ones.

 

[CrazyMango]

oh ok.

 

[Rhea’s mum]

I feed mine locusts. A tip I have learnt to calm them down is to stick them in the fridge for a short period of time to decrease their activity if you struggle getting them out of the container etc.
If you are moving them from the plastic tub to a more long term home then put the tub into a freezer bag (or a bag with no holes in the bottom) then you can empty them into the bag, remove the tub and anything else you don’t want and move them into the longer term home. They struggle to jump in the plastic bag providing it’s not on the floor.
The hubby learnt the hard way opening a tub of freshly bought locusts in the house with no prep… our beardie really enjoyed the hunt though ?

 

[CrazyMango]

Also, is it normal for babies or juveniles to lose their grip from time to time?

 

[MissSkittles]

Also, is it normal for babies or juveniles to lose their grip from time to time?

Do you mean falling? No, not really. Have you had your husbandry reviewed? If not, would you like it reviewed? Can make sure everything is perfect to keep your cham healthy and happy.

 

[saradoggy10]

Also, is it normal for babies or juveniles to lose their grip from time to time?

Mine freaked out once when it was sleeping and had to mist. Fell a little bit but caught itself poor thing. Feel really bad. Hasn't done it since