Veiled Not Eating

[Cyphyrys]

hey i just recently bought a veiled chameleon..... and it will only eat wax worms... and like only one every 2 days.. should i worry about this.. how cna i get it to eat crickets again or is there some alternative that i can use as a staple food for this little beast..well thnx

[Dave W.]

Howdy,

Well, he(?) can be fed the proper size of silkworms, superworms, mealworms, roaches for starters.

But more to the point of why he isn't eating.

How old is he?
What size?
How long had he been eatng crickets?
How is he taking in moisture?
How often?
Describe his environment.
Cage
Lighting inc. UVB source (light cycles too)
Heat sources (range inside environment and range day/night)
Plants
Substrate (if used)
Perches and their relation to heat/light
Calcium?
Vitamins?
Gutloading insects?

This will help me and anyone else give some useful advice now and in the future. I'm not specifically a Veiled guy but I do keep a Panther and have followed many threads on other sites about Veileds etc. I also stayed in a Holiday Inn once too!

Good Luck,

Dave Weldon

[Cyphyrys]

I'm not sure on how old the chameleon is, it was given to me as a birthday gift. It's about 2 and 3/4 in. long (not including tail)
The chameleon was eating crickets the first couple of days I had it. (they were gut loaded and calcium powdered).
I mist the cage with a spray bottle through out the day, and have a drip cup and a bowled leaf that it drinks from.
It's a mesh cage.. with live and fake plants in it, it's about 3ft.(tall) by 1.5 ft.(wide)
Heat /basking light is an Exo Terra Heat Glo Heat Lamp(day time) at night I switch to the infrared heat lamp), and it is near a bunch of windows and recieves a lot of sun light.
The real plants in there are just sugar snap peas trained to grow on the sides of the cage.
Substrate (if used)
I have a few wooden perches in the cage mixed in with the fake plants, I have some near the light (100degrees F) in their location(this is for basking) . Other perches and plants leading away from the light (78degrees F) in their location.... I think that answered everything......hope you cna help, and thank you for ur time......

Fritz

[Cyphyrys]

oh yeah im not sur eon gender i guess female form what i've read i tplain green wiht a few little yellow'ish blotches on it... and i also read somehitn abour some rectangular something on the back of the rear feet thta males have... and i see nothign like that......but i do not know

[Dave W.]

Howdy Fritz,

Well, I didn't see something way-outa-whack with your answers. One thing that I didn't see on the reply was a UVB source. Generally, unless you have special windows, they will filter out ALL UVB light from sunlight. You'll want to get something like a Reptisun 5.0 and make sure that she can get within a foot or even a little closer. That way she'll get somewhere in the range of 5-20uW/cm2 of UVB available for about 12 hours a day. Keep an eye on that temperature. You might be better off with a high temp of 90F at the basking spot and 70F at the lowest point. Most chams need a 10F drop at night. If the air temp doesn't drop below 65-70F at night I don't think you'll need a night time heat source. Its my understanding that Veileds are pretty hardy chams, but you'll still want to monitor the humidity. I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong (on any points) but I think you'll want to try to keep it higher than 50%, and 60% would be even better if its easy for you to get it there. Veileds might be more tolerant than others when it comes to humidity.

When it comes down to it: not too hot, not too cold, taking in water regularly, getting misted regularly, more live plants than not, UVB light source (not too much not too little).

Silkworms are high in protein and water and that will balance the high fat content of waxworms. Waxworms aren't the most digestable bugs in the world but not too bad either.

If you have access to a gram scale, now would be a good time to get a baseline weight to make sure she isn't loosing weight.

Mealworms aren't the best food either, but if it is a situation that she is just waiting for a change in her food supply, then that would be one thing to try.

Her size makes me think that she might be 3-4 months old. She could eat the larger type of flightless fruit fly if you can get them or other food grade flies too. Smaller silkworms or smaller hornworms might perk her up too.

If you want to follow-up with reading, buy "Chameleons Their Care and Breeding" by Linda J. Davison ISBN 0-88839-353-9 It's about $20. You can buy it directly from her too if you want.

Keep us up to date with your progress.

Dave Weldon

[Cyphyrys]

thank you, i'll give this stuff a try, and let you know what happens

[Cyphyrys]

I bought a Vita Lite today at Pet Stuff. The employee who cares for the chameleons says that's what he uses for his at home. Well anyways, i set it up and about 15 minutes later she was basking in the light, i went along doing tasks i needed to around the house. After about 1.5 hours i came bakc in the room and she was sitll in th elight, so i calciumed up some crickets and put them in a dish an dplaced it in her view. I then took a shower and when i came bakc out there were no crickets left and sh ehad a nice cocaine mustache :eatsmiley !!!! lol So i don't know if it was the light that did it or what... but thank you very much for your help, i was getting concerned!!
Fritz

[Dave W.]

Great! Sounds like she's on her way to happy times. Oh, on dusting with calcium and vitamins; with an indoor UVB source, you would usually be using calcium with D3 to aid in absorption, should be used sparingly. It is just as easy to end up with metabolic bone disease with a shortage of calcium as it is easy to end up with kidney trouble etc. with too much calcium/D3. As she grows older, less is needed. Some reading will uncover many opinions on the subject of how much and how often. Moderation... I might avoid every day dosages and maybe go with every other day or even a little less than that. Multi-vitamins, same story. If she is going to get hours of outdoor sunlight exposure one or more days a week, then you'll want to look into switching to calcium without D3 in it. Read, read ,read....

Again, good luck-

Dave Weldon

[Cyphyrys]

ok i'll check thta all out, thnx

[Cham keeper]

I was going to say maybe he got bored of crickets but I guess not.


CK