Posted by:
lele
at Mon Jul 4 16:10:15 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by lele ]
Hi - thanks for your sympathies about Luna.
Yes, I saw your post below and sort of replied.
I assume she is adult as she has already laid clutches - her cage is too small. She really needs a 4x2x2 all screen cage.
Her temps sound OK - but what are you using to test them? those strip and needle cheapies that every pet store carries are usueless. At the least you need a digital (about $18 at home depot which includes a humidity gauge) ideally a temp gun ($30 including ship at www.tempgun.com)
"Her food is diverse to include cricketas the main staple,mealworms,mealworm beatles,superworms,katiedids in summer,pinkies only to help her bounce back after egg laying,"
all the insects you mentioned have high chitin (the hard substance that makes up the exoskeleton of insects. I would recommend limiting the mealies, beetles and katydids. Superworms are fatty. I would suggest including silkies as a regular, or at least frequent, feeder and waxworms as treats. go here for chart and article on bug's nutrition:
www.chameleonnews.com/year2002/sept2002/nutrition/nutrition_sept_02.html
pinkies for a veiled? I know some people feed pinkies, but female veiled's are not large animals and I (personally) would not recommend this - there are much better ways to get her back on track after laying - silkworms are naturally high in calcium and waxworms are good for putting a little weight back on. NOTE: waxworms are very high in fat and should NOT be a long term feeder.
"she gets misted 2 times a day and suplement her with hybiscus flowers,dandilion greens,carot slivers,brocoly tops, she eats insects everyother day,and vegy matter once a week"
Offer her veggies everyday if she will take them. Ease up on the broccoli. Here is a great site with nutritional content - it is on a beardie site but is a great reference. http://home.comcast.net/~holachapulin/Nutrition.html I printed it ou in color and refer to it all the time. Feed squash - you can't go wrong with it! Luna loved her butternut squash 
Is the misting her only water source? She should have a dripper, auto mister (or humidifier) on a timer. Depending where you live dehydration can be an issue
"her food is supplimented with insects and include sand fire dragon ranchcham dust and jurasic pet calsium once a week."
uh - why a dragon dust? The ones most widely used by cham keeprs is Rep-Cal calcium with Vit D3 and Rep-Cal's Herptivite (multivitamin). An adult should have food dusted with the cal/d3 once/week and vitamin once/month.
"the insects are gutloaded with flugars cricket food and carrots,brocoly tops,lemon slices"
just my opinion, but there are better cricket gutloads than Flukers. Cricketfood.com and you can also make your own (so you know it is fresh) using the gutload recipe at www.adcham.com as a guide.
all that said....you have had her for awhile and she looks healthy in the pic below. But I would really consider giving her a larger cage - even though they tend to stay in the top foot or so
Oh - one last thing that I found invaluable when it came to Luna - a good digital scale. It is a great guide to her health and gravidness. Once you establish her "normal" weight you can chekc it every few days or weekly to maintain and tell if she is gaining or losing.
How is she doing now?
lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.3 Mad. Hissers (2 died ;(
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
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RE: could somebody please respond to my post below PLEASE NEED HELP - lele, Mon Jul 4 16:10:15 2005