Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I keep reading about people feeding thier Veiled Chams pinkies, is that a must? I'd be much happier sticking with the insects, but if the occaisional pinkie is necessary I can do that.

Definitely not a must...I can't handle it either. Don't worry...

Kristen
-----
1.1 pygmy leaf
1.0 carpet
1.0 jackson

Good to hear! I could do it if the cham needed to have them, but if I was ok with feeding live animals to other live animals, I'd have snakes! Crickets are pushing it as it is, lol!

Some people (myself included) like to give pinkies to their females after laying eggs. Helps with their calcium intake, and puts some weight back on them. However, I don't give pinkies to males. They don't need it.
I understand and respect how some may feel about feeding mice. I won't say much more on this subject.
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

How likely is it that my single female would lay eggs? Is that when you would give a pinkie, or just after a fertile clutch? Everything's got to eat, it just took me by surprise that my cham might need a pinkie mouse.

It just depends. Female veileds lay eggs whether they actually breed or not. The amount of food they get might have something to do with it. If you have a non-bred female, it's reccommended that you restrict the amount of food intake, but to maintain a good calcium intake.
I feed the pinkie after a clutch is laid, whether its fertile or not. Either way is taxing on the female. She will need to get her weight and calcium intake back up.
On a side note, my leopard geckos LOVE pinkies. They were laying 2 eggs almost every 2 weeks, but I only fed them pinkies once a month, at most during their egg laying season.
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

I hope you don't mind if I keep asking questions. My chameleon will never be bred, I had assumed that that would mean I wouldn't have to deal with eggs. Since that's not the case, best to be prepared I guess. If the time comes that she needs to lay eggs, will it be fairly obvious? What do I need to do for her if anything? And then with the pinkies, it's a pinkie mouse, correct? Do you feed it alive and wiggling or f/t? It still seems odd to me that a cham could eat and digest a pinkie, they never cease to amaze me! Thanks so much for the help, I thought I was well prepared before I even got my cham!

Yes, best be prepared.
When egg-laying time comes, it may not be too obvious to you. What some keepers do is they keep a small container of moist sand in the enclosure at all times. Then, if they see the female digging, they know it's time to move her to a deeper container of sand. I also know of someone who never bothered with the sand, and his female veiled simply used the soil in the potted plants to lay her eggs in. Go figure.
As for the pinkie, yes I meant f/t pinkie mouse. Some veileds recognize it as food right away, some need a little wiggling action to get it to zap.
I'll state again that offering a pinkie may not even be necessary. If you're prividing lots of natural, unfiltered sunlight on a daily basis, they're better able to metabolize calcium. If you couple natural sunlight with some calcium supplements, you wouldn't need the extra calcium from a pinkie. As for regaining some of that weight loss, you could use waxworms instead.
All comes down to personal choice
-----
Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com