Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my veild is about 5 months old and ive had it for about 4 months andit has only shed 2 times also i think it is a litle small i 6.75 inches seem to small. is there anything wrong with my chameleon i dust crickets and i put it outside for atleast 2 hours every day so what else can i do. also it isnt eating like it used to.

Hi there,

Chameleons have different speeds in growth. This chameleon might be growing a little slower, but if I was you, i would make sure that he is eating ok. Try to gutload with high quality dark greens, and also offer a variety of insects and if you try hard enough he might eat some fruits. Could you tell us what your dusting with? Is he stressed? Stress might stunt growth. Please give us some more detail and well be able to help you better.

Best wishes to you and the chameleon,

Anthony

reptocal with D3 and stickytoung formula and i feed the crickets tropical fish food

Its not nutritionally complete for the crickets OR the lizard. Start feeding them dark green leafy veggies and/or some sort of commercial gut load like Flukers Orange Cubes or Cricket Total Bites. The bites will actually turn the inside of your crickets green so you'll know theyve been ingesting them, and once hte good stuff is in the cricket, you know it will get into your cham. The fish food doesnt provide adequate nutrition to allow for the growth of a reptile, espeically if youre using one of the lower quality fish foods, like Tetra Min or Wardleys. In fact, you're lucky that your crix are living, because that stuff is all filler.

hope that helps,
Jamie
-----
Jamie A. Stine and the Gang:

1.1 Jacksons Chamelions (Ratchet & Clank)
1.0 Veiled Chamelion (George)
1.1 Bearded Dragons (Lancelot & Guenivere)
1.0 Giant Frog Eyed Geckos (Peanut Butter & Jelly)
0.0.1 Albino Pac Man Frog (Hermann)
0.1 Borneo Short Tailed Python (Ezmerelda)
0.1 Red Tailed Boa (Buffy)
1.0 Short Tailed O'possum (Jethro)
1.0 Greyhound (Hank)

Save a life, adopt a retired racer!

well i have a baby veiled and i feed its crickets flukers highcalcium cricket feed which is kinda a yellow grainy powder and dust the crickets with herptcare cricket dust. this is my first cham, this combo of feed/dust works well with my uro's does it sound ok for a chameleon?

If you and matt want to know what a really great nutritionally balanced gutload SHOULD be look at these sites. I have only found one commercial gutload that I would ever use right off the shelf. You can make a much better one yourself. Flukers cricket food is not complete either!

www.herpnutrition.com, and www.adcham.com (gutload recipe).

I would dust crickets about three times a week at that age and see how he does.