My first chameleon

[snake kid]

At last I'm getting my first chameleon or make that 2 chameleons thanks to Paul from chameleon company. I'm getting veiled chameleons so I've been reading up on them for ages looking at different setups feeding and so on. But as most of you know the care sheets always seem to differ a bit so here are a few questions just to double check and make sure I have super happy chameleons.

1- (Substrate) Some people say not to use a substrate just plain newspaper others say it is fine to use peat.
2- (Feeding) They say to feed the young ones twice a day but they don't specify how much. I know about the food size not exceeding the width of the cham's head but how much can I feed it.
3- (Housing) I'm getting 2 baby's 10 month old, so they say I can house them together at first is this true? I know the older adults are territorial so they need separate cages but what about my baby's?
4 (What to feed) I have been trying my hand at breeding different feeder insects as a trail for the last few months to see which works the best. I suck at breeding crickets, so will my Dubia roaches, meal worms and silk worms be enough as these are the feeders that I have at the moment and they are doing well? I will occasionally buy some crickets but it is hard as I have to order them each time from Cape town and that works out quite expensive. I will also soon be starting to breed Turkestan roaches.

I will be building my cages over the next few day's so will post pic's when I'm done.

All help appreciated.

[kinghero]

I well to start off, I got my chameleons from Paul and in my opinion he is the best to ask he always gives good advice and is always willing to help.
1- I don’t like using a substrate I believe it can clog them up, I could be wrong.
2- With mine, they would stop eating when full so I would feed them till they stopped eating.
3- Well at 10months I think they would be more sub-adult than baby I would rather separate (ask Paul as he knows the size of the chameleons you’re getting.
4- I feed mine crickets (easy to get) but if they willing to take silk worms and other stuff I can’t see why it would be a problem with the variety that you have at the moment it really comes down to what they would accept and if hungry enough they will take anything. As long as in the right size range I think you should be fine.
Good luck an congratz hope you enjoy and love them I know I do

[snake kid]

Hi

Thanks kinghero, sorry just saw my mistake it is actually 10 weeks old.

[snake kid]

Okay another mistake 5-6 weeks old so sorry.

[kinghero]

Lol well then I can’t see why you couldn’t keep them together I have that’s little older than that still together. Just keep checking their size once they are getting to big rather separate them to be safe. Also if one is growing a lot faster than the other separate cause once its double the size the small one will stressed and might stop eating or not be able to compete with the bigger one for food

[snake kid]

Okay and another question can I put the food in a tub at the bottom of my enclosure because my mom is really scared of my roaches escaping although I have assured her my enclosure will be escape proof. So just to assure her I want to put the food in the tub. Or will they eat off the tweezers straight away?

Thank you so much for all your help.

[kinghero]

Not all chameleons will take the food from you. What kind of enclosure will it be? Reason for asking I have the flexeriums and I prefer the food to be able to move around so they can hunt it. Keeps them fit lol. But you could put it in a tub as long as they can see the food an reach it, it won’t be a problem

[snake kid]

I am building it myself, I prefer to build all my enclosures myself, then I can choose how it looks and make it to suite me and what I can use it for or where it will be standing. I should be finished with it by tomorrow but it will be 1m high 60cm deep and 60cm wide. It will have 2 lights one for heat and one for my UV bulb. The lights will be outside the enclosure about 10cm above the cage and then it will have a few basking spots at different levels.

[Rodwraylva]

Do not know much on chams, but I found a cape dwarf chameleon (Bradypodium pumilum) 2 weeks ago, walked around to see it eat, took a vid of it eating a dragon fly, was epically awesome it was wild caught and ate off my finger, or rather while on my finger, but did not want to eat when I helt the dragonfly in my hand, running wild seems better in my opinion, I will try to upload the video

[Sage]

Do not know much on chams, but I found a cape dwarf chameleon (Bradypodium pumilum) 2 weeks ago, walked around to see it eat, took a vid of it eating a dragon fly, was epically awesome it was wild caught and ate off my finger, or rather while on my finger, but did not want to eat when I helt the dragonfly in my hand, running wild seems better in my opinion, I will try to upload the video

Hi

Did you let the Bradypodium pumilum go?

[Rodwraylva]

Yes, after it finnished eating, I released it.

[Chameleon Company]

Good day all.

I will explain everything to u once I meet up with you in the Western Cape.

I would also like to say that all legalities regarding Gauteng and CapNature have been met. GDARD has supplied the export permit and CapeNature has supplied the import permit as well as a captivity permit.