Some feeding tips please!

[Bianca]

Hello hello!

I'm looking after a few teeny tiny chameleons for a friend of mine while she's away in London, her female gave birth to about 20 babies and so far all but 7 have died. I'm not sure what type they are, I forget, but I think they are veiled?

I have tried to feed them pinhead crickets, but they seem to only eat the smallest ones, which are very few amongst bigger ones, leaving a few larger ones to just roam about, which i don't really like. (I don't like crickets, full stop)

I have tried to feed them aphids, which were a hit the first day, but then I started to worry as I live in a complex and although we have TONS of roses and TONS of aphids, i'm worried the roses have been sprayed with poison. Now i'm paranoid and won't feed them those anymore.

They are very active during the day, and sleep all night long. I have constructed a water-holder out of some special leaves and thread, and they drink all the time. I place ice cubes at the top of their tank during the day so they have constant dripping water.

Is there anything else I could do to keep them alive and growing? What else could I feed them if the 'pinheads' available to me are slightly bigger than they can handle? I really am NO expert at chameleons, in fact, this is a complete deep-end first for me.

Any advice will be much appreciated!!

[Wolf777]

Do they have sufficient lighting and heating?

[Chameleon Company]

You worry me with the "gave birth" part? hahahahah

Anyway, pinheads are the best, try to get day old pinheads or as small as possible. If the chameleons didnt die on the first feeding then give them more aphids.

Try fruit flies too, put out a slice of water melon in the shade outside and return in an hour with a net to catch them for the juvenile chameleons.

For Juveniles, the dietary list is quite limited unfortunately.

Keep them warm and hydrated and allow them for a never ending supply of food.

All the best

[Bianca]

You worry me with the "gave birth" part? hahahahah

Hahaha, well, I know as much about chameleons as I do about fixing cars!

Thanks a lot! Will try it!

[Bushviper]

The chances are that you have Dwarf chameleons there. Offer them fruit flies and try to get them into sunlight as often as possible. There is a fair amount of information on raising chameleons on the forum. search all the posts and I hope that some survive till she gets back.

Aphids usually die rather quickly if they have been sprayed.

[Bianca]

I have been reading up on it quite a bit and have found a lot of info on this site, thank goodness. I can never really trust all google sites as there are a lot of out there with a lot of different opinions.

Thanks for all your help.

x

[Chamssss]

Did you manage to find out if they are native dwarf chameleons or an exotic? Try posting pics or email some to me at pantherssa@gmail.com

Fruitflies can be a mission to get, they fly away quite easily so unless you can keep them in with the babies then use it, otherwise try feeding them pinhead crickets, baby silkworms if you can get some of them...
Be sure not to feed them bugs bigger than there mouth...
Also they babies can dehydrate fast, to keep them healthy its good to keep them outside in some sun, because they are babies I would keep them under shade of trees.
They also need lots of water so spray their cage about 3 times a day, letting the cage dry between each misting.
For more water you could take plastic or styrafoam cups with a pin hole in each filled with water, this will be a drip system and they can drink from it for quite a while as they please.
Dont keep any heat lights or anything like that on them at night.
A night time drop of temperature does good for chameleons.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions.
Good luck