1 Year Veiled Chameleon Update

[JiggyWalk]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - 1.2 year old Male Veiled Chameleon has been with me for 11 months
• Handling - Every other day or so to get onto his plant outside of the cage
• Feeding - He gets a large dubia roach 5/7 days a week and every 2-3 feedings will be a treat item like a superworm or hornworm as well as 2 BSFL 2-3 times a week if they are in
• Supplements - Arcadia EarthPro-A very lightly dusted every feeding except 2x a month (1st and 15th) will get Repashy Calcium Plus LoD Vit/Cal Supplement, feeders get Repashy Bug Burger with their feeding
• Watering - 1 minute misting at 10 minutes before lights on and 10 before lights off, fog rolls for 30 minutes (15 on each side) as lights cycle and 3 times throughout the night for 15 min
• Fecal Description - Urate tends to stay white with a slight yellow or creme end and the feces tends to be in 1-2 main brown/black clumps and sometimes but rarely 3
• History - Picked this guy up from PetSmart with a reptibreeze cage and quickly realized there was much more to this than initially expected

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - 2x2x4 Dragon Strand Tall Screen Cage System with Dragon Strand Ledges
• Lighting and Heat - Arcadia ProT5 6% 24W Forest UV-B Kit, Jungle Dawn 34W LED Bar, 100W black ceramic heat lamp in a Zoo Med deep dome, 65w BR30 flood light and another black ceramic heat lamp in a Zoo Med dual mini dome that stays off as backup. The ProT5, LED bar and the ceramic heat lamp turn off 30 minutes before the flood light to signal that the sun is going down.
• Temperature - Mid to Low 80s at tallest basking spot and low 70's at the lowest
• Humidity - 50-60% during the day and 80-90% at night with fog
• Plants - 2 Money trees, Golden Pothos, Rubber Fig, Beauty Aglaonema
• Placement - Located in my bedroom near a window and near a vent with low overall traffic, his basking lanes are higher than anything in the room
• Location - DMV

He hates me now but that was expected as you all did warn me and I am now finally starting to understand how they work. His mood is different day to day but is overall easy to read when you know what to look for. I have noticed that if there is a plant or feature that he likes to climb on that is outside of his cage and he can see it, that he will be way more willing to leave the cage vs shying away and hiding when opening the door overall vs when there is no feature seeable or available. It is hit or miss wether he will run and hide or hang out when the door opens during the day even for food but at this point he will not run to leave the cage. If I don't make him my main concern visually then I can do just about anything in or around his cage i.e. watering plants, cleaning, or moving/adding sticks. He stuck my eyeball with his tongue while feeding the other day. I think it was over some previous beef, he now he struts around like he beat the final boss or something, who does this guy think he is anyway? Bit me once but I thought we settled that already, personal space I get it, I get it... I swear I need a chameleon wrangler badge. Recently got a hanging bird feeder cup that works well, idea from Neptune the Chameleon. I agree with Chameleon Academy on walking past the cage and "not seeing them" helps boost their spirits and adds credits. I am still attempting to figuring out the chameleon credit system and wether it is daily, weekly, monthly, lifetime. If your chameleon is not defecating, put them under the spray of the shower against the wall.

 

[Eileen]

Fun post! What a personality!

 

[JiggyWalk]

For new chameleon owners that didn't research much like myself, I'll save you some time.
Get a 2x2x4 cage at least or build your own, no substrate at the bottom unless you plan on going bioactive, figure out an automatic watering system and get timers for lights. I use 2 mechanical Zoo Med Repticare Terrarium Controllers and 1 Philips 24 Hour indoor mechanical outlet timer plugged into one of the controllers to acheive the schedule from above. I use a ReptiTrip reptile mister with a gallon jug or bucket and a Coospider top fill reptile fogger, this specific fogger has a blue light that turns on during use FYI. For plant pots I use thin 6.5in wide and 7in deep pots with 2/3 all natural organic indoor & outdoor potting mix and 1/3 play sand mix. I top the soil with river rocks/landscape rocks that are too big for him to swallow to cover the soil from accidental mulch or bulb eatage. Using 1 pot with 3 points of contact with zip ties lets you easily place and remove plants in pots by double stacking the pots in the cage. Having a good plant light is important as well as a solid UVB source. Make sure to check how often you need to change the bulb, Arcadia is every year while others can be every 6 months. I clean everything that goes in the cage, sticks are found and left in the garage for a day, points are rounded or sanded, they get washed down with water and dawn soap, then oven baked for 15-20min at 300. The plant leaves (top and bottom) get wiped down with paper towels after removing the old soil from the roots and repotting then showering them. I started with 10-12 feeders which mostly contained 1/2in banded crickets with some BSFL and small hornworms, superworms, or silkworms. I eventually started slowly replacing crickets with dubia roaches and then feeding less over time and a year later he is eating 1-3 food items every other day on average. I would first offer a food item with my hand and then after that interaction I would place a tranclucent bowl with non bouncy feeders in it like worms and dubias where he can see it while basking, then I would dump the crickets or bouncy food items from a cup into the bowl and close the door, I'd watch to make sure he eats a couple then let him do his thing. Usually half would stay and half would leave the bowl so he was brought up on a hybrid program of hand, bowl, and hunting for food. BSFL will turn into BSF eventually, it seems fun at first until you have 30 of them trying to escape everytime you open the lid. Patience and slower movement is key and they dont like to be stared at. They will bite every plant in there so I recommend using only live plants. Mirrors will break your chameleon and lead to a stressful life, get the setup before the animal. Zip ties need to be sanded down or rounded off and moved out of the way, if it cuts you it'll cut a chameleon.

 

[BleuSaphir]

He looks great!

 

[JiggyWalk]

 

[Tkrd69]

Looks beautiful

 

[elizaann2]

What a beautiful boy you have! And fantastic photo of him zapping a fly!!!!