I was on vacation and so happy to come back and see this! I didnt even think about how it can be different in his perspective, and i really want to have my cage 90% real plants. This helps out so much thank you for it! Im going to buy him a new large hybrid cage from dragon strand and really try to put these tips to useThose LED bulbs do not throw much heat. Look at the actual wattage of the bulb, not the "replaces" a certain wattage. All that "replaces" means is that it throws the same amount of light (lumens) that a 60w incandescent bulb does, but at less wattage. Wattage is your indicator of the amount of heat produced.
Your chameleon can be dark for a variety of reasons and being cold is one reason. Also, he might be an age when his colors are pretty mucky. Juvenile and young adult veileds tend to be a pretty mucky color. Or, his genetics are such that his colors are really mucky no matter what you do. I understand that the wild caught veileds from Florida are a pretty mucky color.
The pictures of your cage showed a very stark and barren cage from your chameleon's perspective. While it looks green to you, there is nowhere for your chameleon to actually easily travel in and out of cover. You seem to have blobs of impenetrable masses of plastic plants around the edges.
I hope I'm not stepping on @jpowell86 's toes by posting this picture without asking first, but Joel posted it on FaceBook, so I think he'll forgive me for not asking first. This picture really shows the way you want to furnish a cage for most chameleons. This is a free range set up for mellers in a greenhouse.
The first thing to notice is that the area is filled totally, not just around the edges. many people don't see a chameleon cage in three dimensions, looking at it as a two-dimensional picture and not filling in the middle.
There is an open area for the animal to bask with a variety of different sized natural branches at different heights. Notice that many if not most of the branches are small enough for the chameleons to get their feet completely around. Most people give their chameleons branches that are too big so they never exercise their feet and end up with foot problems and pressure sores.
There is a lot of cover from natural plants. Natural plants are important because they breathe, so they actually add humidity into the enclosure. Lack of humidity adds to chronic dehydration that most chameleons live with. Chronic dehydration ends with kidney failure.... Notice that the cover is made from small potted plants hanging on the framework of branches. you don't need a great big tall tree for your cage--you can make your own tree using pots of ferns on a framework of natural branches (which I don't even clean other than taking them from clean trees, i.e. not from the ground and not anywhere that birds roost. I like sword ferns. I buy a big pot and then chop it up into about 10 pieces and put each chunk of fern into a 4 or 6 inch pot and then zip tie them around the cages. I see there are a couple of Tillandsia (ball moss) that probably came from my trees.They really has no purpose other than to hold humidity and give a bit of cover. I use them as feeding stations in my cages. They are great for putting silk worms on. Notice also that there is a lot of misting going on in this cage.
I think that picture shows you what adequate cover looks like for a veiled or a panther (or one of my quads/graciliors).
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