Chantal
New Member
Hi everyone,
We are from the Netherlands, we have a veiled chameleon since 3 month, female, she is cute, powerfull and very curious. Stil it’s all new territory to have a reptile, besides our 2 cats, we do our best we can. In general i think she is okay, active, eating wel. But eating a lot of soil lately and shivers sometimes...
should we worry about that? We look forward to hear about your thoughts. Below all info filled in.
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? *** Female, 7 month old, we have her for 3 month, bought her at a reptileshop in NL.
Cage Info:
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
*** She eats a lot of soil, before that i was wondering if eating one turtleplant per week is okay. We had none for one week and she started to eat the Philondendron and soil...now we have 2 turtleplants in her cache. recently she has some kind of shivers, like she is cold for a second, I see it 2-3 times a day.
She started to sheed last week, on her chin, but only there, nowhere else.
We also wonder if we need to place a bin already?
We are from the Netherlands, we have a veiled chameleon since 3 month, female, she is cute, powerfull and very curious. Stil it’s all new territory to have a reptile, besides our 2 cats, we do our best we can. In general i think she is okay, active, eating wel. But eating a lot of soil lately and shivers sometimes...
should we worry about that? We look forward to hear about your thoughts. Below all info filled in.
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? *** Female, 7 month old, we have her for 3 month, bought her at a reptileshop in NL.
- Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? *** Not often, once per 2-3 weeks, only when we have special treats to get her wihout stress out of the cache
- Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? ***Crickets, locusts, silkworms, sometimes waxworms, superworms, 2 times a week broccoli, cooked, she loves greens, eats almost one turtleplant per week. She get’s 8 items per day, insects.
- Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? *** Calcium with D Exo Terra, multivitamines without D Reptivite Zoo med’s
- Watering - What kind of wateringp technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
- *** we spray by hand, one minute each time, 3 times a day, and mist 4 times per night 30 min. each, never see her drinking from leafes, sometimes she drinks from the pipet, i think she gets her hydration out of the turtleplant?
- Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? ** *** has not been tested, droppings looks good, solid, brown, not dry, and white part is sometimes quite slimy, but really white
- History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
- *** None
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? *** Screen cache 100 x 50 x 50 cm, 3 sides are covered with transparant plastic screens.
- Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? *** Lucky reptile 50 watt, uva/uvb and basking in one
- Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? ** * 28 degrees C 20 cm below the lamp, down in cache about 19 degrees C, overnight temp, 18-20 degrees C, lamp is on from 7:00 till 19:00
- Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? *** 30 - 50 overday, nights 80, spray overday, fogger during night
- Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? *** Yes, Philonendron and turtleplants
- Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? *** livingroom, corner on closet 1,20 meter of the floor, no vents, traffic yes, us (2 people) and our 2 cats, at 18:00 we cover the cache with a thin blanket so she has her privacy before sleeping, she needs that out of experience, otherwise she will search for weird sleeping places. Now she sleeps open on a stick.
- Location - Where are you geographically located? *** The Netherlands
Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
*** She eats a lot of soil, before that i was wondering if eating one turtleplant per week is okay. We had none for one week and she started to eat the Philondendron and soil...now we have 2 turtleplants in her cache. recently she has some kind of shivers, like she is cold for a second, I see it 2-3 times a day.
She started to sheed last week, on her chin, but only there, nowhere else.
We also wonder if we need to place a bin already?
The mercury vapor uvb can be used, but they can be difficult to maintain correct uvb levels. You’d need to have a solarmeter (which is expensive) to make sure the uvb levels are correct. That is one of the reasons that the T5 fixture with a 5.0 or Arcadia 6% uvb bulb is suggested and used most often. It delivers a wider area of uvb and levels are more consistent at various distances. The T5 needs to span the width of your enclosure.
