Can someone ask me some questions to make sure i’m doing the right thing having a Chameleon!

[roverthechamleon]

Hey everyone! I have a juvenile chameleon who is an female. I’ve had her for about a month now, can you guys ask me some questions to make sure i’m doing and i have the right things.

 

[bbyoda]

Welcome to the forum and the world of chameleon keeping! Can you answer these questions and share pics of your girl and her enclosure, from top to bottom, including lights, supplements, etc?

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
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?
Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

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Please Note:
The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
Photos can be very helpful.

 

[roverthechamleon]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled, Female, and Juvenile . 1.5 month
Handling - Once a week
Feeding - Crickets Daily, Mealworms weekly How are you gut-loading your feeders? With flukers cube
Supplements - I don’t remember
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? Spray, ordered dripper plant yesterday. How often and how long to you mist? 5 Mins. Do you see your chameleon drinking? No.


Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) Screen . What are the dimensions? something 18x18x30

Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? basking 87. Bottom floor around 78. Lowest overnight temp? 62 F. How do you measure these temps? Hygrometer and Thermometer
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? idk. How are you creating and maintaining these levels? By spraying most of the time. What do you use to measure humidity? Hygrometer
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? No.
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? No. At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? I don’t know but it’s off the ground on a stand.

 

[bbyoda]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled, Female, and Juvenile . 1.5 month

Have you had her for 1.5 months? Or is she 1.5 months old? 1.5 months old is very young and they're very sensitive as babies. Can you share pics please?

Handling - Once a week

Chameleons are more of a enjoy with your eyes kind of pet. Handling can cause them stress so important to go at their own pace unless you need to take them out for meds or the vet.

Feeding - Crickets Daily, Mealworms weekly How are you gut-loading your feeders? With flukers cube

Unfortunately pet shops and companies sell all sorts of stuff that just isn't right for chameleons. Flukers cube isn't going to make the crickets nutritious enough to keep your girl healthy and thriving. Fresh veggies are best, I use collard greens, mustard greens, kale, sweet potato, butternut squash, carrots, papaya, and a mix of spirulina, bee pollen, and ground flax seed to feed my feeders. Additionally you want to give her a variety of bugs. Try roaches, silkworms, and black soldier fly larvae. Superworms and hornworms are good treats. Mealworms can be given occasionally but not as a staple.

I'm attaching some graphics for you to reference.

Supplements - I don’t remember

Okay so this is super important. Chameleons in captivity don't get all the nutrients they would in the wild. Supplements give calcium and vitamins and without the right supplement schedule they get all sorts of issues and can die. Calcium especially, we see a lot of chameleons on the forums with metabolic bone disease (basically rickets) because people don't give them the right supplements and don't have the right lights, so the chameleons body pulls calcium right from its own bones and eventually they die from MBD if changes aren't made and vet intervention isn't given.

Are you dusting her crickets with powder? If so, take a pic of the supplements and let me know which you're using how often and I can tell you if it's correct.

Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? Spray, ordered dripper plant yesterday. How often and how long to you mist? 5 Mins. Do you see your chameleon drinking? No.

They are secretive drinkers. The way you tell if they're hydrated is through their urates. But the other important thing about misting is that it keeps humidity levels in the right range for them. What you want to do is missed in the morning and again at night so that the cage dries out in between your mistings. 5 minutes seems like a long time but if your hand misting that might be okay you just want to see all the plants covered with water and dripping droplets so that she's able to drink those droplets. To make a dripper out of a small milk carton just fill it up and poke a hole in the bottom with a tack and put it on the top of your cage. You want the dripper to be dripping on top of a plant because that's how they drink water in the wild.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) Screen . What are the dimensions? something 18x18x30

This is okay while she's still small, but you want to go ahead and order an appropriate size cage for her as an adult now, so you can start setting it up properly. The correct size is 2 ft by 2 ft by 4 ft tall. This is really important so she has enough space to move around feel safe and so you have enough space to put in a lay bin for her to lay her eggs.

Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? basking 87. Bottom floor around 78. Lowest overnight temp? 62 F. How do you measure these temps? Hygrometer and Thermometer

Basking temp is too hot. It's really important for babies, and for girls, to not go above 82° for basking. Higher temps means more egg production, which leads to shorter lifespan. You want to get a lower temperature gradient for the bottom of the cage. The night time drop to 62° is great. It's also super important to know what type of hygrometer and thermometer you're using to measure these temps, a lot of the analog ones are inaccurate. You want a digital one that has a probe, a lot of the people here including myself use the brand govee Which is pretty affordable.

Humidity - What are your humidity levels? idk.

How are you creating and maintaining these levels? By spraying most of the time. What do you use to measure humidity? Hygrometer

So what type of hygrometer? Is it digital? Or is it analog? Include a picture. If you have a hygrometer you should be able to see what percentage humidity is during the day and at night. For a veiled chameleon you want between 30% and 50% during the day. At night you wanted to be higher.

Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? No.

All right it's really important to use live plants. One reason is to keep humidity in the right ranges, but another is because veiled chameleons like to eat or munch on the plants in their enclosure. So you need to buy veiled tested and safe plants to make sure she's able to eat lunch and pass whatever she's munching on. If she eats fake plants that could get stuck inside her and she'll get impacted and die.

Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? No. At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? I don’t know but it’s off the ground on a stand.

Great! Fans and vents can create drafts that can bother them, high traffic areas can stress them out, and it being off the ground on a stand is good because chameleons equate height with safety. Can you get out of measuring tape or take a picture so that we can see how high up she is. I basically have my Veiled chameleons enclosure as high up off the ground as it can get. Once I did that, his whole behavior changed and he was a lot calmer with me because he felt way more secure.

 

[bbyoda]

Okay, so I know that that was really a lot, and the important thing is to not get overwhelmed, And start to make the changes so that she stays healthy, and you don't have to have that intervention.

I think there were a few things that you didn't answer about, specifically poop and lighting. Those are also important. Maybe you can share a few pics of the enclosure?

 

[bbyoda]

In case you learn better via video I highly recommend watching Neptune the Chameleon. Here are some starter videos related to issues in your husbandry:











https://youtu.be/9BAs2Os1XN8

https://youtu.be/nJFVKeyfpRE