Carpet chameleon!

[Uri]

Now I have purchased a carpet chameleon and have te enclosure set up although I still am fine tuning the temperature and I haven’t found much information on exact numbers that are good although I have seen suggestions that their care is almost the same as a panther only smaller this is a pvc enclosure with a screen top and holes I drilled for chimney effect airflow it is bioactive with a tropical mix I use coco coir, orchid bark, sphagnum moss, sand and just a little charcoal mostly from my spring tail culture. There is a drainage layer although not very deep due to the fact that well it shouldn’t fill up otherwise I’m overwatering i added a rather large amount of springtails and if needed I’ll add supers to help aerate the soil I also have dwarf white isopods. My humidity levels are fine with 50-60 during the day and 90 at night with a 100% spike during the initial mist. The enclosure is above the minimum size of 18x18x24. My basking around 85 temperature even with the light on all day I will not have it on all day tho only in the morning for a few hours and periodically to keep my ambient temperature in the mid 70s what basking temp should be adequate. I can always fine tune the temperatures with raising the light shortening the time it’s all etc.

 

[Uri]

I’m taking a lot of the basic care information from Frank Payne the breeder I also do still have to mount branches while will be hard in a pvc enclosure I might just silicone them although I’m not too fond of that as it won’t look very nice anyone have any suggestions for that with pvc that won’t make the enclosure look bad

 

[Uri]

This is what the setup looks like so far I’ll also add some pothos to fill in a lot of gaps and provide more foleage

 

[Chameleoking]

@ElliotG

 

[ElliotG]

Awesome enclosure you got there! I had my basking temps around yours as well. I tried to keep it at 87. Everything else looks good IMO. Maybe spike the humidity up, I heard 70-80% is more what they like. But it’s been almost 2 months since I owned one. Can we see the little guy?

 

[skywes13]

I’m taking a lot of the basic care information from Frank Payne the breeder I also do still have to mount branches while will be hard in a pvc enclosure I might just silicone them although I’m not too fond of that as it won’t look very nice anyone have any suggestions for that with pvc that won’t make the enclosure look bad

You could do a naturalistic background using great stuff expanding foam. Here's a good video on it:

 

[DocZ]

I’m taking a lot of the basic care information from Frank Payne the breeder I also do still have to mount branches while will be hard in a pvc enclosure I might just silicone them although I’m not too fond of that as it won’t look very nice anyone have any suggestions for that with pvc that won’t make the enclosure look bad

If you’re following Frank Payne’s suggestions you are definitely on the right track

 

[Uri]

Awesome enclosure you got there! I had my basking temps around yours as well. I tried to keep it at 87. Everything else looks good IMO. Maybe spike the humidity up, I heard 70-80% is more what they like. But it’s been almost 2 months since I owned one. Can we see the little guy?

Thanks this is very helpful I’ll try to add a couple seconds to my misting, and raise my temp a couple degrees because after adjusting the temps actually tended to be a bit lower on the 82-83 after clamping it. Hopefully just having it slightly closer will allow the basking to be 86-87 I don’t have any pictures of the little guy I’ll receive him on Wednesday if the weather conditions and temperatures are okay to ship.

 

[Uri]

You could do a naturalistic background using great stuff expanding foam. Here's a good video on it:

I’d love to do this but unfortunately I already have the cage mostly set up and taking it apart to do this seems like a lot more work then I’ll be willing to do. My next chameleon and yes I plan on getting more just not now I will do this or possibly for my mourning geckos when they get out of their grow out enclosures.

 

[Uri]

If you’re following Frank Payne’s suggestions you are definitely on the right track

Yes sadly I couldn’t find many numbers for environment just suggestions but I did follow a lot of his advice on his article and YouTube as well as other research. This is probably my favorite looking enclosure so far

 

[DocZ]

Yes sadly I couldn’t find many numbers for environment just suggestions but I did follow a lot of his advice on his article and YouTube as well as other research. This is probably my favorite looking enclosure so far

If you haven’t heard these yet, check them out
https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-14-carpet-chameleons-with-kevin-stanford/

https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-84-carpet-chameleon-roundtable/


And @javadi will also be a good resource

 

[Uri]

If you haven’t heard these yet, check them out
https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-14-carpet-chameleons-with-kevin-stanford/

https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-84-carpet-chameleon-roundtable/


And @javadi will also be a good resource

Oh yeah I listened to both of these it’s surprising how many episodes of chameleon academy I’ve listened to there’s probably only a few of these I haven’t listened to but just about all of them I have

 

[javadi]

If you follow Frank's care info carpets will do very well for you. As far as their natural environment, I have not been to Madagascar (unfortunately), but I know from various surveys, reports, and personal communications that they are very widespread and will colonize disturbed habitat. They are not a deep forest, humidity-loving species like many calumma. When raising babies/juveniles, they are not as sensitive to humidity and water as other species that are obligate forest-dwellers. Fog is fine but can easily be overdone with this species, so at the slightest start of respiratory troubles back off on it. That's not to say don't use it, just keep an eye on it as especially when they're small and in a hybrid setup, they seem to really need the airflow over humidity per se.

They are frequently found in relatively dry savannahs, and colonize areas like bushes beside the roads, again evidencing that your 40-60% humidity during the day and higher at night is fine. Keeping the heat light on all the time while he grows up is also fine. If you look at climatic conditions, and consider that in captivity the key to hatching them out successfully is a diapause, one can surmise that babies are not around constantly throughout the year in the wild, and instead grow up in certain conditions. Namely, when it is warmer with abundant bugs. So keeping it warmer so it grows quicker is probably more like what happens in the wild and thus is probably a good idea. I would suggest letting the temps drop at night when it's an adult, it seems to improve longevity and can help prevent infertile clutches from developing (although I don't know if you got a male or female).

TLDR;

Carpets are extremely adaptable. Exact numbers aren't really needed because they thrive in a variety of conditions. Following Frank's care guide is a great idea and will lead to a healthy carpet chameleon. What you have sounds very good, and best of luck with him/her! (I guess "guy" implies male).

 

[Uri]

If you follow Frank's care info carpets will do very well for you. As far as their natural environment, I have not been to Madagascar (unfortunately), but I know from various surveys, reports, and personal communications that they are very widespread and will colonize disturbed habitat. They are not a deep forest, humidity-loving species like many calumma. When raising babies/juveniles, they are not as sensitive to humidity and water as other species that are obligate forest-dwellers. Fog is fine but can easily be overdone with this species, so at the slightest start of respiratory troubles back off on it. That's not to say don't use it, just keep an eye on it as especially when they're small and in a hybrid setup, they seem to really need the airflow over humidity per se.

They are frequently found in relatively dry savannahs, and colonize areas like bushes beside the roads, again evidencing that your 40-60% humidity during the day and higher at night is fine. Keeping the heat light on all the time while he grows up is also fine. If you look at climatic conditions, and consider that in captivity the key to hatching them out successfully is a diapause, one can surmise that babies are not around constantly throughout the year in the wild, and instead grow up in certain conditions. Namely, when it is warmer with abundant bugs. So keeping it warmer so it grows quicker is probably more like what happens in the wild and thus is probably a good idea. I would suggest letting the temps drop at night when it's an adult, it seems to improve longevity and can help prevent infertile clutches from developing (although I don't know if you got a male or female).

TLDR;

Carpets are extremely adaptable. Exact numbers aren't really needed because they thrive in a variety of conditions. Following Frank's care guide is a great idea and will lead to a healthy carpet chameleon. What you have sounds very good, and best of luck with him/her! (I guess "guy" implies male).

Yes he is a male no females were available as far as I know I got the last one he had I have nighttime drops naturally as the only heating in my room is that of what my heat lamps produce for my reptiles, he will be kept at nighttime drops of 68 as for what I recorded for my crested geckos his tank will be near but for the first month or so he will be away from all my reptiles for obvious reasons standard quarantine, he will also be kept a little farther from my montanes that get kept in 60 degree nights sometimes a little lower it’s nice to know my humidity is nice. I prefer to keep my basking lights on for only in the morning and for different times in the afternoon my hoehnelii is a heavy basked and actually gets stressed if I don’t keep his basking light on longer from my observations and my jacksonii likes his on for quite a long time as well but they are kept in screen enclosures where heat isn’t stored but with this hybrid pvc enclosure I had it on all day with the lights on full time to see how much heat would be stored I will adjust my heat lamp to be on a couple hours in the morning possibly till noon and off for some time afterwards and turn on for afternoon basking that I’ve observed my diurnal reptiles enjoy doing and adjust according to the carpets behavior

 

[bbyoda]

You could try lattice on the walls to mount branches to. When my carpet chameleon came I was really surprised by how tiny she was! I needed to find plants and branches that were way smaller than I anticipated.

 

[Uri]

You could try lattice on the walls to mount branches to. When my carpet chameleon came I was really surprised by how tiny she was! I needed to find plants and branches that were way smaller than I anticipated.

Oh I know a thing or two about small reptiles I’m not sure if anyone knows viper geckos they were available on Josh’s frogs and I grabbed up a pair and I was so surprised when they came in barely bigger then my baby mourning geckos and I think everyone knows how small those are ive had a storm come in a couple days ago that knocked PLENTY of branches of all sizes perfect for me if they are too big my hoehnelii and baby geckos will utilize them well and if too small my viper and mourning geckos will too so nothing goes to waste