Dark All the Time...

[chuka1212]

Ok, I am the new owner of a veiled, male, 4 month old chameleon. I have had him for less than a week. I have a routine for his mistings, feedings, etc.

Here are his stats:
He eats about 3-8 half inch crickets a day (supplemented twice a week), poops about once a day (poop looks normal BTW). His humidity is constantly around 53%, with mistings about 65%. His basking spot is 85 degrees, ambient temp 70-75 degrees. Dripper constantly running, misting occurs morning and night, sometimes afternoon. UVB bulb is present.

Ok, my concern is that he is a very dark color ALL the time... well except when he sleeps, he goes back to that nice green color. He arrived a nice bright green and most juvenile veileds seem to be a green color, but not my guy. Is this normal? I heard is may be caused by too cold temps, but his temps seem fine to me. It is worrying me so help is appreciated.

 

[Kevin1873]

I would take the temp of to 90 degrees. I keep mine at that and he stays green the whole time, only time he turns dark is right after misting when the temp drops down to about 78-82. When it warms back up to 90, he goes green again. I also have a 4 month old male Veiled.

 

[Eric Adrignola]

it's a sign of stress. BUT, at that age, a good number of male veileds are stressed. I've seen many of them go through a "brown phase" while they mature. in my experience, those raised by themselves seem to be far more shy, nastier to us, and brown/maroon. Those raised for longer periods of time in groups (til they almost start to kill each other) tend to be closer to their rest colors for their teenage months.

Typically, they go out of this dark and ugly color phase at around 12-15 months. With helps greatly is removing the caged feeling. Get the cage raised up as high as possible. It makes them feel more secure and less vulnerable.

My old male was ugly as sin for about 15 months. After that, he'd stay nice until I showed up - then he went back to brown and hid behind a stick. After I raised his cage up to the ceiling, he became much less afraid. He'd display at me, keep bright coloration, and started to hand feed for the first time.

 

[Vampire.queen]

A photo would be great....

But I also think it´s stess- I got my Yoda when he was over two months and then was brown when he saw something new for a month or two.

 

[chuka1212]

Ok, it's good to know that others have experienced the same ugly coloration...

Eric, how did you raise your cage up? Just looking for ideas... Mine is already on a dresser, I guess I could put something underneath it.

And do people agree with KEvin, should I raise the temp another 5-10 degrees?

After work I'll try and get a pic.

 

[Eric Adrignola]

Yeah - sometimes a move can really stress these bugger out. While it IS stress related most of the time, you have to take into consideration that this is sometimes normal with veileds. For some reason (most likely due to the nature of full-grown, dominant, adult male veileds), immature and smallish male veileds can be the most stressed things on earth.

They seem to be much more shy than females, perhaps because of hostility from big males. Last month, when I rearranged my cages, the females didn't care. The CB melleri didn't care (the WC one wasnt' too happy at first), the adult males didn't care - but the sub adult males did not eat for 1.5 weeks, showed dark colors, and weere nervous little critters in general. It improved after I showed them to each other, and allowed them to "chase away" their brothers. They felt more dominant, less vulnerable.

 

[Eric Adrignola]

My old male was ina large cage on th efloor - about 5' tall, 3' wide, 4' deep. I moved things around and pulled out my deremensis' old cage.

I had made it for my CB deremensis when he got big. http://www.zorabellarose.com/chameleons.html

It's the cage in the top and bottom pic (can't see much of it in the top pic, but you can see more in the bottom one with the veiled).

It was my final, and best, wooden framed cage. Extremely light, very sturdy, not too expensive. I think total costs were well under $100.00.

I used all 1x2s for construction of th eframe, and reinforced it with 90degree "L" brackets. You can't really drill holes in 1x2's, as they split. So I used the steel braces and brackets, screwing them in with the small screws they come with (pilot holes needed, else the wood splits).

I built it around a large plastic storage container. It fits inside the bottom, makng a perfect drip pan. I had to screw it in place in a few spots, so it woudn't buckle under the weight of the plants.

the key to this design is hardware cloth. You cannot use screen. The hardware cloth provides nearly all of the rigidity, and much of the strength. I would NOT do something like this again without coated hardware cloth (veileds seem ok, but my deremensis cut his feet bad on the sidewalls).

I stapled the hardwae cloth in place, and secured in in the corners by placing it under the "L" baces.

In the top of the cage, I screwed in a small eye (like what a hook latch slides into). I actually put thrree in, but only the middle one was used.

To mount it, I put a large nail in the wall, in the center of a stud. I simply slipped the eye over the head of the nail. It hangs on the wall like a painting.

Of course, this is fine for an empty cage, but not one with a valuable lizard in it!

I took another piece of 1x2 that was about 36" long (the cage was 36" wide).
I placed this under the bottom of the cage, along the wall. I pushed up slightly, relieving pressure from the main nail just a bit. I marked it's placement on the wall.

All I had to do was remove the cage from the wall (stille asy at this point), and screw the bottom brace in place wher eI marked the wall - three large screws in three wall studs.

when the cage was slipped back over the nail, the bottom-rear of the cage rested on that 1x2 firmly secured on the wall.

With the plastic tub screwed to the cage frame, it was easily able to support 3 potted plants (in 10" or 12" pots), branches, a 48" fixture and a heat lamp. Never fell, and I had it up for a total of about 5 years at three different locations.

It was a deep cage, too. 4' tall, 3' wide, and 2' deep. I have it in storage, it's still in good shape.

What I'd do now is simply get some plastic shelves from lowes, and put a screen cage or reptarium on top of it! Much simpler.

If floorspace is an issue, install a strong shelf, and put the cage on it.

 

[chuka1212]

Very nice setup! You are quite the handy man...
I doubt I could do all that, I just made a ventilated cricket keeper out of a 22 gallon rubber tote and I could barely make that...
plus I am in a rental right now so these types of mods would be impossible, but I do like the shelving idea. I will have to go check out some prices.

I was thinking I could get an aquarium stand to raise him up for now...

Anyways, thanks for the comforting replies and for taking the time to give some feedback. I will just keep on doing what I'm doing and hopefully he'll grow out of his nervous stage.

Thanks!

 

[Eric Adrignola]

Lowes an dHome Depot sell these Black plastic shelving units. I believe they're $40.00

They have 5 shelves and supports. you can rearrange these into 2 shelves if the 5 together is too tall. That's what I did. I've used them as stands for all my cages.

The black ones are cheap, but very strong and 18" deep. Plenty large enough to support a 24"x24" cage base. Plus, you get the storage underneath.

Much cheaper, taller and easier to move than an aquarium stand. plus you get shelves.

To make them go further, I placed some long boards between shelves, nearly doubling my surface area.

I reccomend the top of a male veiled's cage to be at least 6' up in the air - high is better. When I've moved my big male into his raised cage, his color was changed within hours. In fact, he has not shown the maroon since then - well over 5 years.