Maggiebeas
Member
A quick note about where we have gotten some of our more specific information from. The guy we got him from has been a successful breeder of a huge variety of chams, he now owns a store where he keeps more exotic varieties of reptile. He also works with an exotic reptile vet at the Aurora Animal Hospital for his husbandry information.
***In regards to the picture, the end of his tail is the same color as the rest of him, my camera on my phone is just absolute garbage.
Your Chameleon - Veiled, male, not really sure how old he is. We got him the beginning of December, so we have had him for a solid two months. He was labeled as a juvenile when we got him and he is still growing pretty quick.
Handling - He HATES us so we have been working on hand feeding, other than that once a day hand feeding he does not get handled ever. He occasionally will climb out onto my hand for that hand feeding but I do not move and he climbs right back into his cage after, doesn't even get stress colors.
Feeding - He is a voracious eater. 8 - 9 gut-loaded dubias daily. Usually around an hour after his light turns on so he has a full eleven hours of basking time to digest those guys. Once a week he gets about eight crickets for some fun enrichment activity. Daily (hang in here with me) small horned worms for hand feeding. The guy we got him from said that this was alright as he is a juvie, it doesn't affect how much he eats of his other feeders, and they are pretty small. We gut-load with the variety that is shown from the gut-loading sheet that floats around the chameleon forum about twelve hours before he gets them so that the food is still in the early stages of digestion by the bugs.
Supplements - Now don't be mad, don't get angry, hang in there with me for this (oooo starting out well I know). The supplement the store gave us is a newer one that the Aurora vet clinic also stands behind. It is Repashy brand Calcium Plus. We have been told that it is appropriate calcium, low enough D3 to not be overdoing it. I very clearly clarified with the guy that everyone says do a calcium only for two weeks, then a with D3 every two weeks, and a multi once a month. He said that this supplement does not require those bumps and is a healthy, newer alternative to having to buy three supplements. All of his dubias get a light coating of this for every feeding and the crickets, when we use them, also get a light coating.
Watering - I have only seen him drink a couple of times but he still has very white urates and his eyes don't seem sunken in so I think he's gotta be drinking (we aren't around him very often during week days). He has a mister that goes off every three hours for forty five seconds. We use a dripper once a week. I also hand mist every once in a while when we have an exceptionally dry day just to make sure he isn't too dry. (We are in Colorado it is dry af here).
Fecal Description - Very white urates, no yellow or orange at all that we have ever seen. No parasite testing yet. Nothing undigested in the fecal matter. He's a once a day pooper most of the time.
History - Nothing we know of as far as history goes.
Cage Type - Screen with plastic around three sides (or it is way too dry), the front and top panels are unblocked so there is still air flow. 2' x 2' x 4' which he moved into about three weeks ago.
Lighting - Reptisun UVB 22" bulb (we don't know how we managed to get a 22" bulb, they are so hard to find replacements for), it is only two months old at this point. We have a 100 watt heating light that sits about six inches above the top of his cage because it is pretty strong but we keep him pretty far away from it.
Temperature - We had the basking spot at 92ish and he was still pretty dark, the guy we got him from said to bump to 95 as that is what he uses and what he has found they are happiest and healthiest at. There has been a lot of debate in the house about this so please be polite regarding that number being higher than the general recommended temp for juvenile chameleons. He gapes occasionally which is part of the problem but even when we bump the temperature down he still does it. Middle cage sits around low eighties, high seventies. Bottom is around seventy. He is consistently 67 - 70 at night at it's lowest. He has a humidity/temperature probe combo that we move around the cage every once in a while to check his readings.
Humidity - Alrighty here is the hardest/most problematic part. Please help. His daytime humidity, now that the cage has evened out with the addition of live plants, sits around high thirties until it's misted which spikes to high forties low fifties for less than ten minutes then settles at low forties for a bit. I hand mist on dry days (when he's dropping to twenties which is really rare). He has a fogger at night which bumps him to about ninety while he's at a high sixty or straight up seventy for temperature. ***We think that maybe we had the air too stagnant for a while, we have a fan in the room which we leave on now (as of the last week) to up the air circulation at night so he is still getting humidity but fresher air. Is it possible upping the air circulation could help this problem go away if it is early stage?
Plants - He has a pothos which he loves to eat, he has an arabica coffee plant which has been previously mentioned in a forum on here as safe. He has tried to eat it but it's too hard for him to pull pieces off of. He also has a lucky bamboo which he tries to eat occasionally. He has plastic vines which I have never seen him consider eating.
Placement - He is in the corner of the room with no access to mirrors or reflective surfaces that might stress him out. He is up on a coffee table about two feet up so in his basking spot he's about six feet. There is a ceiling fan but he has never seemed too bothered by it while it is on (whereas he HATES his fogger but it is only on at night so he is sleeping and doesn't get bothered by it).
Location - Dry dry cold wintery Colorado. We are at about 7100 feet but he is a Colorado bred lizard so he is probably not struggling with altitude I wouldn't think.
Current Problem - Gaping. He does it almost daily now, he will chill with his mouth open for a couple of minutes and then close for a while. I would say we get about ten minutes of it a day. No rasping, no crackling, no wheezing, no sounds. However, I have been checking when his mouth is open to see if there is any excess saliva or bubbles or anything and there may have been a spit string today but it was a bit hard to tell because he proceeded to close his mouth when I looked at him. He is a pretty angry guy but it doesn't seem like defensive mouth open, he isn't puffed up or anything. He has been in a brown phase for about a month now and seems to be coming out of it a bit as there is definitely more green more often lately. He is due for a shed. His appetite has not decreased, no decreased movement, he goes stalking around the cage probably three times a day. His eyes are just as alert and looking around, no decreased activity, no lethargy. He has strong leggies and a strong tail that look healthy and solid joints.
We don't mind taking him to the vet if anyone thinks that we are in a danger zone of anything, however, he absolutely panicked when we moved him to his new cage and I really don't want to put him through anything like that again which taking him to a vet would be SO TRAUMATIC. He didn't trust me for about a week after moving him.
***In regards to the picture, the end of his tail is the same color as the rest of him, my camera on my phone is just absolute garbage.
Your Chameleon - Veiled, male, not really sure how old he is. We got him the beginning of December, so we have had him for a solid two months. He was labeled as a juvenile when we got him and he is still growing pretty quick.
Handling - He HATES us so we have been working on hand feeding, other than that once a day hand feeding he does not get handled ever. He occasionally will climb out onto my hand for that hand feeding but I do not move and he climbs right back into his cage after, doesn't even get stress colors.
Feeding - He is a voracious eater. 8 - 9 gut-loaded dubias daily. Usually around an hour after his light turns on so he has a full eleven hours of basking time to digest those guys. Once a week he gets about eight crickets for some fun enrichment activity. Daily (hang in here with me) small horned worms for hand feeding. The guy we got him from said that this was alright as he is a juvie, it doesn't affect how much he eats of his other feeders, and they are pretty small. We gut-load with the variety that is shown from the gut-loading sheet that floats around the chameleon forum about twelve hours before he gets them so that the food is still in the early stages of digestion by the bugs.
Supplements - Now don't be mad, don't get angry, hang in there with me for this (oooo starting out well I know). The supplement the store gave us is a newer one that the Aurora vet clinic also stands behind. It is Repashy brand Calcium Plus. We have been told that it is appropriate calcium, low enough D3 to not be overdoing it. I very clearly clarified with the guy that everyone says do a calcium only for two weeks, then a with D3 every two weeks, and a multi once a month. He said that this supplement does not require those bumps and is a healthy, newer alternative to having to buy three supplements. All of his dubias get a light coating of this for every feeding and the crickets, when we use them, also get a light coating.
Watering - I have only seen him drink a couple of times but he still has very white urates and his eyes don't seem sunken in so I think he's gotta be drinking (we aren't around him very often during week days). He has a mister that goes off every three hours for forty five seconds. We use a dripper once a week. I also hand mist every once in a while when we have an exceptionally dry day just to make sure he isn't too dry. (We are in Colorado it is dry af here).
Fecal Description - Very white urates, no yellow or orange at all that we have ever seen. No parasite testing yet. Nothing undigested in the fecal matter. He's a once a day pooper most of the time.
History - Nothing we know of as far as history goes.
Cage Type - Screen with plastic around three sides (or it is way too dry), the front and top panels are unblocked so there is still air flow. 2' x 2' x 4' which he moved into about three weeks ago.
Lighting - Reptisun UVB 22" bulb (we don't know how we managed to get a 22" bulb, they are so hard to find replacements for), it is only two months old at this point. We have a 100 watt heating light that sits about six inches above the top of his cage because it is pretty strong but we keep him pretty far away from it.
Temperature - We had the basking spot at 92ish and he was still pretty dark, the guy we got him from said to bump to 95 as that is what he uses and what he has found they are happiest and healthiest at. There has been a lot of debate in the house about this so please be polite regarding that number being higher than the general recommended temp for juvenile chameleons. He gapes occasionally which is part of the problem but even when we bump the temperature down he still does it. Middle cage sits around low eighties, high seventies. Bottom is around seventy. He is consistently 67 - 70 at night at it's lowest. He has a humidity/temperature probe combo that we move around the cage every once in a while to check his readings.
Humidity - Alrighty here is the hardest/most problematic part. Please help. His daytime humidity, now that the cage has evened out with the addition of live plants, sits around high thirties until it's misted which spikes to high forties low fifties for less than ten minutes then settles at low forties for a bit. I hand mist on dry days (when he's dropping to twenties which is really rare). He has a fogger at night which bumps him to about ninety while he's at a high sixty or straight up seventy for temperature. ***We think that maybe we had the air too stagnant for a while, we have a fan in the room which we leave on now (as of the last week) to up the air circulation at night so he is still getting humidity but fresher air. Is it possible upping the air circulation could help this problem go away if it is early stage?
Plants - He has a pothos which he loves to eat, he has an arabica coffee plant which has been previously mentioned in a forum on here as safe. He has tried to eat it but it's too hard for him to pull pieces off of. He also has a lucky bamboo which he tries to eat occasionally. He has plastic vines which I have never seen him consider eating.
Placement - He is in the corner of the room with no access to mirrors or reflective surfaces that might stress him out. He is up on a coffee table about two feet up so in his basking spot he's about six feet. There is a ceiling fan but he has never seemed too bothered by it while it is on (whereas he HATES his fogger but it is only on at night so he is sleeping and doesn't get bothered by it).
Location - Dry dry cold wintery Colorado. We are at about 7100 feet but he is a Colorado bred lizard so he is probably not struggling with altitude I wouldn't think.
Current Problem - Gaping. He does it almost daily now, he will chill with his mouth open for a couple of minutes and then close for a while. I would say we get about ten minutes of it a day. No rasping, no crackling, no wheezing, no sounds. However, I have been checking when his mouth is open to see if there is any excess saliva or bubbles or anything and there may have been a spit string today but it was a bit hard to tell because he proceeded to close his mouth when I looked at him. He is a pretty angry guy but it doesn't seem like defensive mouth open, he isn't puffed up or anything. He has been in a brown phase for about a month now and seems to be coming out of it a bit as there is definitely more green more often lately. He is due for a shed. His appetite has not decreased, no decreased movement, he goes stalking around the cage probably three times a day. His eyes are just as alert and looking around, no decreased activity, no lethargy. He has strong leggies and a strong tail that look healthy and solid joints.
We don't mind taking him to the vet if anyone thinks that we are in a danger zone of anything, however, he absolutely panicked when we moved him to his new cage and I really don't want to put him through anything like that again which taking him to a vet would be SO TRAUMATIC. He didn't trust me for about a week after moving him.
I just edited the post
