RexTheCham
New Member
So I have a chameleon called rex, and I was wondering if anyone is like experienced with chameleons? I just wanted to know if he looks like a healthy chameleon and doesn’t look like there’s anything up with him?
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So should I fill out this form? And i won’t feed him as much as I normally do. I’ll cut down on the foodHi and welcome! Handsome man! He does look to have a little bit too much chub to him. We go by the cheeks and casque...both shouldn’t be bulging, but should be relatively flat. It doesn’t look too bad, but is definitely something to work on. I could ask you a million questions and go back and forth, but the easiest is if you post some more pics of him, your enclosure including lights and floor and answer the following questions. Then we can look over all of your husbandry and make sure everything is perfect, so you and your cham can have many happy and healthy years together.
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.
--------------
Please Note:
- The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
- Photos can be very helpfu
Hi and welcome! Handsome man! He does look to have a little bit too much chub to him. We go by the cheeks and casque...both shouldn’t be bulging, but should be relatively flat. It doesn’t look too bad, but is definitely something to work on. I could ask you a million questions and go back and forth, but the easiest is if you post some more pics of him, your enclosure including lights and floor and answer the following questions. Then we can look over all of your husbandry and make sure everything is perfect, so you and your cham can have many happy and healthy years together.
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.
--------------
Please Note:
- The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
- Photos can be very helpful.
Thank you. I appreciate it a lot. I want him to live his best life so thank you so much for this!!!Putting my feedback in red.
- Your Chameleon -Veiled chameleon, male and he’s 8months old. He’s been in my care for about 5 months. He could be abit older because we didn’t know his exact age when we got him.
- Handling -I handle him about 2x a day because I found out they don’t like being handled too much
- Feeding - I feed him locusts and they are big ones. I feed him about 5 a day. At his age you should be feeding him every other day. Then in about 2 months feed him 3 feeders every other day. You may need to put him on a diet as even a little chub in chams isn’t good for them. If you don’t already have a scale, you should get one and weigh him at least once every 2 weeks to monitor his weight. He eats them quite fast so I assume he’s still hungry Veileds are opportunistic eaters...if it’s there, they will eat it.I also feed him mealworms but not too much. Mealworms aren’t good feeders for chams. Try superworms instead for a treat, but careful as they are both fatty and addictive. Hornworms and silkworms might be better choices. They’re like a treat. And he also has fruit beetles which I feed once every 4 days. We feed our locusts lettuce. Lettuce is lacking in nutrients, so you’ll want to improve this. The healthier foods you give your feeders, the more nutritious they will be. Attaching both feeder and gutload sheets.
- Supplements - The calcium is called exo terra. Does it have D3 in it and is it phosphorus free? You’ll be wanting to use a phosphorus free calcium without D3 lightly dusted on all feeders each feeding. We put it in a pot and he tongues it. We have a powder called reptivite d3 vitamins. We give him a locust covered in that once a day The Reptivite with D3 is a great supplement, but you’re giving too much. One feeding every 2 weeks, you’ll use this to dust the feeders instead of the calcium. The D3, vitamin A and some other vitamins are fat soluble and can build up and cause problems in your cham.
- Watering - I have to spray it in his mouth because I’ve never seen him drink once without it. Nooo! This is a huge aspiration risk! Chams airways are in the front of their mouth. Many are very secretive about drinking (all of mine are). And the first time I sprayed it like at his mouth. He started like really drinking it. Sometimes he like puts his mouth right up to it and starts drinking so I do that regularly. You could add a dripper, which he may enjoy just as much and is much safer.I mist him 3x a day and for about a minute of spraying You could increase time to 2+ minutes to better stimulate his drinking.
- Fecal Description -his droppings look fine. Nice colour and he isn’t dehydrated because his wee isn’t yellow it’s a pale yellow. He hasn’t been tested for parasites I’m a fan of wellness checks and fecal testing...one never knows.
- History - nothing
Cage Info:
https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/
- Cage Type - It’s a glass cage, I can’t remember the dimensions fully but it’s like 90h90l30w That’s a bit too small for an adult. The minimum size is 60x60x120 cm or equivalent. Glass is fine but just make sure airflow is adequate.
- Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? I don’t know the brand and can’t remember the model. But I remember it’s one that has both things like uv I think? I can’t remember. I turn him on around 9am roughly and turn him off around 9pm Sounds like a mercury vapor light, which while it sounds great and convenient isn’t recommended unless you have a solarmeter to monitor uvb output. I suggest getting a linear T5 ho fixture with either ReptiSun 5.0 or Arcadia 6% uvb bulb.I like Arcadia in that the bulb lasts a year, vs 6 months for ReptiSun. For basking a plain old fashioned incandescent bulb works great. Usually a 60w works perfect. Basking area should be approx 20-22cm down from your lights.
- Temperature - his basking spot is at the top but he just has to move down his cage or go to the left of it too cool down. I measure these temps with a thermostat thing with humidity checker. Ideal temp is around 26-27c and no higher than 29. At night there should be a good temp drop and veileds can handle temps down to 15.
- Humidity - His humidity levels range from 40 then to around 80 when I spray him. I maintain them by spraying him 3x a day Perfect! Ideal range is between 30-50% during the day. At night to provide naturalistic hydration you could use a cool mist humidifier to boost humidity as high as 100%.
- Plants - I am not using live plants. Veileds like to nibble plants for unknown reasons, and some have tried to eat fake leaves and have gotten impacted. All live plants are best. Pothos aka devil’s Ivy is great to use...safe, provides vines which add extra little cham roads and nice big leaves to collect drinking water and shady hiding places. Here’s a list of safe plants. Some may require an additional plant light. https://chameleonacademy.com/plants/
- Placement- The cage is close to a fan but it’s on the opposite side of the room. The cage height is like if I were to double the cage size it’d be touching the ceiling. It’s like halfway Chams feel safest when they are able to be higher than us.
- Location - Where are you geographically located? I’m located in the uk
is a fantastic site for all things chameleon. It is perhaps the most accurate and up to date source on the web. Also check out Neptune the chameleon on YouTube for accurate info.
I hope I’ve been of some help. Your guy is very handsome and hopefully my feedback will help you enjoy many happy and healthy years with him. Of course, the forum is always here and willing to answer questions, help with any issues and just share the joys of our scaly masters.
If you don’t mind me asking, chameleons aren’t supposed to just sit ok your shoulders? I read that they like moving a lot. He’s just sat on my shoulders and has done everytime I get him out. He’s started doing this for a few days now. He used to just keep trying to get on my desk but he’s recently just started wanting to sit on my shoulders. Is there anything wrong or do you think he’s fine?Putting my feedback in red.
- Your Chameleon -Veiled chameleon, male and he’s 8months old. He’s been in my care for about 5 months. He could be abit older because we didn’t know his exact age when we got him.
- Handling -I handle him about 2x a day because I found out they don’t like being handled too much
- Feeding - I feed him locusts and they are big ones. I feed him about 5 a day. At his age you should be feeding him every other day. Then in about 2 months feed him 3 feeders every other day. You may need to put him on a diet as even a little chub in chams isn’t good for them. If you don’t already have a scale, you should get one and weigh him at least once every 2 weeks to monitor his weight. He eats them quite fast so I assume he’s still hungry Veileds are opportunistic eaters...if it’s there, they will eat it.I also feed him mealworms but not too much. Mealworms aren’t good feeders for chams. Try superworms instead for a treat, but careful as they are both fatty and addictive. Hornworms and silkworms might be better choices. They’re like a treat. And he also has fruit beetles which I feed once every 4 days. We feed our locusts lettuce. Lettuce is lacking in nutrients, so you’ll want to improve this. The healthier foods you give your feeders, the more nutritious they will be. Attaching both feeder and gutload sheets.
- Supplements - The calcium is called exo terra. Does it have D3 in it and is it phosphorus free? You’ll be wanting to use a phosphorus free calcium without D3 lightly dusted on all feeders each feeding. We put it in a pot and he tongues it. We have a powder called reptivite d3 vitamins. We give him a locust covered in that once a day The Reptivite with D3 is a great supplement, but you’re giving too much. One feeding every 2 weeks, you’ll use this to dust the feeders instead of the calcium. The D3, vitamin A and some other vitamins are fat soluble and can build up and cause problems in your cham.
- Watering - I have to spray it in his mouth because I’ve never seen him drink once without it. Nooo! This is a huge aspiration risk! Chams airways are in the front of their mouth. Many are very secretive about drinking (all of mine are). And the first time I sprayed it like at his mouth. He started like really drinking it. Sometimes he like puts his mouth right up to it and starts drinking so I do that regularly. You could add a dripper, which he may enjoy just as much and is much safer.I mist him 3x a day and for about a minute of spraying You could increase time to 2+ minutes to better stimulate his drinking.
- Fecal Description -his droppings look fine. Nice colour and he isn’t dehydrated because his wee isn’t yellow it’s a pale yellow. He hasn’t been tested for parasites I’m a fan of wellness checks and fecal testing...one never knows.
- History - nothing
Cage Info:
https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/
- Cage Type - It’s a glass cage, I can’t remember the dimensions fully but it’s like 90h90l30w That’s a bit too small for an adult. The minimum size is 60x60x120 cm or equivalent. Glass is fine but just make sure airflow is adequate.
- Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? I don’t know the brand and can’t remember the model. But I remember it’s one that has both things like uv I think? I can’t remember. I turn him on around 9am roughly and turn him off around 9pm Sounds like a mercury vapor light, which while it sounds great and convenient isn’t recommended unless you have a solarmeter to monitor uvb output. I suggest getting a linear T5 ho fixture with either ReptiSun 5.0 or Arcadia 6% uvb bulb.I like Arcadia in that the bulb lasts a year, vs 6 months for ReptiSun. For basking a plain old fashioned incandescent bulb works great. Usually a 60w works perfect. Basking area should be approx 20-22cm down from your lights.
- Temperature - his basking spot is at the top but he just has to move down his cage or go to the left of it too cool down. I measure these temps with a thermostat thing with humidity checker. Ideal temp is around 26-27c and no higher than 29. At night there should be a good temp drop and veileds can handle temps down to 15.
- Humidity - His humidity levels range from 40 then to around 80 when I spray him. I maintain them by spraying him 3x a day Perfect! Ideal range is between 30-50% during the day. At night to provide naturalistic hydration you could use a cool mist humidifier to boost humidity as high as 100%.
- Plants - I am not using live plants. Veileds like to nibble plants for unknown reasons, and some have tried to eat fake leaves and have gotten impacted. All live plants are best. Pothos aka devil’s Ivy is great to use...safe, provides vines which add extra little cham roads and nice big leaves to collect drinking water and shady hiding places. Here’s a list of safe plants. Some may require an additional plant light. https://chameleonacademy.com/plants/
- Placement- The cage is close to a fan but it’s on the opposite side of the room. The cage height is like if I were to double the cage size it’d be touching the ceiling. It’s like halfway Chams feel safest when they are able to be higher than us.
- Location - Where are you geographically located? I’m located in the uk
is a fantastic site for all things chameleon. It is perhaps the most accurate and up to date source on the web. Also check out Neptune the chameleon on YouTube for accurate info.
I hope I’ve been of some help. Your guy is very handsome and hopefully my feedback will help you enjoy many happy and healthy years with him. Of course, the forum is always here and willing to answer questions, help with any issues and just share the joys of our scaly masters.
Usually they’ll rest on your arm or move from one hand to another. I’m not sure that it’s bad but I’d go to Neptune the Chameleon she touches on chameleon weight. Someone else can comment on that since I’m not exactly sureIf you don’t mind me asking, chameleons aren’t supposed to just sit ok your shoulders? I read that they like moving a lot. He’s just sat on my shoulders and has done everytime I get him out. He’s started doing this for a few days now. He used to just keep trying to get on my desk but he’s recently just started wanting to sit on my shoulders. Is there anything wrong or do you think he’s fine?
Mine hate being held and are very active in either trying to climb to my head or get away. So, I try to respect their hate and am not the best to answer this.If you don’t mind me asking, chameleons aren’t supposed to just sit ok your shoulders? I read that they like moving a lot. He’s just sat on my shoulders and has done everytime I get him out. He’s started doing this for a few days now. He used to just keep trying to get on my desk but he’s recently just started wanting to sit on my shoulders. Is there anything wrong or do you think he’s fine?
Can you post a picture of his face straight on so we can see the width of his casque. I believe he is a bit heavier then the image really shows. If so you will need to do a further reduction in feeder amount to get him to start dropping weight.
Yep so your going to be reducing to 2-3 medium sized feeders 3 days a week and no more then that. He is considered obese with the size of his casque. He is also showing some swelling in his front arms.View attachment 290648View attachment 290649
Here’s 2 pics from above and his face straight on. I’ve lowered how much I give him now
Just reduce that feeder size and really watch what and how much your feeding. Once his weight starts reducing he will become more lean in his limbs. Getting a gram scale and weighing him regularly will help you know how much he is losing. It just takes time and consistency.Oh gosh what should I do about his arms?