Does my veiled chameleon look healthy?

[ChameleonFanatics]

Hi everyone, my husband and I purchased a Veiled chameleon from PetSmart. Now, I know there are talks against buying a chameleon from Petco or PetSmart but he looked healthy and we really wanted to be Cham parents.

We don’t know his exact age as PetSmart did not provide that information, but we’ve had him for 5 months now.

Does he look healthy to you? We’re still new to the reptile community and want to make sure we’re providing the best care possible.

 

[GrannyK]

He looks like a healthy boy to me! Congrats he’s adorable!!! Welcome to the forum! Have you done research or just listened to petsmart? Healthy babies come out of box stores, don’t let that fear you. They just don’t provide proper husbandry and will sell to anyone without a care in the world for the animals well being and that is what is so sad about petsores. They should educate and have some ideas of where the animals are going and how to care for them.
I recommend chameleon academy, and Neptune the chameleon for education and research. Both great resources. Of course ask any questions here at the forum, everyone is great!
We can also offer a husbandry review to make sure everything is perfect for your little guy long term.
One big mistake is the uvb bulb. Many start with the dual dome that comes with a chameleon kit but that is wrong. They require a linear 5 or 6 % forest bulb to get sufficient uvb.
Does he have a name?

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?

You can copy and paste below with responses.

 

[ChameleonFanatics]

He looks like a healthy boy to me! Congrats he’s adorable!!! Welcome to the forum! Have you done research or just listened to petsmart? Healthy babies come out of box stores, don’t let that fear you. They just don’t provide proper husbandry and will sell to anyone without a care in the world for the animals well being and that is what is so sad about petsores. They should educate and have some ideas of where the animals are going and how to care for them.
I recommend chameleon academy, and Neptune the chameleon for education and research. Both great resources. Of course ask any questions here at the forum, everyone is great!
We can also offer a husbandry review to make sure everything is perfect for your little guy long term.
One big mistake is the uvb bulb. Many start with the dual dome that comes with a chameleon kit but that is wrong. They require a linear 5 or 6 % forest bulb to get sufficient uvb.
Does he have a name?

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?

You can copy and paste below with responses

Thanks, happy to be here! His name is Mr. Crawley lol. I totally agree! Most of my knowledge and research have been from the Chameleon Academy and Neptune the chameleon. If there are any suggestions or advice, we are open to hear them. We just want what is best for our boy.

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Male Veiled Chameleon. We don’t know his age. When we purchased him we were only told he was young but they didn’t have an exact age. He’s been under our care now for 5 months.
• Handling - We handle him every day as he is very social and loves to interact with us whenever we are near the cage. In fact, since we purchased him he’s always been very active, curious and unafraid to interact.
• Feeding - We feed him large crickets (as much as he’ll eat which is now about 4-5) in the morning or early afternoon as his staple along with silkworms. Every two weeks to once a month, an occasional hornworm or two to keep him hydrated and phoenix worms when he’s in the mood to eat them. As for gut loading, we use a mix of collard greens, carrots and oranges.
• Supplements - We dust the feeders with Repticalcium (without D3), every day Reptivite (with D3), twice a month.
• Watering - We set up the MistKing to mist every day, 3x’s a day (7am, 12pm and 7pm) for 2 minutes. Yes, we see him drink water when the mister turns on.
• Fecal Description - Looks soft, dark brown with creamy white to orange urate.
• History - He used to eat discoid roaches but now rejects them.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Reptibreeze XL Screen Cage 24x24x48. Sides are covered with a shower curtain to control the humidity and temperature.
• Lighting - Arcadia Reptile LumenIZE Pro T5 Kit D3 Forest 6% UVB Lamp , 60 Watt Heat Bulb. Light goes on every day at 7am and off at 7pm to provide 12 hours of UVB.
• Temperature - Ambient temp is 74.3F with an average of 73.7F. Basking Spot is 81-84F. Lowest temp at night is 65F. Measured with a temp gun and Govee Temperature/Hygrometer.
• Humidity - Humidity levels range between 40’s-70’s throughout the day and high 70’s at night. We’re currently trying to get the humidity higher at night with the sides covered and the mister.
• Plants - No live plants. We use artificial as we tried going with live plants but I couldn’t keep them alive and it didn’t help that he was constantly eating the soil and leaves. No matter what approach we took he’d find a way to get to the soil.
• Placement - Cage is located in the living room, approximately 2 feet above the room floor. We do have a vent in the living room and although it’s away from the cage, we’ve made sure to keep it closed.
• Location - Kissimmee, Florida

 

[GrannyK]

Everything looks good to me, maybe get a fogger to help with humidity increase overnight, especially since your temperature at night is below 70.
Also did you try 2in river rocks over the soil in live plants? Pothos are great, easy and grow quickly. I have a soil muncher too. ha

 

[Gloriawood]

I have a terrible time keeping plants alive as well and my guy will eat as much as he can I found that if I strategically placed my pathos so they get watered by the misters, and I have a plant light on a timer, I don’t have to do anything to them and they have been thriving. I also found that a monstera was a good choice since it grows so quickly and so big, between my terrible gardening skills and his leaf eating, it stays pretty big.

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi and welcome! I looked at your husbandry and the only suggestion I can offer is to round out how you feed your bugs. All else looks great! Oh…plants…what types of plants were you trying? Any idea why they died? Many of the more exotic ones will need special lighting. I have to encourage you to try again, with something easy like a pothos or even a tradescantia zebrina. Both will do just fine without special lighting and are very tolerant of those of us with brown thumbs. The primary reason why I have plants fail is not enough water. I take it for granted that the Mist King will be enough, but it often isn’t. If you find plants which are dense enough, your handsome guy shouldn’t be able to even see their soil. I’ve seen some humongous pothos at Home Depot.
Yes, your guy looks like a healthy and beautiful veiled. No judgement here about where you got him. Many of us have given in to our heart and have animals from a chain pet stores. My veiled girl, who is actually just turning 6 came from a weak moment at a Petco. How bland life would be had I not given in and got my spicy girl.

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

Your male Chamaeleo calypatratus looks great!

I would recommend giving him some outside sunshine time too.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

 

[Eileen]

Hi everyone

Hi, I'm new here so I don't have any advice. Your chameleon looks beautiful!
I did read some of the comments about plants, and I agree that pothos are the easiest, as long as you do remember to keep them watered. Why do they always want to eat that dirt?? So annoying! Does he dig around river rocks to get to the soil? So far my girl has left the dirt alone after I covered to bare areas with stones.

 

[MissSkittles]

Strangely, none of my chameleons have ever bothered the soil in their plants, unless while looking for a place to lay eggs when she rejected everything else. My dog on the other hand…loves eating dirt.

 

[ChameleonFanatics]

Everything looks good to me, maybe get a fogger to help with humidity increase overnight, especially since your temperature at night is below 70.
Also did you try 2in river rocks over the soil in live plants? Pothos are great, easy and grow quickly. I have a soil muncher too. ha

Oh yeah, done that. After researching online, our attempt at correcting it was by adding 2-inch river rocks to the soil. His first instinct was to dig them out. Every day, we would find some of the rocks on the bottom of the cage. Figures. He’s very persistent.

 

[ChameleonFanatics]

I have a terrible time keeping plants alive as well and my guy will eat as much as he can I found that if I strategically placed my pathos so they get watered by the misters, and I have a plant light on a timer, I don’t have to do anything to them and they have been thriving. I also found that a monstera was a good choice since it grows so quickly and so big, between my terrible gardening skills and his leaf eating, it stays pretty big.

When we first set up his cage, we placed two different Pothos on the sides and a Monstera plant as the centerpiece on the bottom floor. Despite having the Arcadia Jungle Dawn LED light, the Pothos didn’t thrive. I’m not sure what we could have done wrong, as Pothos are known for their easy care. Our boy didn’t help matters by munching on the leaves and eating the soil, which was quite amusing. We’re willing to try again. Any suggestions? Lighting? Soil brand?

 

[ChameleonFanatics]

Your male Chamaeleo calypatratus looks great!

I would recommend giving him some outside sunshine time too.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

Thank you for the lovely comment. We do our best. He occasionally gets some outdoor time, and we’ll continue to do so.

 

[ChameleonFanatics]

Everything looks good to me, maybe get a fogger to help with humidity increase overnight, especially since your temperature at night is below 70.

I have a fogger handy, so I’ll use it to check if the humidity levels improve. Since we’re in Florida, I wasn’t sure if we could use it without causing respiratory issues.

 

[MissSkittles]

I have a fogger handy, so I’ll use it to check if the humidity levels improve. Since we’re in Florida, I wasn’t sure if we could use it without causing respiratory issues.

I’m over on the space coast and I can’t get my night temps low enough to boost humidity by much. I do run a couple of 15 second mistings during the night (I think is set for midnight and 4 am) for a modest and safe boost.