Female Veiled Cham...weirdo or?!

[sdecero]

Hi everyone! I have a 6/7 month old female veiled. She is a little bit of an odd ball who prefers perching at a lower positions in her enclosure. She often rests 6” of the bottom on a vine and basks the majority of the day. At night she goes into a little cove buried underground or sleeps amongst the leaves. I have about 4-8” of substrate at the bottom that varies in depth throughout her enclosure. I noticed lately that she has had an increased appetite and she started digging the other day (2 holes in total...1 in substrate and another in a potted plant. She doesn’t appear to have any eggs and I can’t see or feel any. Daytime humidity ranges from 40-90% and she is on an automatic mister. At night her humidity ranges from 25-50%. Her basking spot is 85 degrees and her far corners of the tank are 70 Her nighttime temp is room temp between 68-72.

Is this more of her personality or is there something I should be concern about/doing for her differently.

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi and welcome! It sounds as though she is looking to lay eggs. If you could fill out the help form and add more pics of her and the whole enclosure (top to bottom) it would help in trying to figure it out.

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.

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Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

 

[kinyonga]

Please post several more photos so I can see all of her.

 

[sdecero]

Hi everyone again. I’m from WI USA. Here is her info...

Kiwi the veiled chameleon
Sex—Female
Age—6/7months
Time in my care—5 months

I handle her everyday. She is very friendly and climbs out to me. I then pet her if she will let me and she roams around the house for a bit before I put her back. We occasionally go outside too.

I feed her a variety of crickets, roaches, horned worms, meal worms, and calcium worms. She also eats safe plants and fruit. On average 15 mealworms/25 crickets or some mix of others from the above. I am currently trying to get away from mealworms just as an FYI. She eats daily in the am about an hour after her lights go on.

Her home gets auto fogged for 30 minutes on a medium low setting every 3 hours.

her fecal. Intent is normal brown and firm. Her rates are very white and she seems well hydrated.

HOME CONDITIONS

24x18x24 glassZooMed Vented tank

lighting is 80W powersun UV with an appropriate ceramic dome. She has about 14 hours of light each day.

I have a hygrometer thermometer combo that averages the following:

Daytime
basking spot—85 degrees
Peripherals—74-80
40-100% humidity

Nighttime
ambient—68-74
40-60%

I have several live and fake plants. I have an Indian jasmine and hibiscus. Can’t remember the other’s name but I bought it because it was Cham safe.

 

[kinyonga]

She looks like she might be gravid in the 5th picture.
If she's not gravid then she is over weight.

 

[Panther_Chameleon]

Just a few things that stick out to me :

If I am correct I see a water bowl at the bottom of her cage. Chameleons only drink water by it’s movement. Therefore you would need some sort of flowing/dripped water. Some options are manually misting, getting an automatic mister, and getting a dropper. Just a fogger isn’t enough. Correct me if I’m wrong about the water bowl but I just want to make sure

For her UVB bulb you want to make sure to get a T5HO linear bulb. I recommendArcadia or ReptiSun

I would also definitely recommend adding WAY more foliage. (The less empty space the better)

I would also get rid of the substrate the bottom and add a lay bin. (I don’t have any experience about lay bins as I’ve only had mal

Also it depends where you live, but it is usually recommend that the enclosure is all screen or at least has three sides of screen to allow good ventilation.

I’m not an expert in anyway but these are just a few things I know from reading the forums and research. I hope that helped Best of luck

 

[kinyonga]

You said...."I feed her a variety of crickets, roaches, horned worms, meal worms, and calcium worms. She also eats safe plants and fruit. On average 15 mealworms/25 crickets or some mix of others from the above. I am currently trying to get away from mealworms just as an FYI. She eats daily in the am about an hour after her lights go on"...this is a lot of food per day. It could push her into producing a huge clutch and may lead to follicular stasis or egg binding or both and also to MBD and other issues.
It's definitely a good idea to get away from the mealworms. I assume that's what the dish is for in the bottom of the cage?

You said....."Her home gets auto fogged for 30 minutes on a medium low setting every 3 hours" ...usually foggers are used at night and misters and drippers are used during the daytime.

Since you live in WI the glass vented cage is appropriate.you said..."lighting is 80W powersun UV with an appropriate ceramic dome"... The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear reptisun 5.0 tube light as was already mentioned. For basking a regular household incandescent light is fine....wattage that produces the temperature in the low 80's F.

I recommend real non toxic plants since veileds munch on greenery. You don't want to end up with an impacted chameleon. Is the moss real or fake? I would add some more branches and foliage especially near the top of the cage.

What supplements do you use and what do you feed the insects such as crickets, roaches?

BTW welcome to the forum! Hope this has helped!

 

[sdecero]

She looks like she might be gravid in the 5th picture.
If she's not gravid then she is over weight.

damn...that’s what I was worried about. She’s eaten the same all along and just started looking a little rounder.

 

[sdecero]

You said...."I feed her a variety of crickets, roaches, horned worms, meal worms, and calcium worms. She also eats safe plants and fruit. On average 15 mealworms/25 crickets or some mix of others from the above. I am currently trying to get away from mealworms just as an FYI. She eats daily in the am about an hour after her lights go on"...this is a lot of food per day. It could push her into producing a huge clutch and may lead to follicular stasis or egg binding or both and also to MBD and other issues.
It's definitely a good idea to get away from the mealworms. I assume that's what the dish is for in the bottom of the cage?

You said....."Her home gets auto fogged for 30 minutes on a medium low setting every 3 hours" ...usually foggers are used at night and misters and drippers are used during the daytime.

Since you live in WI the glass vented cage is appropriate.you said..."lighting is 80W powersun UV with an appropriate ceramic dome"... The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear reptisun 5.0 tube light as was already mentioned. For basking a regular household incandescent light is fine....wattage that produces the temperature in the low 80's F.

I recommend real non toxic plants since veileds munch on greenery. You don't want to end up with an impacted chameleon. Is the moss real or fake? I would add some more branches and foliage especially near the top of the cage.

What supplements do you use and what do you feed the insects such as crickets, roaches?

BTW welcome to the forum! Hope this has helped!

I’ll look into those bulbs. I haven’t heard of them before and definitely will become familiar.

correct...the dish is for insects. she usually get either or and never both. I was going to try to stick to calcium worms and soldier flies for the future. You think 15 is too much? I want to keep horned worms and silk worms as occasional treats.

The fogger I have does a nice job of keeping everything wet and I spray occasionally too. Since her urates are so white I haven’t been too concerned with her water supply since they can pick that up from their diet too.

I have a jasmine, hibiscus and dracanae which are all safe. The little plastic plants I have she climbs and are safe to my knowledge anyways. The moss is real sphagnum and is sold on those ‘vines’ as a sleeve. I have some more and can add higher up.

I use a calcium supplement with d3 weekly. I was doing bi weekly but she became lethargic and sleeping during the day. A vet seti was probably over doing it on d3 so I pulled back and she came back fine and I resumed the supplementation weekly after that. I buy all of my insects fresh except for the calcium worms. Those I buy 100 every week and if I give crickets they are fresh from the store and then done. The only roaches she eats are from a friend of mine. I tried giving her roaches from the supply store but she refused to eat them. Cleaned that dish out and put the ones my buddy breeds in and she ate them all. So she’s just a bit picky too. He feeds his potatoes and fruits.

thank you! It has!!

 

[sdecero]

Just a few things that stick out to me :

If I am correct I see a water bowl at the bottom of her cage. Chameleons only drink water by it’s movement. Therefore you would need some sort of flowing/dripped water. Some options are manually misting, getting an automatic mister, and getting a dropper. Just a fogger isn’t enough. Correct me if I’m wrong about the water bowl but I just want to make sure

For her UVB bulb you want to make sure to get a T5HO linear bulb. I recommendArcadia or ReptiSun

I would also definitely recommend adding WAY more foliage. (The less empty space the better)

I would also get rid of the substrate the bottom and add a lay bin. (I don’t have any experience about lay bins as I’ve only had mal

Also it depends where you live, but it is usually recommend that the enclosure is all screen or at least has three sides of screen to allow good ventilation.

I’m not an expert in anyway but these are just a few things I know from reading the forums and research. I hope that helped Best of luck

Thank you so much! I’ll look into that bulb.

as for the substrate...it makes my head spin because he/she says it terrible and breeders I know preach by it so idk lol. I’m lost. I think I want to stick with substrate especially for the added humidity. I made her an 8 “ deep mix of fine coconut fiber substrate mixed with organic soil for stability. I keep it wet but not saturated and till it every so often. Kiwi digs well in it and I can form holes in it that won’t collapse. I’m hoping I can use this as a ‘lay bin’ but I will definitely adjust if I have to.

Thanks again for the help and advice. I really appreciate it.

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."The little plastic plants I have she climbs and are safe to my knowledge"... If she eats them they won't be safe for her...they will likely led to a blockage.

If she eats the substrate the same thing might happen...some things will pass through them be others won't.

 

[sdecero]

You said..."The little plastic plants I have she climbs and are safe to my knowledge"... If she eats them they won't be safe for her...they will likely led to a blockage.

If she eats the substrate the same thing might happen...some things will pass through them be others won't.

They are big leaves that I can barely cut through so I doubt she can eat them.

the substrate yeah I saw her eat a fiber or two one but she hasn’t for quite some time. It’s a really fine substrate. What are your thoughts about some chams eating dirt because of a nutrient deficiency. I was told this by one of the local herpetologists I know and he said they are fine for the most part.

 

[sdecero]

You said..."The little plastic plants I have she climbs and are safe to my knowledge"... If she eats them they won't be safe for her...they will likely led to a blockage.

If she eats the substrate the same thing might happen...some things will pass through them be others won't.

I really appreciate the help. Thanks a lot!

 

[kinyonga]

Soil eating is different than eating soil/coconut or other mixtures. Soil might pass through them. Some substrates will pass through the chameleon and some will not...but we don't always know which ones will and which won't....until it's too late so we err on the side of caution.

It's thought that they are looking for nutrients when they eat the dirt/soil/sand, etc...but no studies that I know have been done on it. It could also be for other reasons......self treatment of parasites maybe?...we need some studies to be done for proof.

 

[kinyonga]

I really appreciate the help. Thanks a lot!

You're welcome.

 

[hiddenflaws]

Your humidity levels are backwards. Not sure if anyone has said this but glancing at the comments, I don’t think they did. They should be higher at night and lower during the daytime from what I’ve gathered.

 

[sdecero]

Your humidity levels are backwards. Not sure if anyone has said this but glancing at the comments, I don’t think they did. They should be higher at night and lower during the daytime from what I’ve gathered.

Thank you for letting me know. I greatly appreciate it!! I was always worried she’d get damp and cold then if I did that.

 

[hiddenflaws]

Thank you for letting me know. I greatly appreciate it!! I was always worried she’d get damp and cold then if I did that.

Not at all. She’ll be ok. it’s better to have it humid at night and all her lights off for her, and in the day time, lights should be on and humidity levels should be lower. <3

 

[MissSkittles]

Thank you so much! I’ll look into that bulb.

as for the substrate...it makes my head spin because he/she says it terrible and breeders I know preach by it so idk lol. I’m lost. I think I want to stick with substrate especially for the added humidity. I made her an 8 “ deep mix of fine coconut fiber substrate mixed with organic soil for stability. I keep it wet but not saturated and till it every so often. Kiwi digs well in it and I can form holes in it that won’t collapse. I’m hoping I can use this as a ‘lay bin’ but I will definitely adjust if I have to.

Thanks again for the help and advice. I really appreciate it.

I think you are perhaps making the mistake that many make...soil substrate is ok IF you have a bioactive set up...that includes proper drainage, soil blends and a clean up crew up isopods and springtails who help to keep everything clean. If you do not have that, then bare floor is best and cleanest.

 

[sdecero]

I think you are perhaps making the mistake that many make...soil substrate is ok IF you have a bioactive set up...that includes proper drainage, soil blends and a clean up crew up isopods and springtails who help to keep everything clean. If you do not have that, then bare floor is best and cleanest.

Okay that makes sense. Thank you so much!