Good Start?

[Taugh]

Hi all

So I'm new to chameleon ownership and have read so much from various sources, on every topic, and I don't feel confident I'm doing thing correctly (kind of like being a dad for the first time) and wanted to get another opinion to check my set up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
So here is how my chameleon home is set up and what he is eating.

Chameleon Info:
Veiled
Male
2 months old (ish)
3 weeks (received him 05APR2022)
name- Flash

Handling:
I interact with him daily but have not held him yet.

Feeding:
¼” crickets daily. As many as he can eat
Horned worms every other day
3/8” Dubai roaches daily 4 to 8
Meal worms twice a week. 1 to 3
Super worms when he wants one
Wax worms one daily, sometimes (using to build trust)
Flightless Fruit flies 10 to 20 a week
Crickets and roaches are feed carrots, apple, and kale daily. Banana twice a week. They are feed this way at least three days in a row before being offered.

Supplements:
Repti Calcium with D3- 2x week
Exo Terra multi-vitamin - 1x week

Watering
Auto-mister set to run every 5 hours for 15 seconds.
Hand mister if humidity is low
Dripper
I usually see him drink in the morning (on the weekend)

Fecal Description:
Brown to dark brown well formed

History:
Bought from FL Chams
I spooked him and he jumped and fell about 2 feet last week
He is still somewhat afraid of me

Cage Info:
Type:
Hybrid 24”x24”x48” Dragon Strand

Lighting:
Reptisun 5.0 UVB T5 HO 24” on timer set on from 0700 to 1900
Hygger Programmable LED Light with timer set 0700 to 1830 for day and from 1900 to 0645 from night

Temperature:
Boeespat 5.5” fixture with 100w ceramic heat lamp on temperature controller. Temperature probe is set 5” from top of cage.
Boeespat 8.5” fixture with 100w ceramic heat lamp on a timer. Turns off at night
Basking area (primary) 88º F. Measured with IR instant read thermometer at basking surface.
Basking area (secondary) 84º F. Measured with IR instant read thermometer at basking surface.
Ambient temperature:
Top: measured with digital thermometer
Day - 77º F to 80º F
Night 74º F to 77º F
Middle: measured with Repti Zoo Terrarium Thermometer Hydrometer Dual Gauge
Day - 72º F to 76º F
Night - 70º F to 73º F
Bottom: measured with Goabroa Mini Hydrometer Thermometer
Day - 70º F to 74º F
Night - 68º F to 70º F

Humidity:
Day – 40 to 60% measured with Repti Zoo Terrarium Thermometer Hydrometer Dual Gauge (near the top of the enclosure) and with Goabroa Mini Hydrometer Thermometer (near the bottom)
Night – 50 to 80%

Plants:
Live.
Wandering Jew (Tradescantia zebrin)
Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides)
2 small Umbrella tree (Schefflera arboricola)

Placement:
Dining area
Low to medium traffic
No vents or fans
Bottom of enclosure set 24” above the floor

Thanks again

 

[Beman]

Give me a little bit to go over everything. Please post pics of the entire enclosure.

 

[Mrjamwin]

Good day and welcome to the forums. Beman will go over your list but the one thing I see that is an issue is the light programmed at night. Chameleons don't need light at night and would need to be turned off. Hope this helps.

 

[Beman]

Hi there. See my feedback and questions in bold. Please let me know if you have any questions. I would love to see pics of the enclosure as well.


Chameleon Info:
Veiled
Male
2 months old (ish)
3 weeks (received him 05APR2022)
name- Flash

Handling:
I interact with him daily but have not held him yet.

Feeding:
¼” crickets daily. As many as he can eat
Horned worms every other day
3/8” Dubai roaches daily 4 to 8
Meal worms twice a week. 1 to 3
Super worms when he wants one
Wax worms one daily, sometimes (using to build trust)
Flightless Fruit flies 10 to 20 a week
Crickets and roaches are feed carrots, apple, and kale daily. Banana twice a week. They are feed this way at least three days in a row before being offered.
Great variety... I would expand your gutload more see image below. Heavy on greens.

Supplements:
Repti Calcium with D3- 2x week
Exo Terra multi-vitamin - 1x week'

So supplementation needs to be corrected asap. Your overdosing on D3. I do not like the exo terra multi. It has D3 in it but not Vitamin A. Also your not supplementing with a calcium without D3.
So you need to get a calcium without D3 and use this at every feeding except 2 times a month you will use a multi vitamin with D3 and A. Say on the 1st and the 15th.
I recommend and use repashy Supercal NoD as my calcium without D3 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N3BKCGA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And repashy Calcium plus LoD for my multivitamin that has D3 and A in it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DLJRMV2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Watering
Auto-mister set to run every 5 hours for 15 seconds. This is a really short period of time. I would suggest a 2 minute misting and you would do this morning and evening when temps are not at their hottest.
Hand mister if humidity is low Increasing your misting sessions will help with this. But keep in mind Veiled day time levels should be 40-50%..
Dripper in the daytime is a very good thing to have running.
I usually see him drink in the morning (on the weekend)

Fecal Description:
Brown to dark brown well formed

History:
Bought from FL Chams Due to where you got baby from I would get a fecal run to be sure it does not have a parasite load. Also post pics of the back of the back feet from the side if possible so I can confirm gender. Just because you ordered a male does not mean that is what you received.
I spooked him and he jumped and fell about 2 feet last week How has be been since then?
He is still somewhat afraid of me

Cage Info:
Type:
Hybrid 24”x24”x48” Dragon Strand great enclosure!

Lighting:
Reptisun 5.0 UVB T5 HO 24” on timer set on from 0700 to 1900 What is your distance to the basking branches closest below this fixture? you want a 8-9 inch distance from the bottom of the fixture to the branch to put baby in the correct UVI level.
Hygger Programmable LED Light with timer set 0700 to 1830 for day and from 1900 to 0645 from night
LOL I am horrible with military time... So you want a 12 hour lights on 12 hour lights off total darkness cycle. NO added heat at night.

Temperature:
Boeespat 5.5” fixture with 100w ceramic heat lamp on temperature controller. Temperature probe is set 5” from top of cage.
Boeespat 8.5” fixture with 100w ceramic heat lamp on a timer. Turns off at night
Basking area (primary) 88º F. Measured with IR instant read thermometer at basking surface.
Basking area (secondary) 84º F. Measured with IR instant read thermometer at basking surface.
Ok confused here... You only want to run one basking area so they can move out of the heat. Temps for a baby this young should be no hotter than 80 at basking. Probe should be on the branch below the fixture. 100Watt is going to put out extreme temps and most of us do not use ceramic heat fixtures. We recommend a regular incandescent bulb 60 Watt.
Ambient temperature:
Top: measured with digital thermometer
Day - 77º F to 80º F
Night 74º F to 77º F
Middle: measured with Repti Zoo Terrarium Thermometer Hydrometer Dual Gauge
Day - 72º F to 76º F
Night - 70º F to 73º F
Bottom: measured with Goabroa Mini Hydrometer Thermometer
Day - 70º F to 74º F
Night - 68º F to 70º F
So overall your looking for a range which your getting. But you need a lower night temp. They need the cool down. Getting them down into the mid 60's at least. Top temp daytime should run 70-75 this way they have the ability to move out of the heat. Dropping as you move down into the cage. Looks like your getting the gradients moving down. Changing your heat fixture to an incandescent bulb and dropping that basking temp is going to help with the overall ambient temps.

Humidity:
Day – 40 to 60% measured with Repti Zoo Terrarium Thermometer Hydrometer Dual Gauge (near the top of the enclosure) and with Goabroa Mini Hydrometer Thermometer (near the bottom)
Night – 50 to 80%
These are within range. Keep in mind Veileds only need a 40-50% range daytime. At night it can be higher but we want the cool temps with that.
Plants:
Live.
Wandering Jew (Tradescantia zebrin)
Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides)
2 small Umbrella tree (Schefflera arboricola) All of this is good.

Placement:
Dining area
Low to medium traffic
No vents or fans
Bottom of enclosure set 24” above the floor

Great...

 

[Taugh]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have ordered the supplements and I will stop using the others. The UVB lamp 9 1/2 " from the highest perch. I will adjust the misting and reduce the temperature a little lower at night and add more greens to the feeders.

Since his fall, he's doing fine. He stayed near the bottom of the enclosure for a couple of days, then he was back at the top. One thing that has changed is that he won't eat out of his feeding cup. So I have placed food around for the cricket and he hunts them.

I will post a picture as soon as I can get one.

 

[Beman]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have ordered the supplements and I will stop using the others. The UVB lamp 9 1/2 " from the highest perch. I will adjust the misting and reduce the temperature a little lower at night and add more greens to the feeders.

Since his fall, he's doing fine. He stayed near the bottom of the enclosure for a couple of days, then he was back at the top. One thing that has changed is that he won't eat out of his feeding cup. So I have placed food around for the cricket and he hunts them.

I will post a picture as soon as I can get one.

You could look into feeder runs. Full throttle sells one and then they have a magnet you can hook to your pvc walls. I am betting that he is freaked out by the cup since that is when he got spooked last. You could try moving the cup to another location in the cage. See if he starts using it again. The issue with free roaming crickets with a baby is if they decide to chew on baby at night when it is sleeping instead of whatever food you added in for them to eat. Babies can end up with pretty severe wounds because of it.

The other reason why free ranging feeders is not the best idea is if there is ever a parasite issue that you need to treat the cham for this is a very easy way for them to reinfect themselves. The feeder walks over a place fecal hit, it then picks up the parasite eggs on it and then the cham its the feeder starting the cycle over again within its body.

 

[Taugh]

@Beman
here are the pictures you asked to see

 

[Beman]

@Beman
here are the pictures you asked to see

If the green thing is one of those watering devices you will want to pull that and put a different dripper option in. They are really dangerous when it comes to bacteria growth.

 

[nightanole]

@Beman
here are the pictures you asked to see

Gonna need some large rocks to cover the dirt.

The white things are either styrofoam or slow release fertilizer balls. The gravel will keep the chameleon from eating them(and some are dirt eaters anyway for some reason) and to keep crickets etc from laying eggs and ending up with a sea of pinheads.