Greetings Fellow Cham Keepers!

[Blue Ghost]

Hey everybody! I'm new to these forums and would like to introduce myself and ask a few chameleon keeping questions while I'm at it.
I work at a small pet store here in VA as the "Reptile and Aquatics specialist". While I know alot about snakes, gecko's, and beardies, I could learn a thing or two about chameleons. I've recently been taking care of an adult male Veiled Chameleon. We built a decent cage for him and filled it with plants and such. But being in a store, the traffic near his cage has been fairly heavy. He turned real dark and he stays near the heat lamps. It has been five days and I've yet to see him eat or drink. I have just today covered the front with a tablecloth so he can't see the movement of people walking by. That seems to help. If I peek at him, he is much brighter, but leans away from me and turns dark again fairly quickly.

I would really like to take care of him properly, any suggestions?

 

[suzi]

Hi! Welcome to the forum this is a good web site with veiled info
http://raisingkittytheveiledchamele...-max=2008-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=11

 

[Blue Ghost]

Hi! Welcome to the forum this is a good web site with veiled info
http://raisingkittytheveiledchamele...-max=2008-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=11

Wow, that's quite the page! I'll get reading

 

[ataraxia]

welcome to the forums!

elevate his cage. i bring in wild caughts and even my own personals to the shop. they all seem to do fine. i do however have 6' cages and most of the smaller 2'-3' cages are elevated higher up. if he is lower or at eye level he wont feel to comfortable.

i would like to see your husbandry and help you get this guy acclimated. pics would be very helpful.

if you know any history on the animal as in past care specifics that would be great to (in particular what he was fed and supplements).

 

[laurie]

Hello there you nice new person. Welcome to our little group. If you follow the advice given, the guy will be fine. He may very well be a w/c (wild caught) chameleon that is new to a cage and to people. Both will stress him. I agree that sitting his cage up higher may help. Also if he is an adult try to make sure he has a good size screen cage. The raising Kitty info will tell you all you want to know & more. But we are here to help, so ask any questions you have, post pictures of the cham and the set up for him. You will then get lots of us offering opinions.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I will take some pictures tomorrow as I'm not at the shop now, but I can give some info on the cage in the meantime. It is 3' wide 2' deep and 4' tall, sitting on a table that is roughly 3 1/2 feet tall. Three sides are screen (front back and top) and the other three are wood but with a white plastic finish on it of some kind for water resistance. There are 3 lights on top: a 75w red heat, plugged into a temperature control system (made by zoomed?), a 100w flukers basking bulb, and a 5.0 repta sun compact UVB bulb. There is a fogger also to keep the humidity up while I'm not there, it is plugged into the same unit as the red light, but I only turn that on at night. He has a few live and fake plants and climbing branches in there now, but I'm planning to get more.

As for the Chameleon, I don't know much about his history, he seemed fairly healthy when he came in. Opening his mouth and hissing at me when I held him (which I hear is a good sign?). He pooped once, mostly solid brown with a yellowish, shriveled urate. I've picked up on the frequency of the mistings since then though. The place we order from is based in florida, and supposedly breeds all their own reptiles, "with a few select imports". A vet inspects the animals before shipping. I've never had a problem with this company before, we order all our reptiles through them. I will try to e-mail them tomorrow regarding feeder items and supplements.

Wow, sorry for the overload of information... most of that could have been summed up with a picture. Anyways, I will try raising his cage tomorrow.

 

[carol5208]

you don't need the red heat bulb, as you have the basking bulb. No light on at night either unless you shop gets in to the 50 degree range or something. Be sure and check your temps with that 100 watt bulb. I know you already have gotten all the info you need from the link so I will not rattle on! Welcome to the forums!!!

 

[lumbasammler]

a 5.0 repta sun compact UVB bulb.

First: I agree that there should not be any light or something at night.
You should get rid of the compact bulb, many of them are known to cause eye problems.
Get a 5.0 linear bulb from arcadia or exo terra instead.
How did you try to feed/water him and wih what kind of feeder?

 

[DavidBuchan]

Hello, welcome to the forum I think you should keep the cloth on and disturb him as little as possible for now. If he feels hidden he will settle in quicker. If he's healthy he can go a while without eating. Watering properly means giving him 2 or 3 good mist showers each day so he's well hydrated. Once you have a good setup for heat and lighting then the most important thing for them is to offer a variety of feeders and to gutload them well, so here's a bit more reading material for you

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html Feeders

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ferretinmyshoes/446-basics-gutloading.html Gutloading

Here's another really good all-round caresheet - https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/chameleonsinmyhouse/395-veiled-chameleon-care-sheet.html

 

[Blue Ghost]

Alright, got some pictures here. Not very impressive, but we built it in short notice.

The cage:

Chameleon, looking very dark today:

Note these pictures are as it was in the morning, I'm cleaning it and removing the red light now, working on getting a better UV light. I know I need more branches and plants...
Just curious, is the compact bulb bad for all reptiles eyes or is it chameleons specifically?

 

[lumbasammler]

Hello,
the cage itself looks okay but you´ll need to get much more plants and branchen in there so he can climb and hide.
Also he needs to be able to reach the top in order to get to warmer places and regulate his temperature which may be the reason he´s dark (he wants to absorb as much heat as possible by showing dark colors).
Did you exchnge the compact bulb?

P.S. sorry, i dind´t see what you wrote below the pics.
I don´t know the details but chams eyes are especially sensitive to those compact bulbs which often emmit UV-rays with too short wavelenght which damages their eyes.
I guess other lizards might be affected too, but i don´t know for sure.

 

[laurie]

Looks like for a pet shop you have a good set up going. That is a big plus. Right now I would see how many plants, live if possible, you can get in for him along with some branches, dowel rods will work if they are what you have. Try to sit a dripper on the top of his cage, dripping onto a plant so he can lick water off the leaves. That and misting are the normal ways for chams to drink. Put a bowl with some screen over it, under the dripper. The screen is so he doesn't drown and the bowl is to keep the floor of the cage from being a soggy messy. That is also a good way to teach buyers on how to care for a chameleon. So is sending them to this forum.

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forum!

Regarding the lights harming the chameleon...they were supposed to have been corrected but some old lights are still out there so people are still avoiding the compacts. Here's where you will find out information about it all...
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/

Here's some information I hope will help you with things like supplements, gutloading, etc....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

A wide variety of insects that have been well fed and gutloaded should be fed to it.

Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.
Please note that various supplements have various amounts of D3 and vitamin A and so some can be given more often than others. The idea still is not to overdo the fat soluble vitamins like D3 and prEformed vitamin A.

Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Thanks for all the help so quickly everybody! I'm adding more live plants tomorrow, and some climbing vines/branches next week. I found a dripper and an extra (linear) UV bulb today before I left. I didn't have time today to set them up today, but I will in the morning. I'm also going to try gut loading the feeders. I currently have crickets and superworms, which I do dust with a calcium powder. He still hasn't eaten yet. I'm looking for places that sell other types of feeders now... seems like I need a larger variety. Thanks for the links, lots of great information

Oh yeah, I also wanted to ask if chameleons have any problems with sounds? Like people talking, kids screaming, music playing, that sort of thing.

 

[lumbasammler]

Oh yeah, I also wanted to ask if chameleons have any problems with sounds? Like people talking, kids screaming, music playing, that sort of thing.

Chameleons hear about nothing, so sound is not the problem.
But they don´t like strong vibrations like people running by or something.
Seems like your doing a good job until now, thanks

 

[Blue Ghost]

Chameleons hear about nothing, so sound is not the problem.
But they don´t like strong vibrations like people running by or something.
Seems like your doing a good job until now, thanks

Awesome, I was a little worried I might have to move his cage

I've just got some more information on the diet and keeping of the chameleon before I got him. They said he may be wild caught or captive bred, they have both. But if he was wild, they make sure they are eating and thriving before they ship. They feed flukers gut loaded crickets, and stimulate with moths if they have one that won't eat.

I saw him drink a little when I misted him today, but he still hasn't eaten.
He is looking better now though, getting some color back.

 

[Chadbot]

Has anyone considered putting a 1 way perforated decal on the viewing side of the enclosure glass/screen? You might have seen something similar on a bus as advertising or rear window of a truck/van that allows passengers to see out, but is largely opaque to people on the outside (only in this case, your cham would be the 'outside' observer).

 

[lumbasammler]

Has anyone considered putting a 1 way perforated decal on the viewing side of the enclosure glass/screen? You might have seen something similar on a bus as advertising or rear window of a truck/van that allows passengers to see out, but is largely opaque to people on the outside (only in this case, your cham would be the 'outside' observer).

I already thought about something like this, too.
But i guess that will make the enclosure pretty dark and also your cham might be shocked if a human suddenly appears and it wasn´t abled to see him when the cage was closed.