Hi, some questions regarding my cham

S

Shoot

New Member
Well, I'm new to this forum and to owning a Chameleon. My step dad's friend had one and was giving it away so I decided to take it. I do not know much about the cham, by this picture, can anyone tell me the age it is? Or anything close to it, the reason I ask is because I want to know if what I'm feeding (it) is good or bad. Ive been feeding it large crickets from petco, it has eaten about 4 a day but I don't know if thats enough. I read around that people feed theirs about 8-10 every other day. This is starting to look like a huge wall of text so I'll stop typing, anyways, here's the picture

35258_144145418936368_100000227336121_435738_6985786_n.jpg



The crickets are about half an inch big or so
 
Hello. Well you came to the right place to learn about chameleons and get very good help. Well by the picture your chameleon looks a female, but could be a male. The thing i notice right off the bat is that her eyes are closed and that is not good for during the day. She also looks pretty big. Either she is overweight or gravid. Please fill out the forum below so we can help you in every way possible. Also please this if your chameleon is in fact a female. http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html

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.


Pictures are helpful
 
Last edited:
A note on your crickets: they need to be well fed crickets when you give them to your chameleon. Not all stores are good about that. So don't run home from Petco and put them in the cage. Give them at least a few hours to eat good food before you give them to your animal. There are lots of good threads about gut loading feeders in this forum and the FOOD forum.
 
Agreed. And you can order some cricket crack from Steve Sims. He makes the best cricket gut load here and the crickets love it:)

PS-Remember not to feed anything that is bigger then the space between his/her eyes as if you do..she may choke and it can turn out to be fatal.
 
hi m8, right the cham does look in a poor condition, id be getting some water into her straight away, her casque looks deflated so i think she is dehydrated, she does also look gravid as said in another post.

has the guy you has her off giving her supplements?
did she have a mate? or has she been mated?

her limbs also look a bit thin, you can get liquid calcium to add to her water (Vetark), the reason i say this is it looks like she has had no supplements or calcium (calcium is needed in egg production) i think she has been absorbing the calcium from her body to go to the eggs because she hasnt been recieving any through supplements.

so get some water into her, how about the uv tube, how old is the tube? if your not sure then get a new tube asap. also give her some reptile vitamins.

vetark aslo do nutrobal (vitamins, minerals and also calcium) which may help, there are also other products like Critical Care Formula to help animals in a bad way. they also make repto boost to aid aniamls back to health

gutload her feeders well, different veg, fruit, bee pollen etc - thin slices are best - apple, pear, carrot, squash, dandilion leaves, lemon, orange, cranberry powder, sweet potatoe, i also use baby food (the dry type) spirulina, blue green algae, alfalfa powder, il use most thing as gutload but read up on the item you want to use before use as foods contain varying amounts of vitamins, you can "overdose" on vitamins so becare with gutloading and supplementing

and get a tub of soil in the viv for her as she will need to lay the eggs if gravid, chams in her state dont really have a lot of energy so every minute counts to save these animals.

sory if it feels like im telling you what to do, i just crammed in what i could think of quickly, this is just what i would do if that animal came to me.

good luck with her m8, i think she will need it
rob
 
CleaTheChameleon said:
Hello. Well you came to the right place to learn about chameleons and get very good help. Well by the picture your chameleon looks a female, but could be a male. The thing i notice right off the bat is that her eyes are closed and that is not good for during the day. She also looks pretty big. Either she is overweight or gravid. Please fill out the forum below so we can help you in every way possible. Also please this if your chameleon is in fact a female. http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
The species, sex and age are all unknown to me. And it's been in my care for a day
* Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
I really try not to since he/she is new to me, last time I tried (this morning) she tried biting me
* Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
So far, I fed him/her 4 crickets in the morning and I'm planning on giving it another 2 later on in the day and 2 at night. I bought a small box with 36 crickets at petco and it brought an egg carton and a small green ball which I'm guessing has nutrients
* Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
I haven't bought these yet, I have to go buy them today. And I don't really know what schedule to do
* Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
I have a little bowl thing that I fill with water and clean daily, I haven't seen him drink yet. I mist him every morning and night.
* Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
I haven't seen him do this yet
* History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
No known history


Cage Info:

* Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Glass, with double doors in the front and screen as the "roof".
18" tall, 12" wide and deep
* Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Brand, no idea. Same with model. A clamp light on top of the cage. I turn on the light at 8ish AM and turn it off around 11 PM.
* Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
75-85 F on the branch, no idea for the floor. Haven't measured the overnight temp. I have a temperature gauge
* Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
I use another gauge to measure humidity
* Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
None
* 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?
The cage is located in my room by my closet. My air vent is "kind" of hitting the cage but you don't really feel it. The top of the cage is at 40" from the room floor
* Location - Where are you geographically located?
Miami, FL, USA


Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
Am I doing this correctly? Or am I doing something wrong.

Pictures are helpful
Click to expand...


My responses are in bold

Here is a recent picture:
http://i30.tinypic.com/24ys6q1.jpg

Here is the cage:
http://i28.tinypic.com/2eptr7n.jpg

I can't seem to get her to drink the water though, how would I go about doing that?


EDIT:
I am planning on buying a cricket keeper and buying about 250 crickets so I can gut-load them
 
Ok well there are a lot of things we need to fix. First of all, the calcium. You need to get a calcium with D3, a calcium without D3 and multivitamin. These you can order off www.lllreptile.com. Most pet stores have the last 2 but not the first one. Secondly, water. Chameleon will not drink still water and wont drink out of a water bowl. You have to mist her maybe 2-3 times a day. Not at night. Then,lighting. You need to get a ReptiSun 5.0 UVB bulb. The fluorescent ones. Not the coil bulbs. You will also need a 40 watt regular house bulb for her to bask and absorb some heat. Plants-You will need to get live plants. Umbrella plants, ficus, and pothos are some of the many safe plant for chameleons. Check the list of safe plants here http://flchams.com/safe_plant_list.asp Also i forgot to mention you will need to get rid of that glass cage. You live in south florida and so do i. We both know its very hot and humid here. You need to get a screen cage from www.lllreptile.com. You can get a 18x18x36 or a 24x24x36. I would start with and 18x18x36 for now and then move up.
When you put your chameleon to bed..the lights should be on for 12 hours a day. 8am-11pm is to much. It should be 8am-8pm. Get a timer if you feel you will forget.

Here is the calcium schedule i use and which you can use:
Calcium without D3 every other feeding

Calcium with D3 twice a month. 1st and 15th of each month.

Multivitamin once a month. 20th of each month
 
Okay, as for the vitamins, I'll go to Petco today and see what they have.
So by misting, you mean something like this:
Image?

As for the lightning, yesterday I bought some branches but they were too big for my cage so I'm going to return them and get some lighting.

Yeah, I havea coil bulb, I'll get that one.
And for the regular house bulb, where do I put this?
Live plants, I'll get one and replace the current branch there?
Yeah it is very hot in south florida, I'll get a screen cage

Yeah I was debating myself on the times for the lights.

Thanks for the schedule, I'll print it and put it near the cage

Thanks for your help
 
The misting image is one way you can do it. I just have a hand held mister and fill it up and mist every morning and afternoon. Lighting-If you have a coil bulb..get rid of it and use the one i mentioned before. The reptisun 5.0 florescent UVB bulb. Live plants-Yeah get a live plant at your local garden center in home depot or lowes but dont forget to wash it real good and re pot it with organic soil before you put it in the cage. Most of the time there are some weird bugs in the soil when you buy the plant.

AND while you wait for your screen age to come..get rid of the soil(substrate) at the bottom of her cage now. She can ea tit and if she eats to much it can cause impaction:(
 
Any thing that is "clumpy" can cause impaction.
Its best just to use paper towels or news paper.
Oh, and don't trust things like calcium sand or normal sand either because it can get into
the cham's eye and it will still clump together in the cham's stomache.
 
Is the bottom of the cage front screen? If so, and your house is air conditioned, then a glass screen combo might work well for you. It's just very important to maintain good ventilation when there's glass and that won't happen if just the top is screen.

When you mist you should spray the cage down completely so it's dripping wet. It should look like it's raining. You should do that 2 or 3 times a day. You'll want to get a dripper that sits on top of the cage. You really should have water dripping into the cage the entire time the lights are on. You can just poke a hole in the bottom of a plastic container and let the water drip out.

Don't forget the very important advice to get a laying bin in there for her. Whether she's bearing eggs now or not, she should have a bin available (they will lay infertile eggs even if they have not been exposed to a male). I've seen people say a 6 inch bin is deep enough, but the deeper the better. 12 inches is probably ideal. It should be full of soil or sand (you can buy a bag of play sand at places like Wal Mart or Home Depot) and kept moist enough to hold a 6 inch long, 1 inch wide tunnel you poke out with your finger.
 
No it isn't But the front is a double door with a small gap in the middle. On bottom of the actual doors, there seems to be a "vent" like the ones in motorcycle helmets. There is very good ventilation since it is in a room with an air vent and a ceiling fan.

And when I misted her, she tried to walk away from it, so I decided to just mist her surroundings instead. A dripper would be a good idea, I'll add that.

Laying bin... thanks for that, didn't know she needed that.


EDIT:
Regarding the question CleaTheChameleon asked:
CleaTheChameleon said:
* Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
Click to expand...
She defecated yellowish and (may be disturbing) while it was coming out, it looked like you cracked an egg. At first, it looked more like pee (I used to own a Green Iguana) then solid came out. At first, it was "rockish?" and gray and then the 2nd one looked more like a bunch of cricket legs compacted into a brick
 
2wn8p52.jpg

There you go.

I just went out and bought 2 kinds of vitamins:
With D3
And
Without D3

I couldn't find any Multivitamins

EDIT:
Yeah, I misted her about 3 times today and she seems pretty happy, thanks for the help everybody.
All I need help with is the vitamins I bought, I don't know if I should give them to her yet
 
That is a strange looking feces. A healthy one is brown with a white thing attached to it called the urate. If its white she is hydrated. If its orange and kinda slimy she is dehydrated.

Yes you should start using the calcium ASAP. And use the schedule i gave you earlier.
 
So, the one I bought is good?
I was reading it and it only has min of 24.9% of calcium and max of 28%
It also has a bunch of other vitamins so I think this is multivitamins

Edit:
5776

and
5777
 
Shoot said:
So, the one I bought is good?
I was reading it and it only has min of 24.9% of calcium and max of 28%
It also has a bunch of other vitamins so I think this is multivitamins
Click to expand...

To be honest..im not quite sure. I use the Rep cal ones like these..

http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...cleaners/-/repcal-ultra-fine-calcium-with-d3/

http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...d-cage-cleaners/-/rep-cal-calcium-without-d3/

http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...cage-cleaners/-/repcal-herptivite-supplement/
 
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