How does my enclosure sound to you?

[Matthew43s]

I just got my 2-3 month old neonatal male veiled Cham KP (Kenny powers) yesterday morning, shipped from Mike at FLchams. Great guy, friendly and happy with KP he's as healthy as can be from first glance. Now I have him set up in the 16x16x30 reptibreeze enclosure for now. He has a Reptilesun 5.0 UVB light along with The daytime blue sun light, since I've read the youngins only need basking spots that reach 81-86 degrees F. I have the reptirain system set to spray out of two nozzles onto an assortment of only silk fake plants (the more I read the more I realize I should ditch those plants asap, but with the set up I have now hard to put anything else) every 3 hours for 15 seconds. Figured that would give the little guy quite a few good chances to lap up some H20 (correct me if I am wrong). The setup I was referring too is a system of home made artificial vines/limbs I made out of various sizes of PVC pipe, covered in aquarium silicon for grip, painted brown and spray adhesive live moss over them. I have them set up in a chris cross pattern, three rows high all connected by Mossy terrarium sticks I have superglued. I let all of this cure for about a week before KP entered his home. I also have made use of an oil diffuser (cleaned vigorously)that shoots mist into the air at the bottom of his enclosure to ensure he has some humidity. Works great btw and very cheap, also adds a classy look to the enclosure with the led lights inside I will post a picture just as soon as one of you explains how it is I can do that Now I have some questions regarding the difference between free-roam and cup feeding, which works better, if its free roam how to tell little guy is eating (other then the obvious fecal movements) what is best to feed and how the hell do you raise the feeder insects lol

So if anyone with some knowledge regarding my setup and questions reads this and would like to respond that'd be awesome. I want my little dude to have a bitchen good home, as comfortable as possible.

 

[JacksJill]

Congrats on your little guy .
When you make a post in the lower right corner is a button to Upload a File(next to the Post Reply) use this to browse for the image you want to post. Select and upload.
It will be easier to critique his new home with pictures.

 

[Matthew43s]

Thank you for that info, I'm gonna post quite a few pictures from the begging to the end. Lets see what ya'll think! @JacksJill The photo of KP is when he first came out so he's still really dark. He's lightened up quite a bit now

 

[JacksJill]

Looks nice. That an interesting way to use pvc pipes. Veiled like to eat leaves so switching him over to live plants as soon as you can get them worked into your cage will be great. Pothos work well for them.
I think a combination of cup feeding and free roam feeding works well. That way you can see if they eat the cup bugs and they get to hunt down the occasional loose one.
Insect raising is a big subject there are several threads you can search for to get started.

 

[CJ's Exotics]

I have tried cup feeding once, but my little guy did not like that idea. Since then, I do free roam feeding, and in my opinion, it looks cool to watch him eat. Your enclosure looks great, plenty of places to hide, great opportunities to climb, etc. My only recommendation is to use a linear uvb bulb to increase the uvb exposure area. As for the feeder insects, I use a staple of crickets, and most keepers do as well, and all you have to do is keep egg cartons in there for hiding for the crickets, some gutload for them, and a water dish with a sponge or water crystals. Enjoy your chameleon!

 

[CJ's Exotics]

By the way, I would be careful of water splashing on the wall. Forgot to add this.

 

[Matthew43s]

@JacksJill Thanks for your input, I appreciate the information! now with the plants, I've read that the juvenile chams don't usually try eating the leaves as much as the adults, and I'm only going to keep him in this enclosure for about two months then upgrade. So do you think I can make int work or should I get rid of all of the PVC internals and just stick a ficus tree in there with some pathos vines?

 

[Matthew43s]

@CJ's Exotics I Appreciate that post very much. And thank you for the compliment! yeah I tried the cup feeding and he wasn't having it but as soon as I dropped one in the enclosure he went straight for it. So im gonna go that route with the crickets but with his wax worms and Dubai's im going to use a Tupperware lid, thats like a rectangle to make sure those little boogers get seen and don't just hide. Now with the UVA light, maybe I can use this dual dome for two daytime blue lights and then place a linear uva in front? Idk just thinking out loud. And trust me I know with the water situation. it went haywire the first couple times I used it and soaked everything but now I have the nozzles adjusted and hidden behind some leaves to make sure the spray stays as much in the enclosure as possible with the exception of some coming out of the front which isn't a big deal to me. Apartment carpet can get wet

 

[Matthew43s]

@CJ's Exotics Also, my Cham seems to like too eat the bigger sized, medium to large crickets. he goes after those and shuns the small ones. is it okay if I feed him the bigger ones? I know the rule of thumb is no wider then the head but the one he ate earlier was slightly larger and he had no problem. thoughts?

 

[CJ's Exotics]

Laughing with the water situation, mine went kind of crazy at first. I would recommend feeding the smaller ones to be on the safe side.

 

[Matthew43s]

Laughing with the water situation, mine went kind of crazy at first. I would recommend feeding the smaller ones to be on the safe side.

Fair enough, I guess I probably should have waited to find out before purchasing 35 medium-large crickets lol guess its their lucky day. #BeFree I'll get this figured out. I appreciate the help, so does KP.

 

[CJ's Exotics]

Fair enough, I guess I probably should have waited to find out before purchasing 35 medium-large crickets lol guess its their lucky day. #BeFree I'll get this figured out. I appreciate the help, so does KP.

LOL!!!

 

[Matthew43s]

I have tried cup feeding once, but my little guy did not like that idea. Since then, I do free roam feeding, and in my opinion, it looks cool to watch him eat. Your enclosure looks great, plenty of places to hide, great opportunities to climb, etc. My only recommendation is to use a linear uvb bulb to increase the uvb exposure area. As for the feeder insects, I use a staple of crickets, and most keepers do as well, and all you have to do is keep egg cartons in there for hiding for the crickets, some gutload for them, and a water dish with a sponge or water crystals. Enjoy your chameleon!

I forgot to add that KP likes to sit directly under the UVB bulb, I guess its the perfect temp for him (about 85 degrees) he sits under it to bask since one of the vines is fish wired to the top. I figure he sits there 80% of his day, don't think he's lacking UVB lol

 

[CJ's Exotics]

Fair enough, I guess I probably should have waited to find out before purchasing 35 medium-large crickets lol guess its their lucky day. #BeFree I'll get this figured out. I appreciate the help, so does KP.

You could also save them to breed for your little guy in the future.

 

[Matthew43s]

You could also save them to breed for your little guy in the future.

I want to breed but I have no clue how to do it. I'd love to be able to do it, considering weekly trips to petsmart are gonna rack up real quick.

 

[CJ's Exotics]

I want to breed but I have no clue how to do it. I'd love to be able to do it, considering weekly trips to petsmart are gonna rack up real quick.

I agree. I would buy online. I get most of my feeders online from rainbowmealworms.com. You can get crickets for real cheap. The only problem is the shipping (1 day $20+). You could also go to reptile shows if you have one near you.

 

[JacksJill]

When you get your larger cage you may have room to attach a hanging pot of pothos to the structure you've built.

 

[CJ's Exotics]

I agree. I would buy online. I get most of my feeders online from rainbowmealworms.com. You can get crickets for real cheap. The only problem is the shipping (1 day $20+). You could also go to reptile shows if you have one near you.

There are articles online to help you learn how to breed crickets, just buy some that don't smell bad or chirp a lot, lol. It would just take a long post to explain how to breed crickets.

 

[CJ's Exotics]

When you get your larger cage you may have room to attach a hanging pot of pothos to the structure you've built.

That is what I'm going to do with my chameleon.

 

[Matthew43s]

Im sure there is and I should know by now considering I have qu

I agree. I would buy online. I get most of my feeders online from rainbowmealworms.com. You can get crickets for real cheap. The only problem is the shipping (1 day $20+). You could also go to reptile shows if you have one near you.

Well if I could keep like 1000 alive for a while I guess the shipping wouldn't be bad but when I keep crickets they usually go belly up pretty quick, great reptile owner but crickets are not my strong suit, weird but true. I try to keep about 20 alive to give to my crested gecko and they usually die within 3-5 days. so I'll have to step my cricket game up. until then I'll just unfold all my piggybank ones to crickets from the mart or pets.