I think I have gotten everything for a perfect home....

[Beman]

Hi everyone Beman and I are new to the forum. My name is Becca. Beman is a Male Veiled Chameleon about 5 months old now. This is what I am thinking based on the pet store not being to sure and giving me a rough 3-4 months old when I got him. I have had him a little over 4 weeks. He is a great eater and went through his first shed. No issues with bad poops or discolored urate. He is my first Chameleon and I adore him. He is super friendly and loves coming out to me and will eat from my hand. Which I read is fairly rare for a Veiled.

I have ordered a Dragon Strand medium clear side atrium with easy drip pan which will be coming this month. I got my quad lighting from light your reptiles along with his vitamins and calcium. Todd at light your reptiles was wonderful by the way. He has a basking light with a 50 watt exo terra basking bulb. I have the Mist King starter set on order. I have a little dripper. I have two pothos, two croton, and two dwarf umbrella's for live plants. These have been cleaned thoroughly and re-potted with dirt I got from the pet store. Rocks to cover the dirt in the plants (larger sized so he can't eat them). Multiple jungle vines and an exo terra bendable jungle tree. oh and I ordered a wet dry vacuum to remove water from his drip pan.

Am I forgetting anything? What do you recommend for a misting schedule? Any advice is appreciated.

I have filled out the form below with his current set up and info. And included pics. The first two are of his current set up taken 3 weeks ago except he has new lighting now and I have lifted the table higher. Got rid of the dual dome lighting. 3rd pic was taken 4 days after I got him. and the 3rd was yesterday when he was basking. The two last ones were when he was hanging out on his ficus while I was cleaning his crickets about a week ago. He does not stay in front of the window with sunlight as I read that was bad.
Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Male Veiled Chameleon, In my care for 4 weeks.
  
• Handling - He comes out to me everyday. Without any food as a bribe.
  
• Feeding - Medium Crickets, Approximately 2 dozen, 1 dozen in the morning at 7 am and another dozen at noon. Gutloading with mixed greens, Arcadia Insect Fuel. He loves waxworms too but I read that I shouldn't give him these often. I have started my subscription for crickets and ordered some arizona worms from Rainbow Mealworms.
  
• Supplements - Arcadia Calcium Pro Mg, and Arcadia Earth Pro A Vitamins. Lightly dusting with both every other day as directed.
  
• Watering - Little dripper, and a hand held sprayer. Misting for 1-2 minutes 4 times a day. He likes to drink directly from his little dripper tube. I see him do this everyday multiple times throughout the day.
  
• Fecal Description - Looks fully digested and solid. Urate is bright white no discoloration. He has Never been tested for parasites.
• History - Bought him at Petco.... I know now that this was not necessarily the best place. But I fell in love with him instantly. I have always loved chameleons but was intimidated about their care when I was younger so this was a trial by error situation the last few weeks. Buying the wrong things getting the better things etc. Not sure anything about him prior to me. They were housing 3 males in one and he was the smallest. The two larger ones would pick on him until he would get down on the ground out of their vines.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - zoomed 16/16/30tall screen cage. I have put acrylic siding on the back and right side to contain mist. Will be upgraded soon
  
• Lighting - quad T5 linear system from light your reptiles. I just got this a few days ago and he loves it. 1 6% UVB, 1 plant pro bulb, and 2 daylight bulbs. Fluckers dome light with a 50 watt exo terra basking bulb. Lights are 9 inches away from his perches.
• 6:15am heat light comes on, 6:30 uvb and a daylight bulb come on, 11am plant pro and daylight bulb come on. 3 pm plant pro and 1 daylight bulb go off, 5:30pm heat, uvb, and daylight bulb go off, 5:30 blue dusk led lights come on. 6pm all lights off. By about 5:45 he is already settled into his sleeping spot.
  
• Temperature - Basking spot is 87-88 degrees. bottom of cage is 71 degrees? Lowest overnight temp is 69 degrees as this is what the house heat is set on. I measure with a zoom med temp digital gauge with sensor and I have a zoo med point and click that gives me temps for certain areas
• Humidity - 40-70%? In the morning it is 40% and then I mist and it shoots up to 70% then drops to about 50% between misting. I mist 4 times a day. En exo terra digital humidity with sensor.
  
• Plants - Right now he has Pothos in his cage. I have croton and dwarf umbrellas to add in when we get his dragon strand enclosure.
  
• Placement - Next to my desk? Not near any fans, air vents. The desk is 35 inches that it sits on so the top of the cage is about 65 in from the floor.
  
• Location - Northern California on the coast.

 

[ERKleRose]

Hi everyone Beman and I are new to the forum. My name is Becca. Beman is a Male Veiled Chameleon about 5 months old now. This is what I am thinking based on the pet store not being to sure and giving me a rough 3-4 months old when I got him. I have had him a little over 4 weeks. He is a great eater and went through his first shed. No issues with bad poops or discolored urate. He is my first Chameleon and I adore him. He is super friendly and loves coming out to me and will eat from my hand. Which I read is fairly rare for a Veiled.

I have ordered a Dragon Strand medium clear side atrium with easy drip pan which will be coming this month. I got my quad lighting from light your reptiles along with his vitamins and calcium. Todd at light your reptiles was wonderful by the way. He has a basking light with a 50 watt exo terra basking bulb. I have the Mist King starter set on order. I have a little dripper. I have two pothos, two croton, and two dwarf umbrella's for live plants. These have been cleaned thoroughly and re-potted with dirt I got from the pet store. Rocks to cover the dirt in the plants (larger sized so he can't eat them). Multiple jungle vines and an exo terra bendable jungle tree. oh and I ordered a wet dry vacuum to remove water from his drip pan.

Am I forgetting anything? What do you recommend for a misting schedule? Any advice is appreciated.

I have filled out the form below with his current set up and info. And included pics. The first two are of his current set up taken 3 weeks ago except he has new lighting now and I have lifted the table higher. Got rid of the dual dome lighting. 3rd pic was taken 4 days after I got him. and the 3rd was yesterday when he was basking. The two last ones were when he was hanging out on his ficus while I was cleaning his crickets about a week ago. He does not stay in front of the window with sunlight as I read that was bad.
Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Male Veiled Chameleon, In my care for 4 weeks.
  
• Handling - He comes out to me everyday. Without any food as a bribe.
  
• Feeding - Medium Crickets, Approximately 2 dozen, 1 dozen in the morning at 7 am and another dozen at noon. Gutloading with mixed greens, Arcadia Insect Fuel. He loves waxworms too but I read that I shouldn't give him these often. I have started my subscription for crickets and ordered some arizona worms from Rainbow Mealworms.
  
• Supplements - Arcadia Calcium Pro Mg, and Arcadia Earth Pro A Vitamins. Lightly dusting with both every other day as directed.
  
• Watering - Little dripper, and a hand held sprayer. Misting for 1-2 minutes 4 times a day. He likes to drink directly from his little dripper tube. I see him do this everyday multiple times throughout the day.
  
• Fecal Description - Looks fully digested and solid. Urate is bright white no discoloration. He has Never been tested for parasites.
• History - Bought him at Petco.... I know now that this was not necessarily the best place. But I fell in love with him instantly. I have always loved chameleons but was intimidated about their care when I was younger so this was a trial by error situation the last few weeks. Buying the wrong things getting the better things etc. Not sure anything about him prior to me. They were housing 3 males in one and he was the smallest. The two larger ones would pick on him until he would get down on the ground out of their vines.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - zoomed 16/16/30tall screen cage. I have put acrylic siding on the back and right side to contain mist. Will be upgraded soon
  
• Lighting - quad T5 linear system from light your reptiles. I just got this a few days ago and he loves it. 1 6% UVB, 1 plant pro bulb, and 2 daylight bulbs. Fluckers dome light with a 50 watt exo terra basking bulb. Lights are 9 inches away from his perches.
• 6:15am heat light comes on, 6:30 uvb and a daylight bulb come on, 11am plant pro and daylight bulb come on. 3 pm plant pro and 1 daylight bulb go off, 5:30pm heat, uvb, and daylight bulb go off, 5:30 blue dusk led lights come on. 6pm all lights off. By about 5:45 he is already settled into his sleeping spot.
  
• Temperature - Basking spot is 87-88 degrees. bottom of cage is 71 degrees? Lowest overnight temp is 69 degrees as this is what the house heat is set on. I measure with a zoom med temp digital gauge with sensor and I have a zoo med point and click that gives me temps for certain areas
• Humidity - 40-70%? In the morning it is 40% and then I mist and it shoots up to 70% then drops to about 50% between misting. I mist 4 times a day. En exo terra digital humidity with sensor.
  
• Plants - Right now he has Pothos in his cage. I have croton and dwarf umbrellas to add in when we get his dragon strand enclosure.
  
• Placement - Next to my desk? Not near any fans, air vents. The desk is 35 inches that it sits on so the top of the cage is about 65 in from the floor.
  
• Location - Northern California on the coast.

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Male veileds need a minimum sized cage of 2’ by 2’ by 4’ tall when fully grown, though bigger than that is better. So unless you plan on upgrading again, I’d cancel that DragonStrand order and order a bigger cage. I’m not the best with ages, but he looks older than 5 months, could just be me, though. Waxworms should only be for treats. Add in more variety, like silkworms, hornworms, butterworms, superworms, roaches (red runner, dubia, orange headed, ivory headed, green banana, etc.), black soldier flies and larvae, blue bottle flies, mantids, stick insects, helix aspersa, painted lady butterflies, and silk, horn, and waxworm moths, to name a few. Make sure whatever you feed is appropriately sized. Use the Arcadia insectivore supplement schedule off of their website for supplements. For MistKing times, do at least 2 minute mistings each time, with one 5-10 minute session in there somewhere. The Arcadia quad fixtures don’t have reflectors for each bulb, so I’d order those from LYR if the snap on reflectors are compatible for maximum uvb absorption. When he gets a bigger cage (4’ or taller), get a Zoo Med t5HO 10.0 bulb for uvb. Chams need 12 hours of uvb and basking and 12 hours of complete darkness. So if heat comes on at 6:15 am, it should go off at 6:15 pm. Same with uvb. Don’t use the blue LEDs. And make all the lights come on at once and get a dimmer so it’s gradual if you want. No need to have each bulb on a different schedule. Unless someone else chimes in and corrects me on light times. Basking spot should be 85*F until he gets older (unless someone confirms older age). Humidity is in the correct range.

 

[Beman]

Male veileds need a minimum sized cage of 2’ by 2’ by 4’ tall when fully grown, though bigger than that is better. So unless you plan on upgrading again, I’d cancel that DragonStrand order and order a bigger cage. I’m not the best with ages, but he looks older than 5 months, could just be me, though. Waxworms should only be for treats. Add in more variety, like silkworms, hornworms, butterworms, superworms, roaches (red runner, dubia, orange headed, ivory headed, green banana, etc.), black soldier flies and larvae, blue bottle flies, mantids, stick insects, helix aspersa, painted lady butterflies, and silk, horn, and waxworm moths, to name a few. Make sure whatever you feed is appropriately sized. Use the Arcadia insectivore supplement schedule off of their website for supplements. For MistKing times, do at least 2 minute mistings each time, with one 5-10 minute session in there somewhere. The Arcadia quad fixtures don’t have reflectors for each bulb, so I’d order those from LYR if the snap on reflectors are compatible for maximum uvb absorption. When he gets a bigger cage (4’ or taller), get a Zoo Med t5HO 10.0 bulb for uvb. Chams need 12 hours of uvb and basking and 12 hours of complete darkness. So if heat comes on at 6:15 am, it should go off at 6:15 pm. Same with uvb. Don’t use the blue LEDs. And make all the lights come on at once and get a dimmer so it’s gradual if you want. No need to have each bulb on a different schedule. Unless someone else chimes in and corrects me on light times. Basking spot should be 85*F until he gets older (unless someone confirms older age). Humidity is in the correct range.

I will be adding a second story to his Dragon strand cage in another 4-5 months. Bill has it so with this medium there is a connector frame and you can get the second one. I just couldn't afford to do it all at once. His final adult cage will be 5 feet tall 18 in deep and 30 wide. I will upgrade his Uvb bulb at that point too. Yeah I am not exactly sure on the age either.... that was my best guess comparing him to other images I found online and going off what the store told me. The ficus that he was on in the image has a pot diameter of 6 inches if that gives you a better idea on his size lol. Thank you for all the food suggestions... There are so many types and I was really unsure. Awesome thank you for the misting advice as well. I didn't know I should add in a longer session. His lighting quad does have reflectors installed. I read on here about that thank goodness. I was trying to coordinate the lighting to our sunrise sunset for winter. I will relook at my lighting schedule. Thank you so much for taking the time and giving me wonderful advice. I really appreciate it!

 

[ERKleRose]

I will be adding a second story to his Dragon strand cage in another 4-5 months. Bill has it so with this medium there is a connector frame and you can get the second one. I just couldn't afford to do it all at once. His final adult cage will be 5 feet tall 18 in deep and 30 wide. I will upgrade his Uvb bulb at that point too. Yeah I am not exactly sure on the age either.... that was my best guess comparing him to other images I found online and going off what the store told me. The ficus that he was on in the image has a pot diameter of 6 inches if that gives you a better idea on his size lol. Thank you for all the food suggestions... There are so many types and I was really unsure. Awesome thank you for the misting advice as well. I didn't know I should add in a longer session. His lighting quad does have reflectors installed. I read on here about that thank goodness. I was trying to coordinate the lighting to our sunrise sunset for winter. I will relook at my lighting schedule. Thank you so much for taking the time and giving me wonderful advice. I really appreciate it!

I’m afraid 18” wide is too small though, that’s how long he’s going to get

 

[celeste_knitter]

I’m afraid 18” wide is too small though, that’s how long he’s going to get

@ERKleRose you are not reading the dimensions correctly - from the Dragon Strand website - Medium Clear Side Atrium Enclosure. 28.5” Wide (front/back), 18” Deep (sides) and 29.5” High (tall). She will be stacking 2 on top, so it will still be 28.5" wise (front/back), 18" deep (sides), but 59" high (tall). 1 is big enough for a veiled, though larger is better.

 

[Syreptyon]

edit - removed

 

[ERKleRose]

@ERKleRose you are not reading the dimensions correctly - from the Dragon Strand website - Medium Clear Side Atrium Enclosure. 28.5” Wide (front/back), 18” Deep (sides) and 29.5” High (tall). She will be stacking 2 on top, so it will still be 28.5" wise (front/back), 18" deep (sides), but 59" high (tall). 1 is big enough for a veiled, though larger is better.

I’m reading it correcty. The veiled with have little space, if any, to turn around in that cage. Male veileds average around 18” long.

 

[Beman]

@ERKleRose you are not reading the dimensions correctly - from the Dragon Strand website - Medium Clear Side Atrium Enclosure. 28.5” Wide (front/back), 18” Deep (sides) and 29.5” High (tall). She will be stacking 2 on top, so it will still be 28.5" wise (front/back), 18" deep (sides), but 59" high (tall). 1 is big enough for a veiled, though larger is better.

So I am good on his cage for now... do you see where I should buy anything else for now... I am going to vary his diet too. Or if I am off the mark on something?

 

[ERKleRose]

I’m reading it correcty. The veiled with have little space, if any, to turn around in that cage. Male veileds average around 18” long.

And that’s the smaller end of their size spectrum, they can get up to 24” long or bigger

 

[Beman]

Well I can always do a total upgrade next spring if he turns out to be a big boy instead of doing another medium. I could do the large. The dimensions on that are 45.25″ wide x 44.25″ high x 22.25″ deep, but if I do that since I only have a 30" long light fixture would I need to go to a larger light or could I center the 30 in light on the 45 in width? It would leave the ends with 7 inches on each side though?

 

[ERKleRose]

Well I can always do a total upgrade next spring if he turns out to be a big boy instead of doing another medium. I could do the large. The dimensions on that are 45.25″ wide x 44.25″ high x 22.25″ deep, but if I do that since I only have a 30" long light fixture would I need to go to a larger light or could I center the 30 in light on the 45 in width? It would leave the ends with 7 inches on each side though?

30” long light fixture would work fine

 

[celeste_knitter]

I’m reading it correcty. The veiled with have little space, if any, to turn around in that cage. Male veileds average around 18” long.

Agree to disagree then, though your tone in most posts has turned me off. To the OP, bigger is always better, if you can afford to change to a large atrium that will serve you well. Talk to Bill Strand by email.

 

[ERKleRose]

Agree to disagree then, though your tone in most posts has turned me off. To the OP, bigger is always better, if you can afford to change to a large atrium that will serve you well. Talk to Bill Strand by email.

I’m sincerely sorry if I have a tone, I didn’t think I did. I have a busy schedule but want to help people, so my responses are usually short and to the point. I don’t go out of my way to offend anybody, and am sorry if you took it that way

 

[celeste_knitter]

Sometimes when we are so busy, we need to wait until a better time to respond. There are plenty of people who can answer posts & they don't have to be answered or checked in a set timeframe.

 

[ERKleRose]

Sometimes when we are so busy, we need to wait until a better time to respond. There are plenty of people who can answer posts & they don't have to be answered or checked in a set timeframe.

Obviously I’ve rubbed you the wrong way, and I apologize for that. Most of the time, the response needs to be urgent or I know I won’t have enough time later. I will try to stay out of your way from now on

 

[zmoore91]

I hope this doesn’t come off as me “stirring” the pot or anything. But I’d have to agree with @ERKleRose here. I think you’ll be in better shape getting that larger cage instead of wasting money. You could totally snag a Reptibreeze XL for less money. Although I envy you going through dragonstrand. Those things are nice. You won’t have to get rid of you light fixture either. Anyhow, I’m sure you’ll do whatever needs to be done to ensure good keeping for your chameleon. Cheers!

 

[Goose502]

Though I agree that larger is ALWAYS better, what you will eventually have(two dragonstrands) will be fine. Should you have maybe started with your final enclosure, yes. At this point you are spending more money, but I understand purchasing what you can afford. You’re doing fine, most keepers wouldn’t try half as hard as you are.

 

[Beman]

Though I agree that larger is ALWAYS better, what you will eventually have(two dragonstrands) will be fine. Should you have maybe started with your final enclosure, yes. At this point you are spending more money, but I understand purchasing what you can afford. You’re doing fine, most keepers wouldn’t try half as hard as you are.

Thank you for what you said. Kinda felt like I started a war by posting. I spent so much on his initial set up which was not optimal from everything I read. I was going to do the large size but realized I couldn’t afford it with everything else I was going to need like lighting and mist king etc. So I figured I could just add a second level later and then he would have a fantastic home.

 

[celeste_knitter]

Though I agree that larger is ALWAYS better, what you will eventually have(two dragonstrands) will be fine. Should you have maybe started with your final enclosure, yes. At this point you are spending more money, but I understand purchasing what you can afford. You’re doing fine, most keepers wouldn’t try half as hard as you are.

This!!!!

 

[AmandaS]

(Resurecting this)
Look at baby Beman!!