I was told to answer questions? Also she's molting the day after I got her

[GDBpetboy]

My new baby girl is a veiled chameleon and I don't know her exact age, but I'm guessing she's about 2-3, maybe 4 months old. I just got her yesterday for my birthday from my dad, who has a bit of an issue with spontaneously buying pets without doing research beforehand and thus, leaves us little time to prepare a proper enclosure for her. I've already made a post in The Lizard Lounge introducing myself and explaining more about her enclosure.
Since I've only had her a little under 24 hours, I haven't handled her very much, but out of that long, I've handled her maybe 2 hours total? Once the enclosure was set up (held her for an hour while my dad put it together- he doesn't like people touching his tools but himself), I left her to get used to it for about 3 hours and then held her for around another hour before putting her in the enclosure for the night. I haven't handled her since then.
I've been feeding her small crickets from Petco, gut-loaded on whatever they had there. I haven't gotten the chance to go out and get veggies and such for them yet, but that's going to happen soon (within tonight or tomorrow evening.) I gave her 2 yesterday once the enclosure was built and then 3 this morning, all were dusted in calcium and vitamins.
The supplements I've dusted the crickets in have been ZooMed's Reptivite Reptile Vitamins and ZooMed's ReptiCalcium (without D3) before I feed them to her. I haven't set a proper feeding schedule yet since I haven't had her very long.
I don't have a mister or spray bottle, so I've been taking a hand-held sifter and put some water through that over her enclosure and then altered a (cleaned out) cup to make a dripping device that lasts approximately 10-15 minutes. I have yet to see her drink anything though.
I haven't found any fecal droppings yet and I have not gotten her tested for parasites yet either.

Her cage is 16x16x30 inches and is made pretty much entirely (except the bottom) of screen. I've already been told about how to improve on this and plan to fix it ASAP.
I am using the UVB and basking bulbs that came with the chameleon kit my dad bought yesterday from Petco. I've already been told that this needs to change soon and I plan to fix it ASAP. I plan to start turning the lights off at 6 pm and turn them back on at 6 am when I wake up.
The basking point is at 73.7 F and the bottom is at 64.2 F. I haven't measured the temperature at night yet.
The humidity level on the gauge that my dad got has stayed around 85% for the most part, the lowest it was was at around 75% before I put in more water.
I have two plants in her enclosure, one being a plastic ivy-like plant and the other being a Pothos plant. I've taken out the top inch or so of soil to get rid of any pesticides on the surface and replaced it with flat stones around the base of the plant itself.
The cage is next to the dining room doorway on top of a liquor cabinet (it's used to hold the fancy dinnerware since my house is full of kids that could easily reach into it). The top of the cage is about 5'7" ft from the ground. The only person that goes through here except at dinner time is me, and I rarely even do that, since I'm a cave dweller who likes to stay in his room all day.
My location is in upstate New York, so it gets pretty chilly up here.

The current problem I am having is I've only just gotten her and she's molting it seems. In the beginner's resources, it said that partial peeling is normal for healthy chameleons, but I'm worried that she might be really stressed out and want to know how I can fix this if that's the case.
Attached are images of her when the cage was being set up, this morning when I woke up, and then later this morning when I got home from class ( about 5 hours later).

 

[Mrjamwin]

Can you provide some better pictures of your lighting and some enclosures pictures no so close up, please?

 

[PabloTheCham]

Dual Dome activity detected.... Zoo med strikes again.

 

[Kaizen]

My new baby girl is a veiled chameleon and I don't know her exact age, but I'm guessing she's about 2-3, maybe 4 months old. I just got her yesterday for my birthday from my dad, who has a bit of an issue with spontaneously buying pets without doing research beforehand and thus, leaves us little time to prepare a proper enclosure for her. I've already made a post in The Lizard Lounge introducing myself and explaining more about her enclosure.
Since I've only had her a little under 24 hours, I haven't handled her very much, but out of that long, I've handled her maybe 2 hours total?Don’t worry about trying to handle her; that can come later, but keep in mind that cham’s are a hand off pet. Once the enclosure was set up (held her for an hour while my dad put it together- he doesn't like people touching his tools but himself), I left her to get used to it for about 3 hours and then held her for around another hour before putting her in the enclosure for the night. I haven't handled her since then.
I've been feeding her small crickets from Petco, gut-loaded on whatever they had there. I haven't gotten the chance to go out and get veggies and such for them yet, but that's going to happen soon (within tonight or tomorrow evening.) There are conflicting views out there about gutloading. Some take a minimalist approach, and others a more involved approach. My vote is to gutload your feeders with tried and tested ingredients such as dandelion/collard/mustard greens, apples oranges, squash, carrots...there’s lots of good ingredients. @beman, do you have the link to the care image?I gave her 2 yesterday once the enclosure was built and then 3 this morning, all were dusted in calcium and vitamins.This is another area where different approaches shave worked. But, do not use a multivitamin at every feeding. There are two main approaches here: 1) use an all-in-one dust such as “Repashy Calcium Plus”. 2) Use plain calcium with no D3 every feeding, and a multivitamin once every two weeks, and a calcium with d3 once every tWo weeks.
The supplements I've dusted the crickets in have been ZooMed's Reptivite Reptile Vitamins and ZooMed's ReptiCalcium (without D3) before I feed them to her. I haven't set a proper feeding schedule yet since I haven't had her very long.
I don't have a mister or spray bottle, so I've been taking a hand-held sifter and put some water through that over her enclosure and then altered a (cleaned out) cup to make a dripping device that lasts approximately 10-15 minutes. I have yet to see her drink anything though A hand held mister is a minimum requirement here. The dollar store sells them. Misting and hydration is yet another area of different views. (If you’re getting the impression that no one agrees on anything, and there are different ways of doing everything, then you’re right). One method is to mist regularly throughout the day for several minutes, and to make sure you must heavily in the morning and evening. Another method says to mist at night and early morning while maintaining high humidity over night; maybe supplying a dripper during the day. My view is to make sure your Cham wakes up to water droplets on the leaves, maybe has access to a dripper for a couple hours a day, and make sure s/he sees humidity levels approaching 100% overnight.
I haven't found any fecal droppings yet and I have not gotten her tested for parasites yet either.

Her cage is 16x16x30 inches and is made pretty much entirely (except the bottom) of screen. I've already been told about how to improve on this and plan to fix it ASAP.
I am using the UVB and basking bulbs that came with the chameleon kit my dad bought yesterday from Petco. I've already been told that this needs to change soon and I plan to fix it ASAP. I plan to start turning the lights off at 6 pm and turn them back on at 6 am when I wake up.a cheap timer will make this easier.
The basking point is at 73.7 F and the bottom is at 64.2 F. I haven't measured the temperature at night yet. Your ambient room temp can be mid 70’s, and it would be ideal if your Cham has a place where she can see temps around 80
The humidity level on the gauge that my dad got has stayed around 85% for the most part, the lowest it was was at around 75% before I put in more water.
I have two plants in her enclosure, one being a plastic ivy-like plant and the other being a Pothos plant. Once the pothos grows, you could dispense with the plastic plant unless you need it for some other logistical purpose. I've taken out the top inch or so of soil to get rid of any pesticides on the surface and replaced it with flat stones around the base of the plant itself.
The cage is next to the dining room doorway on top of a liquor cabinet (it's used to hold the fancy dinnerware since my house is full of kids that could easily reach into it). The top of the cage is about 5'7" ft from the ground. The only person that goes through here except at dinner time is me, and I rarely even do that, since I'm a cave dweller who likes to stay in his room all day.
My location is in upstate New York, so it gets pretty chilly up here.

The current problem I am having is I've only just gotten her and she's molting it seems. In the beginner's resources, it said that partial peeling is normal for healthy chameleons, but I'm worried that she might be really stressed out and want to know how I can fix this if that's the case. If she’s shedding, and you provide her with enough nightime humidity, she’ll be fine. Don’t sweat it.
Attached are images of her when the cage was being set up, this morning when I woke up, and then later this morning when I got home from class ( about 5 hours later).

 

[Kaizen]

Click on expand above to see my comments.

 

[GDBpetboy]

Can you provide some better pictures of your lighting and some enclosures pictures no so close up, please?

I’ve already linked to my introduction with a more in-depth description of her enclosure, but here’s the images from that.

 

[GDBpetboy]

Thank you once again! I’ll be seeing to getting the right accommodations for her and doing better about her misting schedule. She’s been staying near the top of the enclosure and has been working at shedding on the fake vine. Freaked out my fiancé a little when he saw her moving

 

[GDBpetboy]

Dual Dome activity detected.... Zoo med strikes again.

I’m open to suggestions for other brands for her if you have any! I sincerely want her to have a happy life. My dad has a problem of “buy first, research later” when he spontaneously gets us pets.

 

[PabloTheCham]

I’m open to suggestions for other brands for her if you have any! I sincerely want her to have a happy life. My dad has a problem of “buy first, research later” when he spontaneously gets us pets.

Yeah, I do. @Kaizen must have forgot to mention in his feedback that you need a linear t5 ho linear bulb. The dual dome you have will kill your cham.

Here is what you should gutload with for at least 24-48 hours before feeding:

 

[GDBpetboy]

Yeah, I do. @Kaizen must have forgot to mention in his feedback that you need a linear t5 ho linear bulb. The dual dome you have will kill your cham.

Here is what you should gutload with for at least 24-48 hours before feeding:
View attachment 279806

Should I get two different lamps or is it just the bulbs in the lamp that I have? I apologize for the denseness, I either get confused or overthink without trying and sometimes need a little more explanation to understand things.

 

[PabloTheCham]

Should I get two different lamps or is it just the bulbs in the lamp that I have? I apologize for the denseness, I either get confused or overthink without trying and sometimes need a little more explanation to understand things.

You should throw away what you have now pretty much. You need a new uvb bulb and fixture. If you would like to keep the dual dome with just the heat bulb in then you can also do that.

 

[Kaizen]

I’m open to suggestions for other brands for her if you have any! I sincerely want her to have a happy life. My dad has a problem of “buy first, research later” when he spontaneously gets us pets.

Easy answer here, if you’re interested in tweaking the uvb situation. Get

Yeah, I do. @Kaizen must have forgot to mention in his feedback that you need a linear t5 ho linear bulb. The dual dome you have will kill your cham.

Here is what you should gutload with for at least 24-48 hours before feeding:
View attachment 279806

There is good information here @PabloTheCham , but please keep in mind that a compact uvb bulb won’t kill a chameleon, it’s just a poor uvb source for them long-term. Keepers in the 80’s and 90’s kept chameleons for 10+ without any uvb. We just have better tools now, and better information/access to said information. Of course a linear t5 ho uvb source is preferable in the long term.

 

[PabloTheCham]

a compact uvb bulb won’t kill a chameleon, it’s just a poor uvb source for them long-term.

So a poor uvb source will not kill a chameleon? Poor uvb leads to MBD and MBD kills chams?

 

[Kaizen]

So a poor uvb source will not kill a chameleon? Poor uvb leads to MBD and MBD kills chams?

@PabloTheCham , I really appreciate your energy and enthusiasm for the subject. If you’d like to discuss things in a pm, I’d be happy to, but I’m not sure I can provide you a satisfactory answer here that will not escalate the thread. Again, feel free to pm me.

 

[PabloTheCham]

@PabloTheCham , I really appreciate your energy and enthusiasm for the subject. If you’d like to discuss things in a pm, I’d be happy to, but I’m not sure I can provide you a satisfactory answer here that will not escalate the thread. Again, feel free to pm me.

I will

 

[Kaizen]

Long and short of it is that you should consider getting a new lighting fixture in the near further. What you’re looking for is a fixture that runs a t5 high out put uvb bulb. It would be wise to get a fixture that is too big for your current enclosure, a 36” would be great. That way, when you upgrade your cage, the light will still fit. Most people recommend one of two bulbs: a t5 reptisun 5.0, or t5 Arcadia 6%.

 

[GDBpetboy]

Long and short of it is that you should consider getting a new lighting fixture in the near further. What you’re looking for is a fixture that runs a t5 high out put uvb bulb. It would be wise to get a fixture that is too big for your current enclosure, a 36” would be great. That way, when you upgrade your cage, the light will still fit. Most people recommend one of two bulbs: a t5 reptisun 5.0, or t5 Arcadia 6%.

Thank you!! I’m making a pretty hefty shopping list tonight it seems ?

 

[Kaizen]

Again, don’t stress too much. Do what you can this payroll, and do more the next, and so on. This is a fantastic hobby about which the jury is still out on a ton of interesting questions!