Just filled out the questionnaire, any tips or help is much appreciate,

[Riley0422]

1 she is a veiled chameleon I believe it’s female because she has no spurs on her feet I’ve had her for about a week and she’s 3 to 6 months old

2 i rarely handle her as i said before once for maybe thirty minutes many days ago and i plan on only handling her when i clean the tank

3 I put meal worms in a dish but she didn’t go for them only crickets on the third day, since then which was two days ago I’ve fed her 10 to 15 crickets a day I’m going to get gut loading supplies tonight like carrots and calcium supplements, no schedule so far I’ve just been kinda doing it either before I leave for work around 7:30 or when I come home around 4

4 I’ve been dusting my crickets with a mix of zoo med calcium and zoomed d3 supplants I’ve only done that once so far I’ve had her

5 I have a large artificial plant water dripper for now but I see I may have to remove it which is always on and I mist three times a day, I be only seen her drink once she when I first put the water dripper in but she spends a lot of time basking I also like to give her space she is really not fond of me lol whatch is okay!! She just gets really stressed at the sight of me I thing her basking are may be to open

6 I have to clean the tank before I think I can find any of her dripping witch may be too dry to accurately depict anything from but I will keep an eye out

7 unfortunately no history besides age and type

8 my cage type is a 16” 16” “30 cage witch I now know needs to be larger

9 I have the t5ho or however you spell it unfortunately I can’t remember off the top of my head with a hood light horizontally placed as well as a zoo med 50 watt heating bulb above the basking branch, as far as schedule goes I turn her lights on around 8 and off around 8

10 as far as temperature goes I have a wired thermostat should I attach it to her basking branch? I just don’t want to stress her out I know the bottom of the cage is room temp around 74 degrees and I keep the thermostat mid to high range in the tank is it stays around 78 to 80 degrees so I figured her basking area had to be around 85 degrees

11 my hygrometer fell to the bottom of the tank it also has a thermometer on it I set it near her basking area just a second ago the hydrometer said 50 percent and it was at the bottom of the tank witch is unsettling seeing as I have the dripper always running but I mist three times a day aswell once in the morning once in the after noon and once at night

12 I have some live plants and live fake and over heard fake isn’t viable so I will be removing b them and I just grabbed some from the front of the garden section of Lowe’s small potted plants I wish I had taken names I had no idea some were harmful

13 my cage is in my bedroom I share with my wife so relatively low traffic with a large window with sunlight on the water witch I think is good for her idk lol!! She’s also on top of a book shelf the bottom of the cage is elbow high

14 I’m in south Florida!! Whew all this typing has me beat!!! I tried to be as descriptive as possible I know I need more ways to measure temp and humidity I’ll be working on it this weekend!!!

 

[absolutbill]

Hello and welcome! Yes, you have a female, I'd put her age at 5-6 months, which means you need a laybin in the cage with her. You are off to a good start, but may I recommend that you read the care files on here which I think will help guide you in the right direction. Mealworms are the greatest for chameleons - not enough meat to chititin (their exoskeleton which is what your fingernails are made of) ratio. In the caresheets you'll see lots of feeder options, like silk worms, horn worms, super worms, Discoid roaches (the only roaches we are allowed to have here in FL), etc. It's important to gut load all of these, but with the silks and horns there is pre-made chow that you can buy for them - just add water, mix, and you are set. For roaches, superworms and crickets you'll need fresh veggies for them. It's important because all that great nutrition that you are giving them is then going into your new chameleon!

Live plants are the way to go - veileds will eat their plants and with fake ones you are running the risk of impaction. Check the safe plant list file but there are loads of those in the Home Depots and Lowes down here (I'm in Naples). This will also help with your humidity levels to keep them a little higher.

Yes, you do need a larger cage, and it's great that you realize this. When you upgrade, add more horizontal branches across the cage like little highways for her. Put them at different levels so she can get closer and further from the basking and UVB as she wishes. She won't get any UVB through the window, but she probably enjoys looking outside.

You will want to dust her feeders at each feeding - again, check out the care files (I'm sorry, it's been a hard week at work and my brain is marshmallow right now) to look at the correct suplimentation schedule and which suppliments to use. This is vital because you don't want her developing MBD or having eye issues, among other things. When you feed you'll want to do it in the morning so she has the day to digest her bugs, instead of doing it after work when she has less time before the lights go out and she stops digesting. Personally I follow the sun, so I have UVB and basking on at 6 AM now, then basking off at 5 PM and UVB off at 7 PM. I like a little cool down time before lights out, especially because it's so warm down here. I turn the lights on at 6 AM (they are on a timer which I highly recommend), because that way I can feed before I leave for work at 6:30 AM.

You can attach the thermometer to the basking branch, maybe out of her way and she will get used to it. Just make sure you can easily read it without disturbing her. Bear in mind that if you keep her basking temp down a little bit and don't over feed her then you will help her to not produce eggs as frequently which will shorten her lifespan. Chameleons will produce eggs without being fertilized and that pulls calcium from them and is a stressor on their bodies.

I think this is a good jumping off point for you, because I don't want to stress you out. Good luck with her and we are all here to help. I'm sure some of the other members will pick up where I've left off.

 

[Riley0422]

Hello and welcome! Yes, you have a female, I'd put her age at 5-6 months, which means you need a laybin in the cage with her. You are off to a good start, but may I recommend that you read the care files on here which I think will help guide you in the right direction. Mealworms are the greatest for chameleons - not enough meat to chititin (their exoskeleton which is what your fingernails are made of) ratio. In the caresheets you'll see lots of feeder options, like silk worms, horn worms, super worms, Discoid roaches (the only roaches we are allowed to have here in FL), etc. It's important to gut load all of these, but with the silks and horns there is pre-made chow that you can buy for them - just add water, mix, and you are set. For roaches, superworms and crickets you'll need fresh veggies for them. It's important because all that great nutrition that you are giving them is then going into your new chameleon!

Live plants are the way to go - veileds will eat their plants and with fake ones you are running the risk of impaction. Check the safe plant list file but there are loads of those in the Home Depots and Lowes down here (I'm in Naples). This will also help with your humidity levels to keep them a little higher.

Yes, you do need a larger cage, and it's great that you realize this. When you upgrade, add more horizontal branches across the cage like little highways for her. Put them at different levels so she can get closer and further from the basking and UVB as she wishes. She won't get any UVB through the window, but she probably enjoys looking outside.

You will want to dust her feeders at each feeding - again, check out the care files (I'm sorry, it's been a hard week at work and my brain is marshmallow right now) to look at the correct suplimentation schedule and which suppliments to use. This is vital because you don't want her developing MBD or having eye issues, among other things. When you feed you'll want to do it in the morning so she has the day to digest her bugs, instead of doing it after work when she has less time before the lights go out and she stops digesting. Personally I follow the sun, so I have UVB and basking on at 6 AM now, then basking off at 5 PM and UVB off at 7 PM. I like a little cool down time before lights out, especially because it's so warm down here. I turn the lights on at 6 AM (they are on a timer which I highly recommend), because that way I can feed before I leave for work at 6:30 AM.

You can attach the thermometer to the basking branch, maybe out of her way and she will get used to it. Just make sure you can easily read it without disturbing her. Bear in mind that if you keep her basking temp down a little bit and don't over feed her then you will help her to not produce eggs as frequently which will shorten her lifespan. Chameleons will produce eggs without being fertilized and that pulls calcium from them and is a stressor on their bodies.

I think this is a good jumping off point for you, because I don't want to stress you out. Good luck with her and we are all here to help. I'm sure some of the other members will pick up where I've left off.

Thank you so much!! I think I can get everything figured out I just am worried about laying eggs but well he through it!!

 

[Gingero]

Hello and welcome to the forums!! @absolutbill meant to say that mealworms *aren't the greatest for chameleons. I'd encourage you to buy your bugs online -- there are some great sponsors on the forums, or you can check out https://joshsfrogs.com/a/neptunethechameleon/list/bugs.

Do you know if your calcium had vitamin D3 in it? It'll say on the container "with D3" or "without D3". It's super important you know which one you have and that you're giving the right amount of each supplement.

I would try to only mist 2x a day. Once in the morning before lights turn on and once in the evening after lights turn off.

I'm going to include some videos that will be super helpful for your research:

 

[absolutbill]

Yes, thanks for that catch, I truly did mean Aren't! Sorry for the mis-type!

 

[ElijahCooper]

1 she is a veiled chameleon I believe it’s female because she has no spurs on her feet I’ve had her for about a week and she’s 3 to 6 months old

2 i rarely handle her as i said before once for maybe thirty minutes many days ago and i plan on only handling her when i clean the tank

3 I put meal worms in a dish but she didn’t go for them only crickets on the third day, since then which was two days ago I’ve fed her 10 to 15 crickets a day I’m going to get gut loading supplies tonight like carrots and calcium supplements, no schedule so far I’ve just been kinda doing it either before I leave for work around 7:30 or when I come home around 4

4 I’ve been dusting my crickets with a mix of zoo med calcium and zoomed d3 supplants I’ve only done that once so far I’ve had her

5 I have a large artificial plant water dripper for now but I see I may have to remove it which is always on and I mist three times a day, I be only seen her drink once she when I first put the water dripper in but she spends a lot of time basking I also like to give her space she is really not fond of me lol whatch is okay!! She just gets really stressed at the sight of me I thing her basking are may be to open

6 I have to clean the tank before I think I can find any of her dripping witch may be too dry to accurately depict anything from but I will keep an eye out

7 unfortunately no history besides age and type

8 my cage type is a 16” 16” “30 cage witch I now know needs to be larger

9 I have the t5ho or however you spell it unfortunately I can’t remember off the top of my head with a hood light horizontally placed as well as a zoo med 50 watt heating bulb above the basking branch, as far as schedule goes I turn her lights on around 8 and off around 8

10 as far as temperature goes I have a wired thermostat should I attach it to her basking branch? I just don’t want to stress her out I know the bottom of the cage is room temp around 74 degrees and I keep the thermostat mid to high range in the tank is it stays around 78 to 80 degrees so I figured her basking area had to be around 85 degrees

11 my hygrometer fell to the bottom of the tank it also has a thermometer on it I set it near her basking area just a second ago the hydrometer said 50 percent and it was at the bottom of the tank witch is unsettling seeing as I have the dripper always running but I mist three times a day aswell once in the morning once in the after noon and once at night

12 I have some live plants and live fake and over heard fake isn’t viable so I will be removing b them and I just grabbed some from the front of the garden section of Lowe’s small potted plants I wish I had taken names I had no idea some were harmful

13 my cage is in my bedroom I share with my wife so relatively low traffic with a large window with sunlight on the water witch I think is good for her idk lol!! She’s also on top of a book shelf the bottom of the cage is elbow high

14 I’m in south Florida!! Whew all this typing has me beat!!! I tried to be as descriptive as possible I know I need more ways to measure temp and humidity I’ll be working on it this weekend!!!


As you've noted, your current cage may be too small. Consider upgrading to a larger enclosure to provide more space for your chameleon to move and explore. Additionally, removing any potentially harmful plants and replacing them with safe alternatives is a wise decision.

It's wonderful to see your dedication to caring for your veiled chameleon! While focusing on your chameleon's well-being, you might find some relaxation and enjoyment in trying out Plinko mini-games or other casino games. Just like tending to your chameleon's needs, playing responsibly is key. So some tips and additional info from https://notgamstop.com/mini-games/plinko/ can make it easier! Consider incorporating some thrilling entertainment into your routine, all while maintaining a safe and comfortable environment for your scaly friend.

As you've noted, your current cage may be too small. Consider upgrading to a larger enclosure to provide more space for your chameleon to move and explore. Additionally, removing any potentially harmful plants and replacing them with safe alternatives is a wise decision.