Just want to get everything right...

[Nikkifer]

Hello everyone I have just joined the forum and would like to get a few things confirmed.

Im new to chameleons and pick up my first baby yemen chameleon on friday evening, ive been to see him and hes adorable (ill post pics when i get him)

Anyway, ive ordered all my setup from surrey pet supplies and its due in the next day or so, so all his setup will be nice and warm and humid for when he arrives

ive done alot of research on these wonderful creatures and have a few q's to clear up.

Just abit of a background i currently own 5 snakes a bearded dragon and a savannah monitor, so im not new to the hobby

anyway heres my q's:
alot of caresheets condtradict themselves so id like some advice

How many times a day do i mist my babys enclosure?
What suppliments do i feed daily and what do i feed weekly?
Ive heard about "Cup Feeding" and i cant get my head around this so could someone explain in detail? do the bugs not jump out of the cup? very confused.
How old does he need to be to not have fruit flys anymore?
How often should i handle him?
What do you recommend as use for "substrate" im using a mesh enclosure so do i just used kitchen towel at the bottom? or sand, soil, bark etc?

thankyou in advance and if theres anything else i need to know please tell me

 

[Goatsniper]

Im not a pro, but I can provide input to the cup feeding and the substrate. First, the substrate. You dont need it. I use paper towls in the bottom of my cage underneath my large water collection pan, so that i can easily find his turds and examine them if they fall out of reach of the water catcher. I change it every day so maybe you would want to think of something else if you dont wana be in the cage all the time. Chameleons arent the sharpest spoon in the knife drawer, so they will try and smack a cricket in the dirt and get a tougne full of whatever is down there, and that can cause impacting. I think dieing of constipation would be a gnarly way to go, so I try to avoid that. I dont know much about Yemen's but im gonna assume they are arboreal like the other 99% of chams. In that case, hes not gonna really gonna be down there much, unless its a she and she has some eggs to get rid of. The cup feeding, I hand feed all of my lizards. BUT my dude will cup feed, cuz the kid i bought him from used that technique and it worked. As far as keeping the bugs in there, Im assuming your thinking of crickets. How the hell is a cricket gonna stay in there all day? well crickets are dumber than doornails, and lack the intellect to hop out, for the most part. if you put 5 crickets in a cup, my bet is there would still be 3-4 of them in the cup hours later. what I have done in the past, sorry PETA, i eat steak, rip their hind legs off gently, and their guts wont come with them. Or even one leg. That keeps them in, and also keeps them moving a little bit more, attracting attention to the cup. but wtfdik. =) good luck.

*edit* as far as supplements go, they are gonna tell you to do calcium without D3 everyday LIGHTLY DUSTED, and calcium with D3 every two weeks LIGHTLY DUSTED and a multi vitamin once a month. i only dust one bug when i feed him so that i can make sure i see him consume the vitamins. and then i give him water. sometimes dusted crickets will sit near the fogger and loose their poweder coat. As far as misting goes, I have a Xanth Jackson which originates from 3000 feet + elevation in jungle mountains of Kenya. They dont get much sunlight, and they get rained on all day long and encounter high winds. Sooooooo i have a fogger running all day long on one side of the cage (the non basking area) and a dripper that i fill 1/4 and provide for him in the morning. I cant seem to get him to drink in the afternoon so i just give him water in the morning. If hes thirsty in the PM he can suck water off the leaves that collects from the fogger like they do in the wild. I also have an over head fan, that i turn on high mode for about 2 hours of the day to simulate winds. He likes it too. He starts walking all shaky like a leaf, like they do on the discovery channel and this is usually when i witness him smacking some of the free range bugs i give him.

 

[Goatsniper]

sorry to spam your post but i have nothing else to do right now. Im doing some research on yemen's and wow. they sound cool. super territorial, known to fight other lizards in defense of a tree branch, found in super humid coastal areas and also dry desert areas. what really got me was that they are omnivores? I just read that they will eat dandelions and some fruits. CRAZY! it sounds like they are troopers. possibly the Blackwater operators of the chameleon world. Please post pics when you can!! i wana see. show me yours ill show you mine!

 

[Nikkifer]

Im not a pro, but I can provide input to the cup feeding and the substrate. First, the substrate. You dont need it. I use paper towls in the bottom of my cage underneath my large water collection pan, so that i can easily find his turds and examine them if they fall out of reach of the water catcher. I change it every day so maybe you would want to think of something else if you dont wana be in the cage all the time. Chameleons arent the sharpest spoon in the knife drawer, so they will try and smack a cricket in the dirt and get a tougne full of whatever is down there, and that can cause impacting. I think dieing of constipation would be a gnarly way to go, so I try to avoid that. I dont know much about Yemen's but im gonna assume they are arboreal like the other 99% of chams. In that case, hes not gonna really gonna be down there much, unless its a she and she has some eggs to get rid of. The cup feeding, I hand feed all of my lizards. BUT my dude will cup feed, cuz the kid i bought him from used that technique and it worked. As far as keeping the bugs in there, Im assuming your thinking of crickets. How the hell is a cricket gonna stay in there all day? well crickets are dumber than doornails, and lack the intellect to hop out, for the most part. if you put 5 crickets in a cup, my bet is there would still be 3-4 of them in the cup hours later. what I have done in the past, sorry PETA, i eat steak, rip their hind legs off gently, and their guts wont come with them. Or even one leg. That keeps them in, and also keeps them moving a little bit more, attracting attention to the cup. but wtfdik. =) good luck.

*edit* as far as supplements go, they are gonna tell you to do calcium without D3 everyday LIGHTLY DUSTED, and calcium with D3 every two weeks LIGHTLY DUSTED and a multi vitamin once a month. i only dust one bug when i feed him so that i can make sure i see him consume the vitamins. and then i give him water. sometimes dusted crickets will sit near the fogger and loose their poweder coat. As far as misting goes, I have a Xanth Jackson which originates from 3000 feet + elevation in jungle mountains of Kenya. They dont get much sunlight, and they get rained on all day long and encounter high winds. Sooooooo i have a fogger running all day long on one side of the cage (the non basking area) and a dripper that i fill 1/4 and provide for him in the morning. I cant seem to get him to drink in the afternoon so i just give him water in the morning. If hes thirsty in the PM he can suck water off the leaves that collects from the fogger like they do in the wild. I also have an over head fan, that i turn on high mode for about 2 hours of the day to simulate winds. He likes it too. He starts walking all shaky like a leaf, like they do on the discovery channel and this is usually when i witness him smacking some of the free range bugs i give him.

Thankyou for the detailed responce!! okay i wont use substrate i dont mind being the tank everyday to change the towel and like you said id like to keep an eye on his droppings as i keep records with all my animals (yes im a weirdo ) yeah thats what i meant! them jumping out! haha never thought of removing the legs so i will do that, do i just hold the cup out to him once a day? or hang it from a branch with ties or something? also how often do i feed him? hes a proper baby like 4 weeks old and tiny. Thanks for the advice on the suppliments, what is the calcium only stuff called? i have d3 and nutrobal so would the nutrobal be okay for the once a month thing? im so excited about getting him and i want everything to be perfect! a fogger? awesome so do i need one for the yemen or just like spray twice a day? That sounds so cute about the fan thing, id love to see some pics if you have any,
thanks again for all the advice! im a proper worrier and want everything to be perfect!

 

[Nikkifer]

sorry to spam your post but i have nothing else to do right now. Im doing some research on yemen's and wow. they sound cool. super territorial, known to fight other lizards in defense of a tree branch, found in super humid coastal areas and also dry desert areas. what really got me was that they are omnivores? I just read that they will eat dandelions and some fruits. CRAZY! it sounds like they are troopers. possibly the Blackwater operators of the chameleon world. Please post pics when you can!! i wana see. show me yours ill show you mine!

haha yep thats what attracted me to him a proper hardy boy haha,
yep i will do! im hoping to pick him up friday so ill get some pics on straight away!

 

[Goatsniper]

Thankyou for the detailed responce!! okay i wont use substrate i dont mind being the tank everyday to change the towel and like you said id like to keep an eye on his droppings as i keep records with all my animals (yes im a weirdo ) yeah thats what i meant! them jumping out! haha never thought of removing the legs so i will do that, do i just hold the cup out to him once a day? or hang it from a branch with ties or something? also how often do i feed him? hes a proper baby like 4 weeks old and tiny. Thanks for the advice on the suppliments, what is the calcium only stuff called? i have d3 and nutrobal so would the nutrobal be okay for the once a month thing? im so excited about getting him and i want everything to be perfect! a fogger? awesome so do i need one for the yemen or just like spray twice a day? That sounds so cute about the fan thing, id love to see some pics if you have any,
thanks again for all the advice! im a proper worrier and want everything to be perfect!

ok first off. what do you mean by tank? what kind of enclosure do you have? cuz a glass tank with little ventilation will be habitable, but not for long. Glass "tanks" are gonna keep in too much moisture. and they dont provide climbing capabilities. These little basterds are so fragile, if you so much as see fungus growing on a leaf, you can pretty much kiss your lizard goodbye to a resperatory infection. You NEED to have a fully meshed cage that provides alot of ventilation. But my calcium is REP-CAL Calcium 0% D3 and my D3 supplement is Zoo Med Reptile Calcium with D3. I can tell your British cuz you said "proper" and i served with some brits in the middle east. cheers =) so i dont know what kind of reptile vitamins you can buy in the stores, but everything is avialible on the internet so that last statement was ignorant. but its 4:45am and im slightly intoxicated. the cup feeding, what i did was i used one of the cricket cups, poked a hole in it, and used fishing line to tie it to the side of the cage, cuz its a screen. feeding, a baby is gonna need a bunch of food. like 5 small crickets a day, or a bunch of flys. whichever you choose. make sure when you buy the crickets, you give them some veggies and gutload them for at least 24 hours before feeding, but that will be more essential when the lizard gets older. and dont feed him anything bigger than the space between his eyes or his pooper will clog and he might die. a fogger isnt gonna hurt a chameleon. Even if it is a yemen, which i think is a "veiled" chameleon, it will help out with shedding and stuff. but you dont need it as much as my Jackson does. he has to basically live in a cool cloud. yours is different. its a mercenary. and from my research in the past 30 minutes, it appears that they can survive in a wide range of envirmonts. your a "proper worrier" so take this advice. Dont get to crazy. Just remember, your goal is to provide the lizard with the closest thing to its natural habbit as possible. Unfortunatly, we have to supplement our lizards and stuff because in captivity, its hard to mimic the natural enviroment in which they get their natural D3 and UV rays from the sun and stuff. But in the wild, a chameleon is only gonna live on average, just past sexual maturity. Birds love to eat these guys in the wild. before you go buy a fogger, research it. i made the mistake in buying a REPTI FOGGER and you can see my post in the general discussion about how i electricuted myself. theres some videos on you tube on how to make one from a house hold humidifier. but i would wait for a veiled pro to provide input on the humidity thing before you go buy a humidifier.

 

[Goatsniper]

just realized that your buying a baby, and your gonna feed it "pin heads" or baby crickets, which cannot jump out of a nice siezed cup. so dont waste your time trying to pull the tiny little legs off. they will stay inside. lololol.

 

[Nikkifer]

ok first off. what do you mean by tank? what kind of enclosure do you have? cuz a glass tank with little ventilation will be habitable, but not for long. Glass "tanks" are gonna keep in too much moisture. and they dont provide climbing capabilities. These little basterds are so fragile, if you so much as see fungus growing on a leaf, you can pretty much kiss your lizard goodbye to a resperatory infection. You NEED to have a fully meshed cage that provides alot of ventilation. But my calcium is REP-CAL Calcium 0% D3 and my D3 supplement is Zoo Med Reptile Calcium with D3. I can tell your British cuz you said "proper" and i served with some brits in the middle east. cheers =) so i dont know what kind of reptile vitamins you can buy in the stores, but everything is avialible on the internet so that last statement was ignorant. but its 4:45am and im slightly intoxicated. the cup feeding, what i did was i used one of the cricket cups, poked a hole in it, and used fishing line to tie it to the side of the cage, cuz its a screen. feeding, a baby is gonna need a bunch of food. like 5 small crickets a day, or a bunch of flys. whichever you choose. make sure when you buy the crickets, you give them some veggies and gutload them for at least 24 hours before feeding, but that will be more essential when the lizard gets older. and dont feed him anything bigger than the space between his eyes or his pooper will clog and he might die. a fogger isnt gonna hurt a chameleon. Even if it is a yemen, which i think is a "veiled" chameleon, it will help out with shedding and stuff. but you dont need it as much as my Jackson does. he has to basically live in a cool cloud. yours is different. its a mercenary. and from my research in the past 30 minutes, it appears that they can survive in a wide range of envirmonts. your a "proper worrier" so take this advice. Dont get to crazy. Just remember, your goal is to provide the lizard with the closest thing to its natural habbit as possible. Unfortunatly, we have to supplement our lizards and stuff because in captivity, its hard to mimic the natural enviroment in which they get their natural D3 and UV rays from the sun and stuff. But in the wild, a chameleon is only gonna live on average, just past sexual maturity. Birds love to eat these guys in the wild. before you go buy a fogger, research it. i made the mistake in buying a REPTI FOGGER and you can see my post in the general discussion about how i electricuted myself. theres some videos on you tube on how to make one from a house hold humidifier. but i would wait for a veiled pro to provide input on the humidity thing before you go buy a humidifier.

Apologies my "tank" is a fully mesh one. Theres no glass whatsoever each side is mesh, someone told me i need to cover 3 out of the 4 sides with something to stop him seeing out? but wouldnt that defeat the object of a mesh tank? lol. Haha how good are you! yes im british didnt think it was that obvious ill go have a look in my local reptile store for my calcium stuff. Awesome i know what you mean now about the cup feeding, thankyou verrrrry much for that i was sooo confused! yep i will feed my crickets veg and that before i give him them, i was going to feed him twice a day is that ok? Friday cant come quick enough now lol, you type well for someone "intoxicated" haha. Awesome ill hold off on the fogger then and do a little more research to see if he needs one. thanks again for all the help!

 

[Goatsniper]

your gonna be fine with twice a day, but you dont really even need to do that. remember its a wild animal at heart, if its hungry, its gonna go look for food. its not gonna curl up in a corner and die cuz theres no food in the cup. with some reptiles you have to worry about crickets chewing into the animal while they sleep, if you let the crickets roam, but i dont think thats the case with chams. Good on the screen cage. you scared me for a second there. Your baby is going to be super active. like meth addict active, during day light. so if theres a few crickets floating around inside the cage, its not a bad thing. and it will promote natural hunting, which provides excercise and stuff like that. Dont worry yourself too much. Your gonna learn something everyday from your lizard. and its gonna learn from you, and hopefully you guys can put your heads together and create a level of homeostasis that will not only provide a healthy enviroment for the little guy but also a comfortable routine in regards to the husbandry of keeping a lizard from Africa in your living room, that is easy enough for you to manage. They say that chameleons are the hardest animal to keep alive in captivity, but i think that is due to pet stores selling them to people of all walks of life, thinking they can take an animal from an extreme enviroment and place them in a tank, and just throw them crickets. Just the initiative of creating a forum account and talking on here before you even purchase your lizard, is telling me that your gonna keep learning and have a great relationship with your new pet. You sound motivated. Good on you. Keep me posted Manchester.

 

[Goatsniper]

and no. your friend is wrong. do not cover 3 sides of your mesh cage. your chameleon isnt going to see the wall in your bedroom and have a heart attack. you need those sides open for ventilation. he/she will be fine. i promise. covering the cage will just promote microbial growth and stuff you dont want. they see movement and dimension. a wall is a wall.

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums. It's nice to see you here doing your research before you get a chameleon.I have a blog for new keepers of veileds and panthers attached below. I hope you will find it helpful in putting everything together for your new Cham.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

 

[Nikkifer]

your gonna be fine with twice a day, but you dont really even need to do that. remember its a wild animal at heart, if its hungry, its gonna go look for food. its not gonna curl up in a corner and die cuz theres no food in the cup. with some reptiles you have to worry about crickets chewing into the animal while they sleep, if you let the crickets roam, but i dont think thats the case with chams. Good on the screen cage. you scared me for a second there. Your baby is going to be super active. like meth addict active, during day light. so if theres a few crickets floating around inside the cage, its not a bad thing. and it will promote natural hunting, which provides excercise and stuff like that. Dont worry yourself too much. Your gonna learn something everyday from your lizard. and its gonna learn from you, and hopefully you guys can put your heads together and create a level of homeostasis that will not only provide a healthy enviroment for the little guy but also a comfortable routine in regards to the husbandry of keeping a lizard from Africa in your living room, that is easy enough for you to manage. They say that chameleons are the hardest animal to keep alive in captivity, but i think that is due to pet stores selling them to people of all walks of life, thinking they can take an animal from an extreme enviroment and place them in a tank, and just throw them crickets. Just the initiative of creating a forum account and talking on here before you even purchase your lizard, is telling me that your gonna keep learning and have a great relationship with your new pet. You sound motivated. Good on you. Keep me posted Manchester.

Fantastic advice! cant thankyou enough haha im such a worrier think youve put my mind at rest now, yeah i cant help myself trying to make everything great for my new little guy! aww thanks i hope so i will do thanks lovely

 

[Nikkifer]

Welcome to the forums. It's nice to see you here doing your research before you get a chameleon.I have a blog for new keepers of veileds and panthers attached below. I hope you will find it helpful in putting everything together for your new Cham.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

thankyou very much i will have a good long read of this!