Lighting and heat

[Lonelyowl7]

I just a baby veiled chameleon yesterday and i bought the reptibreeze chameleon kit. The hottest point in my cage has gotten up to about 86° F. Is this enough, if not what should i get or do? Also what should the humidity stay at and how do i keep it at that? Also how do I water the cage while im at school? (I have a little dripper)

 

[nightanole]

https://weather.com/weather/today/l/Sanaa+Yemen+YMXX0005:1:YM

Humidity can vary, but it should be hitting 80% for an hour a day at least, you can hit that with just mistings. A slow drip all day will be fine IF the cham uses it. If you see the cham regularly drinking from the spot, you are gold. On the other hand many of mine wont start drinking unless they get hosed down with the hand mister or misting system, they could care less about a dripper.

 

[Lonelyowl7]

https://weather.com/weather/today/l/Sanaa+Yemen+YMXX0005:1:YM

Humidity can vary, but it should be hitting 80% for an hour a day at least, you can hit that with just mistings. A slow drip all day will be fine IF the cham uses it. If you see the cham regularly drinking from the spot, you are gold. On the other hand many of mine wont start drinking unless they get hosed down with the hand mister or misting system, they could care less about a dripper.

How fast should the dripper be going? Mine is going at like a drip every 5 seconds

 

[cyberlocc]

How fast should the dripper be going? Mine is going at like a drip every 5 seconds

Every second, it would be good to keep the humidity around 50% all times, with spikes to 80+. Defiantly going to want to mist even with a dripper, and you need to mist for a long time like 3-5 mins a few times a day.

86 is a little high for a baby I would drop that to about 80-82 for the basking spot.

Depending how old the baby is, 2-3 months needs 80-82, if it's younger than that it need no basking spot and top of cage temps around 78.

 

[nightanole]

How fast should the dripper be going? Mine is going at like a drip every 5 seconds

However fast it needs to be to catch the chams attention. Most people cant get them to drip that slow all day. Again no adjustments are needed to the setup if the cham is drinking from the drip. The drip is just a little extra backup between the morning and afternoon whole cage mistings. Hell im lucky if mine is even in the "cage" during the day since he free ranges in my bedroom and just has a semi netted in tree with a misting system. If he wants a drink he will come home to roost. And hes always in his tree getting misted in the morning and in the evening when he gets home from his hard day.

 

[Lonelyowl7]

Every second, it would be good to keep the humidity around 50% all times, with spikes to 80+. Defiantly going to want to mist even with a dripper, and you need to mist for a long time like 3-5 mins a few times a day.

86 is a little high for a baby I would drop that to about 80-82 for the basking spot.

Depending how old the baby is, 2-3 months needs 80-82, if it's younger than that it need no basking spot and top of cage temps around 78.

How do i drop the temperature. I thought it was supposed to be at like 90 - 100 basking spot (which it got up to 92.8 today). And it drank a little tiny bit off a vine and two drops from the dripper. I am probably going to get an automatic mister. Also i only saw it eat one cricket today how do i get it to eat more?

 

[Lonelyowl7]

Im not to sure how young they are i bought it from petco.

 

[cyberlocc]

How do i drop the temperature. I thought it was supposed to be at like 90 - 100 basking spot (which it got up to 92.8 today). And it drank a little tiny bit off a vine and two drops from the dripper. I am probably going to get an automatic mister. Also i only saw it eat one cricket today how do i get it to eat more?

Get a lower wattage heat bulb. 90 is fine for an adult not a baby, there is alot of bad care sheets out there I know but ya 90 is for an adult (and never over 95).

I would say he is a juvenile he would likely be okay with 85.

 

[Lonelyowl7]

Get a lower wattage heat bulb. 90 is fine for an adult not a baby, there is alot of bad care sheets out there I know but ya 90 is for an adult (and never over 95).

I would say he is a juvenile he would likely be okay with 85.

The temperature stayed around 88 today so it should be fine. I have a 60 watt daytime blue bulb and the 5.0 uvb bulb thing right now.

 

[cyberlocc]

The temperature stayed around 88 today so it should be fine. I have a 60 watt daytime blue bulb and the 5.0 uvb bulb thing right now.

Well now another thing dicth the blue bulb. Just get a regular incandescent soft white house bulb. 60w, and raise it up a few inches to drop the temp.

 

[Lonelyowl7]

Well now another thing dicth the blue bulb. Just get a regular incandescent soft white house bulb. 60w, and raise it up a few inches to drop the temp.

So i have a couple questions.

1 - How do i keep it humid and the dripper going while im at school. Today was the first day i went to school while having it and when i came home humidity was at about 40. the bottom of my cage was soked because the bowl for my dripper over flowed while at school and idk how long it was dripping while it was overflowed.

2 - can i just put like 6 crickets in the morning and i will be good?

3 - how do i know if my chameleon is eating and drinking?

4 - i dont think my chameleon is drinking and i have the dripper going all day and i misted before and after school (7am and 2 pm). How do i get it to drink?

5 - how do i get it to eat?

6 - right now i have eco-carpet on the bottom, should i have something else?

Thank you for all your help. Im just trying to keep my chameleon ealthy.

 

[alphakenc]

1)Get a plant to help with ur humidity
2)Try 7 its a lucky number
3)name of ur game its called find that poop.
4)Sometimes cham wont drink infront of ur presence....repeat step 3)
5)the cham will eat if hungry,count how many left on step 2) and repeat step 3)
6)Go bottomless,its a new trend for easy access
Hope this helps,and good luck!

 

[Lonelyowl7]

1)Get a plant to help with ur humidity
2)Try 7 its a lucky number
3)name of ur game its called find that poop.
4)Sometimes cham wont drink infront of ur presence....repeat step 3)
5)the cham will eat if hungry,count how many left on step 2) and repeat step 3)
6)Go bottomless,its a new trend for easy access
Hope this helps,and good luck!

What kind of plant should i get if were to get one.

 

[alphakenc]

What kind of plant should i get if were to get one.

U can try some Hibi
scus,Ficus,Schefflera,potho,croton.
Check with ur local plant store or big chain store like home depot or Lowe's.

 

[Lonelyowl7]

U can try some Hibi
scus,Ficus,Schefflera,potho,croton.
Check with ur local plant store or big chain store like home depot or Lowe's.

Do any of those stay small?

 

[alphakenc]

Croton is pretty small,and depending on ur cage size n how small u prefer,u can always trim them down if u like.

 

[cyberlocc]

Do any of those stay small?

Wait stay small? why do you want it to stay small. Chameleons drink from leaves and want the cover they dont want to be open and visible. You need a big plant in his cage for cover and water and humidity not a small one, the more plants the better.

They are from the jungle, not the desert lol. .

Even better than a big plant would be a few plants, I currently am using 1 mid sized ficus (26 inches tall, by cage is 35 tall). And a large pothos and some fake plants.

 

[Lonelyowl7]

Wait stay small? why do you want it to stay small. Chameleons drink from leaves and want the cover they dont want to be open and visible. You need a big plant in his cage for cover and water and humidity not a small one, the more plants the better.

They are from the jungle, not the desert lol.

Oh ok i didnt realize. But doesnt ficus grow to like 6 feet. I dont have a 6 foot high cage. Also how do you then keep water from falling out of the cage? And what are the signs of healthy poop?

 

[cyberlocc]

Oh ok i didnt realize. But doesnt ficus grow to like 6 feet. I dont have a 6 foot high cage. Also how do you then keep water from falling out of the cage? And what are the signs of healthy poop?

Ya ficus can grow very large, just trim it when its starts getting very big. Any plant will get very big if cared for properly over time.

So ficus is a tree it grows up, so I put that on the floor and then hanging from the top or back a Pothos, about 8 inches from the screen, pothos grows up a tad and then droops down and all around the branches and stuff. Its a vine and pretty much unkillable .

Healthy poop is brown, and healthy urates are white (likely attached to the poop). If urates are yellow they are dehydrated, if they are orange they are very dehydrated (Plus other things possible I think).

Here is a great poop thread. https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/poop-101.120171/

 

[KLowery88]

Any plant you get, you can keep trimmed. I highly recommend pothos since it serves as water deliverer, humidity raiser, pathway system, and shelter very easily and they are usually cheap.

What kind of UVB bulb do you have? Is it the long tube or the compact/spiral kind?