Looking into getting my first chameleon!

Let'sTalkLizard said:
That's pretty much foreign to me lol. Thank you for explaining though! Just give me about 2 months owning a chameleon and being on these forums and I'll understand what you're talking about ;)

Oh, the deadzone makes sense! Thank you, that really helps lol
Click to expand...

Take your time preparing and don’t rush into getting a chameleon. You want to be very well prepared so when you do get a cham it will not have to suffer from your mistakes.
 
Mistking and climist are automatic misting system sold as a "prepackaged" system with a nozzle or three, pump, timer and all that jazz. I was about to pull the trigger on a climist and saw a thread by @Panthro413 on a system he pieced together. So I priced out doing the same but configured how I wanted to set up Blue's enclosure. Came out considerably cheaper for me to it this way and still have a 4 year warranty on my pump. I did pick a different pump then Panthro413 used in his though.
 
I don't have the skills of @dshuld So I bought a mistking and although it was expensive having an automatic mister is worth every penny!!

It seems that no matter what happens people spend an average of 1K when getting and setting up their first chams. So if $$ is tight and you need to save I would suggest having at least $1500 in the bank. $1K for set up & $500 for vet savings. Save the difference of anything under the $1K for supplies for extra in your vet savings! Cham vet visits add up very quickly! Especially if god forbid there is a health issue. You may also want to look into vet insurance! @jannb has more info about that I think.
 
Lol thanks @Katacara :love:. No real skill in it other then being able to use a screw driver to tighten screws on the power supplies adapter for the item being supplied power though. Beyond the money I saved doing it this way, I had an original design I wanted for my mist system since Blue was used to being hand misted and I didn't have the ability to continue that. I pm'd a respected member here about it and was told what I wanted to do was impossible. Being the inquisitive person I am, I asked what was the limiting factor but never heard back. This sent me looking for other options and the diy system is where I ended up. I don't know why I was advised it is impossible to do at the time but, I have done it and will likely continue the design on all of my future builds lol.

I will say now, when I got Blue (two months ago, though as discussed with @Matt Vanilla Gorilla yesterday, it feels longer then that :LOL:) I had no intentions of becoming this addicted with the amazing little beings they are so quickly and, wasn't really sure if I wanted more then just him at first. So go into this knowing the cham addiction everyone mentions is indeed REAL :LOL:!!

@Let'sTalkLizard How in depth of a list would you like if I were setting up again for the first time? I had a very long reply typed out but not every one likes long replies so figured I'd go this way.
 
Real quick, I was looking through the closet and I found some extra snake stuff I could use! I found
  • a 75w bulb
  • a single dome
  • driftwood
I'm not sure if I could use any of it, but it might be helpful.
 
Let'sTalkLizard said:
Real quick, I was looking through the closet and I found some extra snake stuff I could use! I found
  • a 75w bulb
  • a single dome
  • driftwood
I'm not sure if I could use any of it, but it might be helpful.
Click to expand...

That should be fine, is the wood soft or hard?
 
-light - I prefer either hydroponic fixtures or "higher end" aquarium fixtures since they typically have individual reflectors for the bulbs. If you have a hydroponic store near you check with them for this one. I got my sunblaze 46 locally for less then having it shipped in. I don't know if this amazon link is the cheapest but it is the light I'd go with starting fresh with no fixtures already if you are 100% sure you won't be adding anymore or going with a four foot wide cage for your cham, otherwise look at a sunblaze 44/ 46. You'll have over hang in the mean time but saves buying another two footer and the added cost of the bulbs. I don't know how familiar you are with aquarium lights but sunlight supply are the makers of the coveted Tek fixtures. The sunblaze series is also from them and geared towards the hydroponic growers. One thing to note if you look at either the 26 or 46 though, it'll be a tight squeeze for a basking spot. https://www.amazon.com/ft-F24T5-HO-Fluorescent-Spectralux-Included/dp/B002JLI7VC comes loaded with 4 6500k daylight bulbs

-uvb bulb x 2 - http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=25695 22" bulbs spaced either bulbs 1 and 4 in the fixture or 2 and 4 in the fixture. Then save the two daylight bulbs you pull out for replacing the two you leave in the fixture. You can go with one bulb as many here do but, when I got Blue @Matt Vanilla Gorilla suggested I go with two 5.0 bulbs spaced to cover the upper half a little more evenly in his enclosure leaving the lower foot or so as a dead zone other then plant hides. Though it's a bit more money then running one, I'll be sticking with this philosophy personally. As far as the 6500k bulbs go, the spectralux bulbs the sunblaze comes with are ok but I wouldn't actively search them out once you're through both sets. After that look around for ge starcoat 6500k online. There is a place on the east coast of Florida that I found the best price on them. Do a search on some of the saltwater tank sites to see why I bring this one up (y).

-cage- even though I have 1 "floppy" latch on my door, if you don't want to spend the money on the dragon strand go with the diy cages one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/XXL-48x24x...974293?hash=item1a3cc949d5:g:Z98AAOSwMvtZQcgD

-Looks like you already have the basking spot sorted out so we can skip that.

-mister - you can go with either mistking starter or ultimate, climist cyclone or hurricane, or do like I did and piece together your own. If you want specifics on the diy mister I can do that in another post. Some like the mistking timer better since it is up in view vs the climist being down at the outlet. Others have mentioned the mistking timer is hard to program but I can't comment on that as I don't own one. Both are forum sponsors to so it helps keep the site up and running (y).

-You already have a temp gun, do you have a hygrometer yet?

I think you had a handle on supplements from @jannb blog so we can skip that. Though I will mention reptilesupplyco.com even though not a forum sponsor :( for future reference as they have the cheapest prices on repashy products shipped I could find. After that it's pretty much your plants, vines and new cham that I can think of atm :D.
 
dshuld said:
-light - I prefer either hydroponic fixtures or "higher end" aquarium fixtures since they typically have individual reflectors for the bulbs. If you have a hydroponic store near you check with them for this one. I got my sunblaze 46 locally for less then having it shipped in. I don't know if this amazon link is the cheapest but it is the light I'd go with starting fresh with no fixtures already if you are 100% sure you won't be adding anymore or going with a four foot wide cage for your cham, otherwise look at a sunblaze 44/ 46. You'll have over hang in the mean time but saves buying another two footer and the added cost of the bulbs. I don't know how familiar you are with aquarium lights but sunlight supply are the makers of the coveted Tek fixtures. The sunblaze series is also from them and geared towards the hydroponic growers. One thing to note if you look at either the 26 or 46 though, it'll be a tight squeeze for a basking spot. https://www.amazon.com/ft-F24T5-HO-Fluorescent-Spectralux-Included/dp/B002JLI7VC comes loaded with 4 6500k daylight bulbs

-uvb bulb x 2 - http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=25695 22" bulbs spaced either bulbs 1 and 4 in the fixture or 2 and 4 in the fixture. Then save the two daylight bulbs you pull out for replacing the two you leave in the fixture. You can go with one bulb as many here do but, when I got Blue @Matt Vanilla Gorilla suggested I go with two 5.0 bulbs spaced to cover the upper half a little more evenly in his enclosure leaving the lower foot or so as a dead zone other then plant hides. Though it's a bit more money then running one, I'll be sticking with this philosophy personally. As far as the 6500k bulbs go, the spectralux bulbs the sunblaze comes with are ok but I wouldn't actively search them out once you're through both sets. After that look around for ge starcoat 6500k online. There is a place on the east coast of Florida that I found the best price on them. Do a search on some of the saltwater tank sites to see why I bring this one up (y).

-cage- even though I have 1 "floppy" latch on my door, if you don't want to spend the money on the dragon strand go with the diy cages one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/XXL-48x24x...974293?hash=item1a3cc949d5:g:Z98AAOSwMvtZQcgD

-Looks like you already have the basking spot sorted out so we can skip that.

-mister - you can go with either mistking starter or ultimate, climist cyclone or hurricane, or do like I did and piece together your own. If you want specifics on the diy mister I can do that in another post. Some like the mistking timer better since it is up in view vs the climist being down at the outlet. Others have mentioned the mistking timer is hard to program but I can't comment on that as I don't own one. Both are forum sponsors to so it helps keep the site up and running (y).

-You already have a temp gun, do you have a hygrometer yet?

I think you had a handle on supplements from @jannb blog so we can skip that. Though I will mention reptilesupplyco.com even though not a forum sponsor :( for future reference as they have the cheapest prices on repashy products shipped I could find. After that it's pretty much your plants, vines and new cham that I can think of atm :D.
Click to expand...

@dshuld Thank you SO MUCH! I'll go through all of that stuff and tell you my plan for it?

Light- So, the link you provided, that light is a basking light? The only one I'll need for heat? What exactly do you mean by "I'd go with starting fresh with no fixtures already if you are 100% sure you won't be adding anymore or going with a four foot wide cage"? I'm sorry, it's a bit confusing D:

UVB- This I am pretty confused about. So, I'd need two of these lights, or four? And what size..? Would the bulb(s) I buy go in the fixture mentioned before?

Cage- Thank you, I think I'll go with that one!

Basking Spot- Yep Yep

Mister- Ok, well... I could get the mistking or climax, but I have this
https://www.amazon.com/Exo-Terra-Spray-Bottle-quarts/dp/B004CJS7XW
for the snakes, and couldn't I just manually mist for 3 times a day for like 3 minutes a day or something? While mistking/climax would be very convenient, I'd save A LOT to wait on it? And what if I did this?
https://zoomed.com/repti-rain-automatic-misting-machine/

Temp Gun- Yes, I do have a very accurate one I got a couple months ago.
Hygrometer- I do have one but er... It's one of those cheap zoo-med ones. Any recommendations?

Does @Katacara sell supplements too? I think I have a pretty good idea of how to dust, what to dust, and stuff like that :)


Thank you so much! This really really helps!
 
@dshuld , I have been watching ReptiRain reveiews and it seems like it would work until I could get the mistking/climax. I would get one of those in the future, and I could get one now but if I could find something cheaper ans works just as well I'm defiantly gonna go for it! I'm not sure if you've seen it before, but if you haven't, Ill tell you a bit about it. You can program it to run every hour, every 3 hours, 6, or 12. And you can have it mist for 15, 30, 45, or 60 seconds at a time. It can run on batterys or plug in, and you can adjust the water pressure/how much its putting out. It seems like itd be fine?
 
I'll go through all of that stuff and tell you my plan for it?

No problem there, I'll help where I can or call in the "big guns" aka more experienced keepers on stuff I'm unsure of :D.

Light- So, the link you provided, that light is a basking light? The only one I'll need for heat? What exactly do you mean by "I'd go with starting fresh with no fixtures already if you are 100% sure you won't be adding anymore or going with a four foot wide cage"? I'm sorry, it's a bit confusing D:

The light I linked to would be for your uvb and 6500k plant bulbs. What I mean is if you are 100% sure you are only going to have 1 cham and stay with a 2 foot wide cage, go with the sunblaze 22 or 24. If there is a remote possibility you may get another cham or upgrade to a 4 foot wide cage go with a sunblaze 44 or 46. The dome lamp is for your basking/ "heat spot".

UVB- This I am pretty confused about. So, I'd need two of these lights, or four? And what size..? Would the bulb(s) I buy go in the fixture mentioned before?

22 inch bulbs if you get a sunblaze 22, 24 or 26 and 46 inch bulbs if you get a sunblaze 42,44 or 46. If you get a sunblaze 22 or 42 you'll only put in one uvb bulb. If you go with a sunblaze 24, 26 or 44, 46 go with two 5.0 t5ho bulbs. The sunblaze "model numbers" are length is the first number bulb count is second number. So a sunblaze 22 is a 2 foot 2 bulb fixture and so on. As I mentioned many people here only run 1 uvb bulb. Per the suggestion of my breeder @Matt Vanilla Gorilla , now friend, I run two uvb bulbs in my 6 bulb fixture. I run one in slot two and one in slot four and my other four bulbs are ge starcoat 6500k bulbs. My fixture is 17.5 inches deep and doing this gives me pretty close to a one foot spread between my uvb bulbs. For a visual my configuration would be:

6500k
uvb
6500k
6500k
uvb
6500k

That make more sense?

Cage- Thank you, I think I'll go with that one!

Basking Spot- Yep Yep

Mister- Ok, well... I could get the mistking or climax, but I have this
https://www.amazon.com/Exo-Terra-Spray-Bottle-quarts/dp/B004CJS7XW
for the snakes, and couldn't I just manually mist for 3 times a day for like 3 minutes a day or something? While mistking/climax would be very convenient, I'd save A LOT to wait on it? And what if I did this?
https://zoomed.com/repti-rain-automatic-misting-machine/

Skip the repti rain. If you have the ability to hand mist that would be fine. @Matt Vanilla Gorilla hand mists all of his chams. You may need to do a bit longer like maybe 3 times for 5 minutes but maybe Matt can help you on that part. If you get to the point where you can't keep up with hand misting, look at the mistking starter or climist cyclone. I can try to price out a diy one in the next few days too.

Temp Gun- Yes, I do have a very accurate one I got a couple months ago.
Hygrometer- I do have one but er... It's one of those cheap zoo-med ones. Any recommendations?

https://www.lowes.com/pd/AcuRite-Di...MIis-t2Ne82AIVlLrACh3OdAnVEAQYASABEgK7cPD_BwE

Put your zoomed in and get one of these. Put it some place in the cage it wont get wet and compare it to the zoomed. After you've compared the two it'll give you an idea on what the zoomed should read and you can use the accurite for your room ambient readings.

Does @Katacara sell supplements too? I think I have a pretty good idea of how to dust, what to dust, and stuff like that :)

To be honest, I don't know if she sells the supplements to or not. I know she is working on a gut load to sell though lol.
 
Thank you so much! I've got my new list, and I was trying to plan it out a bit, and I'm confused about 1 thing. This could be the most stupid question so far, but if the cage top is 2x2, and the light is 2x4, how is the heat light going to get to him? Wouldn't the UVB light be blocking the tank..?
 
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