Male Veiled Chameleon info - what I’ve learned

[CamoTheCham12]

I’m going to keep this straight forward with info that i know works!

Male veiled -

plants- I keep pothos and lucky bamboo in

Substrate- IMPORTANT- do not use a bio active substrate unless you’ve legit had it running for over 6 months at least, it will cause a respiratory infection and unless you can spend hours a day to get him better or make sure it’s right then dont even do it

-lights - Arcadia forest 22 inch HO light I switch every 6 months, if I don’t have Arcadia then I use a reptisun and change every 3 months. “You don’t have to change that often” does not settle well with me.

Heat lamp keeps basking at 85-90 (house stays at 69 during the day)

Dripper- cut the dripper out completely as it builds bacteria.

Misting- I mist in the morning manually for a minute, have an auto mister every 3 hours for 45 seconds throughout the day until 5 pm and mist manually before lights go off at 7:15 pm.

Light time- 720 am - 715 pm every day no matter what.

Fogger- fogger is occasional for an hour at night.

Handling- if he wants to come out, he will. He does not want “you” he just wants to come out so if he does just let him come to you, if not then leave him alone, they shouldn’t be pets to begin with.

Gut load and food- gut load with kale and carrots, sprinkle repashy bug burger on all gutloaded vegetables.

Type- crickets (daily), mealworms (few times a week, have NEVER had stomach problems), Dubias (when he will take them), hornworms I feed either once every few weeks or if I am going on vacation I feed about 3 the week before so he can get fat, hydration, and calcium even though people come daily.

Calcium without d3 daily, reptivite with d3 twice a month (every pay check)

Please keep it simple, don’t overthink

Attached is my latest male- age young to now. Bottom left, top, bottom right (current).

Hope this helped someone because I know the stress of owning a new chameleon and wanting everything to be good!


Dm for any questions -

 

[CamoTheCham12]

 

[jamest0o0]

“Substrate- IMPORTANT- do not use a bio active substrate unless you’ve legit had it running for over 6 months at least, it will cause a respiratory infection and unless you can spend hours a day to get him better or make sure it’s right then dont even do it”

Posting something as certain when it’s one person’s anecdote is a little meh… I’ve had dozens and dozens of tanks/enclosures with substrate I set up that day and never one RI. In the same way your post states they *will*, that would be like me posting that you NEED to have substrate in order to avoid giving a cham RI’s. In reality it likely has nothing or very little to do with what’s at the bottom of your enclosure and more to do with immune system function and ventilation.

 

[CamoTheCham12]

 

[MissSkittles]

Oh no…I was going to say similar to @jamest0o0 as I’ve had no issues with putting my chams in a newly set up bioactive enclosure. I’m very sorry that you and your chameleon had an issue, but I really don’t think it was the bioactive. There’s lots of factors that could have contributed to your guy getting an RI and some are beyond your control. When done correctly, a bioactive set up is wonderful and I’d hate for anyone thinking about trying it to be dissuaded by this. Again, I’m sorry that you had a bad experience and appreciate your wanting to help others. Also have to add that basking temp is a bit high…try to keep at 85.

 

[CamoTheCham12]

Good thing the bioactive part was only a sentence out of 5 paragraphs.

And the basking isn’t high if your house stays cold.

 

[CamoTheCham12]

“Substrate- IMPORTANT- do not use a bio active substrate unless you’ve legit had it running for over 6 months at least, it will cause a respiratory infection and unless you can spend hours a day to get him better or make sure it’s right then dont even do it”

Posting something as certain when it’s one person’s anecdote is a little meh… I’ve had dozens and dozens of tanks/enclosures with substrate I set up that day and never one RI. In the same way your post states they *will*, that would be like me posting that you NEED to have substrate in order to avoid giving a cham RI’s. In reality it likely has nothing or very little to do with what’s at the bottom of your enclosure and more to do with immune system function and ventilation.

Dozens and dozens

 

[ERKleRose]

Hi there, I love that you’re wanting to help out! There are a few things that have wrong info though, one of the biggest being only using kale and carrots for the veggie portion of your gutload. You don’t want to use kale because it is high in oxalates, which binds calcium. More veggie variety is always better, as well!

 

[CamoTheCham12]

Hi there, I love that you’re wanting to help out! There are a few things that have wrong info though, one of the biggest being only using kale and carrots for the veggie portion of your gutload. You don’t want to use kale because it is high in oxalates, which binds calcium. More veggie variety is always better, as well!

Thanks!

CORRECTION!! I meant Collard greens NOT KALE

 

[CamoTheCham12]

CORRECTION!! I meant Collard greens NOT KALE

 

[ERKleRose]

The other things that no one has touched on already are mist times and a dripper. The dripper’s not a big deal if you have one or not, but it is perfectly fine as long as it gets cleaned; it’s a great source of water for during the day to keep your cham hydrated! For mistings, 2 minutes long (or longer) for around lights on and off is preferred because it gives the chameleon enough time to elicit a drinking response

How do you measure your basking temp?

 

[Beman]

-lights - Arcadia forest 22 inch HO light I switch every 6 months, if I don’t have Arcadia then I use a reptisun and change every 3 months. “You don’t have to change that often” does not settle well with me.

Heat lamp keeps basking at 85-90 (house stays at 69 during the day)

Note Arcadia T5HO bulbs you replace every 12 months. Reptisun T5HO bulbs you replace every 6-9 months.

Basking should be 80-85 max. 90 is too hot and not needed for a male veiled.