Maybe sick or I’m exaggerating?

[Art182]

Possibly sick?? Advise

I’m going to start with the problem. I’m leave most of the day. I leave crickets on cage and most of them I think just die in cage. I don’t know if they could be hidden anywhere. Cham been with me about 3 weeks. First 2 weeks he was hunting. Now he just tries to scape, goes to the bottom and tries to go through glass. He ignores wax warms, meal warms, crickets on bowls or around cage. He drinks water but I haven’t seen any poop like before. My cage is glass.

Hello. My name is art. I’m from Odessa Texas. Just general questions if someone can help and telll me if I’m doing anything wrong.

I got the chameleon last week. He seemed to be doing good until yesterday that he started getting very dark, he is peeling his skin. He is very friendly and comes to my hand to eat sometimes. He is eating about 10’crickets every 2 days. I dust them with calcium without D and once a week with calcium and vitamin D. I have a glass enclosure. Humidity stays on the 70s in the middle of of the thank and the temperature around 80. I used a reptisun T5.0 UV light and regular bulb light just for more light. My enclousre is bioactive. I’m thinking about buying a little fan for air to flow . As soon as I open cage he will go into my hand and travel everywhere he will just try to get away I think. He just walks and walks lol

• Your Chameleon - veiled, 3 month or teo old. Male
• Handling - once a week if he is willing to get into my hand.
• Feeding - not eating from hand( updated) crickets, daily (8 or plus) wax warms once a week, dusted with calcium with d daily and without D once a week. Crickets eat stuff from store or spinach’s.
• Supplements - reptisun from petco
• Watering - mister spraying 2 times a day for 30 seconds and hand spraying, slowe down on it because it started flooding. Waitingg to water to get evaporated and then hand spraying for 1-2 minutes two times a day.
• Fecal Description - haven’t noticed any yet.
• Super friendly.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type -22x22x28 30’gallon, glass.
• Lighting - reptisun t50, regular jouse
• Light, blue light in case it gets
• Cold.
• Temperature - stays at 80 pretty much all day. Hygrometer in the middle. Will get termómetro thid weekend. Basking spot it’s at 80 “.
• Humidity - hygrometer. 80 when misting drops to 50 , stays at 90 if I mist at night.
• Plants - I have some live plants, growing. Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• Placement - it’s in the corner of a room, windows next to it. 4 feet high from Floor to top. Not circulated area from 10pm to 6pm.
• Location - basin, Odessa Texas. Oil field town. Super dry.Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - how can I get him to eat. He just wants to scape. The. He gets tired and goes to the top, he sleeps well and basks through the day. He shed once.

 

[GrannyK]

Hi there welcome to the forum! Sorry your little one is acting weird. A few things that hit me right off are the peeling skin is normal, chameleons shed. At his age probably every 4-6 weeks. They should do a full body shed until they are bigger.
You should be dusting bugs with No d daily just plain calcium, and the d3 and vitamin 2x per month. I think you are doing it backwards currently. For his lighting, white lights are the only recommended, colored lights hurt their eyes. What uvb fixture do you have with the bulb? Is the bulb a 5 or 6%
Arcaida, or reptisun are highly recommended for proper uvb absorption.
Lastly, unfortunately your little one should be in a minimum 24in x24in x48in enclosure. He is probably pacing the bottom to escape because he’s not happy. All of this can affect his eating.
I don’t have a veiled so I will leave a full review to someone else for now.
You have a beautiful little cham there. Glad you found the forum, everyone here is great. please ask any questions you may have.

 

[Art182]

Yes Sr. Im dusting daily without D and once a month with D. ill do it twice from now on. The light is a 5 and is repstisun. I will look for a bigger enclosure. He sleeps good and he comes out to play but sometimes he is disoriented. Then thing is that his cage is way bigger than what they had at PetSmart lol.

 

[VeiledMoodRing]

my veiled baby will not eat much before he sheds, it is normal for him and he will go back to eating after he is done. You will probably need to get bigger cage. I have a 2ft x2ft x4ft cage. When I first got my cham he would also sit at the bottom of his cage and I would just put him back on a higher branch, they go down to the bottom of the cage for a these reasons, dehydration, to hot, depressed, or just getting used to a new home. I hope your veiled baby will feel better!

 

[Art182]

You think that a bottle with a drip would be enough to hydrate him, innaddition with mister and hand spray 2 times a day.

 

[VeiledMoodRing]

You think that a bottle with a drip would be enough to hydrate him, innaddition with mister and hand spray 2 times a day.

You probably will need a fogger for at night to because chams get the most moisture that way and he should be good.

 

[LizardLurkin]

You probably will need a fogger for at night to because chams get the most moisture that way and he should be good.

I've seen people recommend foggers but only if your temps are below 68f at night

 

[LizardLurkin]

Hello! Everything in bold will be my response.

• Your Chameleon - veiled, 3 month or teo old. Male
• Handling - once a week if he is willing to get into my hand.
• Feeding - not eating from hand( updated) crickets, daily (8 or plus) wax warms once a week, dusted with calcium with d daily and without D once a week. Crickets eat stuff from store or spinach’s.
  GrannyK already mentioned the vitamins, so I'll offer this image detailing a cham's diet. When you're able to, variety is great. Fresh veggies are good too, and here are those which are most nutritious for them too. To save time, there's a fun method of making gutload ice cubes, and they can be stored for months in the freezer.
  
  
  
• Supplements - reptisun from petco
• Watering - mister spraying 2 times a day for 30 seconds and hand spraying, slowe down on it because it started flooding. Waitingg to water to get evaporated and then hand spraying for 1-2 minutes two times a day.
  Flooding does seem to be a consistent issue with smaller glass enclosures, but I'll talk more about requirements on the next line.
• Fecal Description - haven’t noticed any yet.
• Super friendly.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type -22x22x28 30’gallon, glass.
  You'll start to notice just how fast these little guys can grow in just a few months! The best size for your little guy is gonna be 24x24x48. There are a lot of options. Screen, hybrid, it depends. A screen enclosure is going to be a lot more affordable (in fact, they're currently on sale for a great price) and can be made into a hybrid cage with a little bit of elbow grease. I used this method. It controls the water too, for the most part. but you may want to consider a drain pan if you don't want to constantly replace puppy pads around the cage. Fun stuff, I know.
• Lighting - reptisun t50, regular jouse
  I can't really see the lighting situation, but linear UVB is going to be the only one to provide your chameleon with the UVB levels it requires. This would be good!
• Light, blue light in case it gets
• Cold.
  It's not recommended to use colored light bulbs as they hurt reptiles' sensitive little peepers. If it gets too cold, I'd recommend a ceramic heat bulb!
• Temperature - stays at 80 pretty much all day. Hygrometer in the middle. Will get termómetro thid weekend. Basking spot it’s at 80 “.
  Does this include the night? It's natural for temps to drop overnight, so it's fine to turn off heat sources at night assuming your house is generally in the 60s.
• Humidity - hygrometer. 80 when misting drops to 50 , stays at 90 if I mist at night.
• Plants - I have some live plants, growing. Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
  Plants take a while to grow, so it's not a bad idea to buy some already healthy plants to replace the fake plants with. Veileds like to eat upon leaves, so a mouthful of plastic is always a risk for chameleons with fake plants in an enclosure.
• Placement - it’s in the corner of a room, windows next to it. 4 feet high from Floor to top. Not circulated area from 10pm to 6pm.
• Location - basin, Odessa Texas. Oil field town. Super dry.Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - how can I get him to eat. He just wants to scape. The. He gets tired and goes to the top, he sleeps well and basks through the day. He shed once.
Is he sleeping during the day or only at night? This is important because chameleons don't nap.
Your little guy may be so eager to escape because his current home is smaller than he'd like. It's a lot, I'm sorry. I don't want to overburden you with potential expenses, but these dudes really require a lot of work, too.
I saw you mention a fan for circulation, which isn't a bad idea with a glass enclosure, I don't think. I've seen people place cheap computer fans on the top of enclosures, fan blowing outwards, to keep the air fresh and prevent it from stagnating...I believe that's how it'd work, anyway.

 

[Sonny13]

Hi and welcome, sorry your little is acting a bit strange. you already some good feedback.
I have two questions; what's on top of the enclosure? Screen or glass? and does the lightning has a plastic cover in front of it?

 

[Art182]

Hello! Everything in bold will be my response.

• Your Chameleon - veiled, 3 month or teo old. Male
• Handling - once a week if he is willing to get into my hand.
• Feeding - not eating from hand( updated) crickets, daily (8 or plus) wax warms once a week, dusted with calcium with d daily and without D once a week. Crickets eat stuff from store or spinach’s.
  GrannyK already mentioned the vitamins, so I'll offer this image detailing a cham's diet. When you're able to, variety is great. Fresh veggies are good too, and here are those which are most nutritious for them too. To save time, there's a fun method of making gutload ice cubes, and they can be stored for months in the freezer.
  View attachment 363441View attachment 363440
• Supplements - reptisun from petco
• Watering - mister spraying 2 times a day for 30 seconds and hand spraying, slowe down on it because it started flooding. Waitingg to water to get evaporated and then hand spraying for 1-2 minutes two times a day.
  Flooding does seem to be a consistent issue with smaller glass enclosures, but I'll talk more about requirements on the next line.
• Fecal Description - haven’t noticed any yet.
• Super friendly.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type -22x22x28 30’gallon, glass.
  You'll start to notice just how fast these little guys can grow in just a few months! The best size for your little guy is gonna be 24x24x48. There are a lot of options. Screen, hybrid, it depends. A screen enclosure is going to be a lot more affordable (in fact, they're currently on sale for a great price) and can be made into a hybrid cage with a little bit of elbow grease. I used this method. It controls the water too, for the most part. but you may want to consider a drain pan if you don't want to constantly replace puppy pads around the cage. Fun stuff, I know.
• Lighting - reptisun t50, regular jouse
  I can't really see the lighting situation, but linear UVB is going to be the only one to provide your chameleon with the UVB levels it requires. This would be good!
• Light, blue light in case it gets
• Cold.
  It's not recommended to use colored light bulbs as they hurt reptiles' sensitive little peepers. If it gets too cold, I'd recommend a ceramic heat bulb!
• Temperature - stays at 80 pretty much all day. Hygrometer in the middle. Will get termómetro thid weekend. Basking spot it’s at 80 “.
  Does this include the night? It's natural for temps to drop overnight, so it's fine to turn off heat sources at night assuming your house is generally in the 60s.
• Humidity - hygrometer. 80 when misting drops to 50 , stays at 90 if I mist at night.
• Plants - I have some live plants, growing. Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
  Plants take a while to grow, so it's not a bad idea to buy some already healthy plants to replace the fake plants with. Veileds like to eat upon leaves, so a mouthful of plastic is always a risk for chameleons with fake plants in an enclosure.
• Placement - it’s in the corner of a room, windows next to it. 4 feet high from Floor to top. Not circulated area from 10pm to 6pm.
• Location - basin, Odessa Texas. Oil field town. Super dry.Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - how can I get him to eat. He just wants to scape. The. He gets tired and goes to the top, he sleeps well and basks through the day. He shed once.
Is he sleeping during the day or only at night? This is important because chameleons don't nap.
Your little guy may be so eager to escape because his current home is smaller than he'd like. It's a lot, I'm sorry. I don't want to overburden you with potential expenses, but these dudes really require a lot of work, too.
I saw you mention a fan for circulation, which isn't a bad idea with a glass enclosure, I don't think. I've seen people place cheap computer fans on the top of enclosures, fan blowing outwards, to keep the air fresh and prevent it from stagnating...I believe that's how it'd work, anyway.

He sleeps at night only. He moves around oxasinnaly. Still not eating from feeder. Not hunting either. Can you point me in the right direction of a screen cage?? Would this enclosure
Work?

 

[Art182]

Hi and welcome, sorry your little is acting a bit strange. you already some good feedback.
I have two questions; what's on top of the enclosure? Screen or glass? and does the lightning has a plastic cover in front of it?

The top is screen. I will be adding a fan. For airflow. Yes light has a cover.

 

[LizardLurkin]

He sleeps at night only. He moves around oxasinnaly. Still not eating from feeder. Not hunting either. Can you point me in the right direction of a screen cage?? Would this enclosure
Work?

This screen enclosure is currently on sale. For this one, I'd really recommend you'd have to get creative in how you set up your branches and plants, or you could buy a couple of dragon ledges to make installing the foliage and branches easier. I, however, simply searched for very thick sturdy branches, affixing them to each corner of the enclosure with fishing line, and then zip tied the pathway branches to each other until it was all nice and sturdy!

There is also the dragon strand screen enclosure, which comes with accessories to make adding branches and plants easier. On the pricey end, though!


I am unaware about that particular enclosure you linked. It is very spacious, and I could see it working especially if this bottom rectangular shape is a screen vent :O It would create a chimney effect if so. Maybe someone with more familiarity can offer more thoughts!

 

[Art182]

That enclosure that you have, can you make it bioactive? Or not because
Of the screen?

 

[LizardLurkin]

@MissSkittles I believe uses two of these screen enclosures and fashioned them into bioactive. You can see a pic of one of her builds here
I know somewhere she did mention the way her substrate tray is set up so digging around in her activity might be some help

 

[GrannyK]

That enclosure that you have, can you make it bioactive? Or not because
Of the screen?

Yes! You can make it bioactive, they make trays to hold drainage layer.
The enclosure you looked at could also work if the top is screened. It doesn’t look it but it may be me assuming because the lights are affixed inside the enclosure. But size wise it could work with proper airflow and availability to lighting from the top.

 

[Sonny13]

The top is screen. I will be adding a fan. For airflow. Yes light has a cover.

Then there sits your problem and causing his behavior. That cover needs to be removed, because it blocks uvb. Don’t ask me why they fabricate this, but we’ve seen causing it trouble before.

 

[MissSkittles]

@MissSkittles I believe uses two of these screen enclosures and fashioned them into bioactive. You can see a pic of one of her builds here
I know somewhere she did mention the way her substrate tray is set up so digging around in her activity might be some help

Yes, probably a million or so times I’ve posted what I do, but darned if I can find where again.
I attach two screen enclosures together with wire, but this is a nicer way. https://chameleonacademy.com/double-wide-chameleon-cage-project/
For my bioactive, I place some heavy duty plastic beneath the whole enclosure (they sit on wooden shelves), place enclosures on top and then use the ReptiBreeze substrate trays to further contain any drainage. Since there is a gap between the trays of each enclosure, I again put another layer of heavy duty plastic to bridge the gap. To hold my substrate I use root pouches. Long ago I found some that were super sturdy, but those are no longer to be found anywhere. One that I bought was quite thin. This is a decent enough one that I’ve found and use. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DP2DOYE?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 You’ll just cut the dividers out. They’re made of felt or similar fabric, so are breathable. I fold the sides down to where I want them. Later if I find I haven’t made a deep enough soil layer and need to add more, I can just adjust it. This is what I loosely follow. Hope this helps.

 

[MissSkittles]

Of course I once again forget to post a link. Here is the bioactive guide I learned from and follow. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/intro-to-bio-activity.2429/