Hello! I’m super new to this forum and to owning my baby chameleon Cammo. I did plenty of research before bringing him home and had his set up complete. I keep calling him a him but that’s one of my questions. I’m really not sure. I’ve looked for the bulge and the spurs. But I think my eyes are playing tricks on me. I read that if cammo is a girl she can start laying eggs as early as 4 months so I wanted to be prepared for her to have her set up that early if she needs it. Also I was wondering if I could get a ball park range on how old he/she may be. I unfortunately did not read that PetSmart wasn’t the best place to purchase a Cham from and wish I had cause they offered no information what so ever and when I asked if it was a boy or a girl they didn’t know and had no clue how old he or she is. I filled out the form so I basically just want to make sure I’m doing everything right. I’ve asked my questions in the part of the form they relate to as well. I got most of my information from this forum so thank you to all the pros you really helped me prepare for this little guys homecoming. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated cause we just want to make sure we are doing right by him/her. Thank you so much! And I look forward to getting to know you all and your chameleons as well. I’ve added pictures! So here it goes!!
Your chameleon: my Chameleon is a baby veiled chameleon named Cammo. I’m unsure if it’s male or female my eyes play tricks but I think I see the bulge and the baby spurs but could be totally wrong. I’ve included pictures below so if someone could please help identify that would be amazing! He has been in my care for 4 days!!
Handling: for the first two days I didn’t handle him at all because I really wanted him to have as little stress as possible after introducing him to his new cage and already going through all of that stress. After two days I’ve been handling him twice a day for 2-5 minutes at a time. Baby steps I don’t want to over do it and him not want to be handled. I know some just don’t want to be handled so I want to respect what he’s saying to me with his body language if he seems stressed I put him back if he seems okay I’ll hold him a little longer. Just depends on how he’s acting at that moment.
Feeding: I feed him mostly crickets and I’ll add in some meal worms wax worms and Dubia roaches once we get a little more comfortable with everything. The crickets I only buy the amount for a few days at a time and I keep them in a setup and goatload them with cricket crack, oranges, collar greens, carrot shavings and strawberries. I have a schedule set up so here’s what I’ve got going on. Any advice would be appreciated if I’m doing too much or not enough. I read baby chams eat a lot and I should be offering food daily cause they grow fast. So I offer 10-15 crickets a day. He free ranges half and cup feeds the other half. My dusting schedules is as follows:
Zoomed Repticalcium WITHOUT D3- Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s every other Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
Zoomed Repricalcium WITH D3- Monday and Saturday.
RepCal Herptivite with beta multivitamins- every other Thursday.
Greens- twice a week I’ll offer collard greens, kale or broccoli. Was wondering what fruits they are okay to eat if any and how I should offer them?
Watering: i use purified water and my main question with watering is I was told to use tap water with reprisafe?. That’s what I did at first and still use it in my humidifier but I switched to using purified water in my spray bottle. I use a spray bottle and spray it down several times a day. People have said 3 times a day is good but I’ve noticed my leaves dry up quick and it really helps my humidity to do it more like 5-7 times a day. My chameleon drinks the droplets off of the leaves.
Fecal Description: His poop is always brown and then white at the end. I was concerned about it but then read the white is urine lol. So I think he’s pretty healthy as far as that goes. It’s not to runny or too solid. He has not been tested for parasites but should I take him to get checked up since I purchased him from PetSmart? Just to make sure he is healthy?
History: The only history I have is that he was purchased from PetSmart and everyone knows what kind of enclosure he was in as it’s the same they use for all their reptiles. He was eating crickets the day before I picked him up. They told me not to feed him till the next day so he didn’t eat for a whole day and a half I think. Idk why I listened to them
Cage Info: He’s in a screen type enclosure on all sides the dimensions are 24”x24”x48”. I definitely want to upgrade when he starts to grow to a screen and glass enclosure. I work hard to keep my humidity between on point and I heard it’s easier with glass but not to make it full glass cause that can cause respiratory issues so something with glass and screen Would be best. Any suggestions?
Lighting: I have a combo deep dome and one bulb is the reptisun UVB 5.0 and the other bulb is the blue daylight reptibulb 60 watts. I’m going to explain my temp in a second but I’m thinking I should increase to 75 watts I’ve just seen ALOT of burned chams and I’m scared for that to happen I turn lights on from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM and off from 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM
Temperature: I have one thermometer and hygrometer towards the middle of the enclosure and a thermometer towards the top by his basking spot. The middle one always stays between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit and the top one is usually between 75 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit it usually doesn’t get much warmer than that so I’m wondering if I should switch my bulb to 75 watts. I keep it dangling about a foot above his basking spot so maybe an option would be to lower it a bit? At night the temp usually drops to between 62 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit is there a way to warm it up or should I leave it cause they’re okay with the temp drop?
Humidity- I have a hygrometer about halfway up in the enclosure. The humidity usually stays between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If it gets lower I’ll either spray it down or turn my humidifier on. I try not to leave the humidifier on for too long cause I don’t want it to affect his respiratory system. So any recommendations or advice on this would be awesome.
Plants- he’s got 3 fake plants going up the sides of his cage and one real umbrella plant that he really he seems to enjoy. He’s got a vine that leads to all of the branches and plants so he can explore. The real plant seems to help hold in a lot of the moisture I also added some forest moss that helps with moisture but I’m not sure I should’ve done that. I’m thinking when I clean his enclosure this weekend I’m gonna have to ditch it cause he likes to free-range hunt? Comments on this?
Placement: the enclosure is in the living room if is by a window but the curtains always closed and it stays a lot warmer downstairs in the living room then it does upstairs. We keep the fan off of him and there is no vent that blows directly to his enclosure. He’s about half way up the wall and sitting on a shelf. I’ve included some pictures.
Location: We are in Phoenix, Arizona. We have more of a dry heat which is why I noticed we need to spray him down a bit more often to help with the humidity levels.
I referred to cammo as a he through out this post because that’s what we still refer to him as. We don’t kind of he’s a she at all we will still adore her just as much we just need to know so we can get going on more research for egg laying if it’s necessary. Any advice you guys can give me is super appreciated and I definitely won’t take offense to it. I want to make sure my chameleon has everything he or she needs to be happy. Thanks so much for taking the time to get to know us and please let me know if I forgot to add any info in. You guys are truly amazing and really helped me get set up for cammo to come home. It’s an amazing experience and I can’t wait to find out if cammo is a he or a she!!!
Your chameleon: my Chameleon is a baby veiled chameleon named Cammo. I’m unsure if it’s male or female my eyes play tricks but I think I see the bulge and the baby spurs but could be totally wrong. I’ve included pictures below so if someone could please help identify that would be amazing! He has been in my care for 4 days!!
Handling: for the first two days I didn’t handle him at all because I really wanted him to have as little stress as possible after introducing him to his new cage and already going through all of that stress. After two days I’ve been handling him twice a day for 2-5 minutes at a time. Baby steps I don’t want to over do it and him not want to be handled. I know some just don’t want to be handled so I want to respect what he’s saying to me with his body language if he seems stressed I put him back if he seems okay I’ll hold him a little longer. Just depends on how he’s acting at that moment.
Feeding: I feed him mostly crickets and I’ll add in some meal worms wax worms and Dubia roaches once we get a little more comfortable with everything. The crickets I only buy the amount for a few days at a time and I keep them in a setup and goatload them with cricket crack, oranges, collar greens, carrot shavings and strawberries. I have a schedule set up so here’s what I’ve got going on. Any advice would be appreciated if I’m doing too much or not enough. I read baby chams eat a lot and I should be offering food daily cause they grow fast. So I offer 10-15 crickets a day. He free ranges half and cup feeds the other half. My dusting schedules is as follows:
Zoomed Repticalcium WITHOUT D3- Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s every other Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
Zoomed Repricalcium WITH D3- Monday and Saturday.
RepCal Herptivite with beta multivitamins- every other Thursday.
Greens- twice a week I’ll offer collard greens, kale or broccoli. Was wondering what fruits they are okay to eat if any and how I should offer them?
Watering: i use purified water and my main question with watering is I was told to use tap water with reprisafe?. That’s what I did at first and still use it in my humidifier but I switched to using purified water in my spray bottle. I use a spray bottle and spray it down several times a day. People have said 3 times a day is good but I’ve noticed my leaves dry up quick and it really helps my humidity to do it more like 5-7 times a day. My chameleon drinks the droplets off of the leaves.
Fecal Description: His poop is always brown and then white at the end. I was concerned about it but then read the white is urine lol. So I think he’s pretty healthy as far as that goes. It’s not to runny or too solid. He has not been tested for parasites but should I take him to get checked up since I purchased him from PetSmart? Just to make sure he is healthy?
History: The only history I have is that he was purchased from PetSmart and everyone knows what kind of enclosure he was in as it’s the same they use for all their reptiles. He was eating crickets the day before I picked him up. They told me not to feed him till the next day so he didn’t eat for a whole day and a half I think. Idk why I listened to them
Cage Info: He’s in a screen type enclosure on all sides the dimensions are 24”x24”x48”. I definitely want to upgrade when he starts to grow to a screen and glass enclosure. I work hard to keep my humidity between on point and I heard it’s easier with glass but not to make it full glass cause that can cause respiratory issues so something with glass and screen Would be best. Any suggestions?
Lighting: I have a combo deep dome and one bulb is the reptisun UVB 5.0 and the other bulb is the blue daylight reptibulb 60 watts. I’m going to explain my temp in a second but I’m thinking I should increase to 75 watts I’ve just seen ALOT of burned chams and I’m scared for that to happen I turn lights on from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM and off from 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM
Temperature: I have one thermometer and hygrometer towards the middle of the enclosure and a thermometer towards the top by his basking spot. The middle one always stays between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit and the top one is usually between 75 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit it usually doesn’t get much warmer than that so I’m wondering if I should switch my bulb to 75 watts. I keep it dangling about a foot above his basking spot so maybe an option would be to lower it a bit? At night the temp usually drops to between 62 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit is there a way to warm it up or should I leave it cause they’re okay with the temp drop?
Humidity- I have a hygrometer about halfway up in the enclosure. The humidity usually stays between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If it gets lower I’ll either spray it down or turn my humidifier on. I try not to leave the humidifier on for too long cause I don’t want it to affect his respiratory system. So any recommendations or advice on this would be awesome.
Plants- he’s got 3 fake plants going up the sides of his cage and one real umbrella plant that he really he seems to enjoy. He’s got a vine that leads to all of the branches and plants so he can explore. The real plant seems to help hold in a lot of the moisture I also added some forest moss that helps with moisture but I’m not sure I should’ve done that. I’m thinking when I clean his enclosure this weekend I’m gonna have to ditch it cause he likes to free-range hunt? Comments on this?
Placement: the enclosure is in the living room if is by a window but the curtains always closed and it stays a lot warmer downstairs in the living room then it does upstairs. We keep the fan off of him and there is no vent that blows directly to his enclosure. He’s about half way up the wall and sitting on a shelf. I’ve included some pictures.
Location: We are in Phoenix, Arizona. We have more of a dry heat which is why I noticed we need to spray him down a bit more often to help with the humidity levels.
I referred to cammo as a he through out this post because that’s what we still refer to him as. We don’t kind of he’s a she at all we will still adore her just as much we just need to know so we can get going on more research for egg laying if it’s necessary. Any advice you guys can give me is super appreciated and I definitely won’t take offense to it. I want to make sure my chameleon has everything he or she needs to be happy. Thanks so much for taking the time to get to know us and please let me know if I forgot to add any info in. You guys are truly amazing and really helped me get set up for cammo to come home. It’s an amazing experience and I can’t wait to find out if cammo is a he or a she!!!
I'd put her at 2 1/2-3 months old. Females are sexually mature at 6 months. You'll want a 12x12" lay bin for her filled with moist play sand.
