Meet Chamillionaire!

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Hey everyone,

Im a new member, and have been reading the forums for a few weeks now. I had a friend who was moving and could not take her 7month old veiled with her, and I happily accepted her offer to become the new owner (I was shopping for a gecko anyway, and I am really glad I ended up with the veiled instead).

This is the setup that was given to me:

18"x30"30" Enclosure...This is a fish tank for the bottom 15", with a metal screen addition for the top half. It has those bendable vines and fake leaves throughout it.

Coil style flourescant light
Red Night Heat bulb
UVA/B 50 watt basking light
Feeding bowl
Dusting supplements
spray bottle


I read up a few days ahead of time on the special needs of chameleons, and was surprised to see what showed up. I didnt complain about anything, only focused on the new happy life I would provide him.

I have since:
Ditched the spiral bulb for a fixture with a new 24" T8 ReptiSun 5.0
Ditched the red heat light...my house doesnt go below 68
New 75watt UVA basking lamp
Digital thermometer
Hydrometer

His basking spot is 95, and humidity is normally 50 and increases to 80ish after a misting.


Currently he has a 4" body and 4" tail and is eating crickets and mealworms that I gut loaded wit fish flakes, and flukers cricket quencher (yellow gel with vitamins and water)...about 2-3 half inch crickets and 4 small - med mealworms a day.

I want to upgrade his enclosure to an all mesh one, and really like this one
http://diycages.com/15201/15922.html
How long should this cage last me before I have to upgrade to the larger model? Is my chameleon too small still to put in the above enclosure?

I will also be buying the mistking starter kit with the zip drip option as soon as they are back in stock

I guess I would like to know how Im doing with everything :)

Ive attached a few pics, please let me know if you see any bad signs aside from the glass tank, and the second spotlight which has been replaced with the 5.0 fixture)

Thanks!

Andrew
 

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some tips. add WAYY more pplants. they like coverage. get schefflera, pothos, ficus. they are safe plants. i would reccomend getting a full screen cage 4ft tall by 2 ft. wide. by 2 ft. deep. instead of a glass aquarium and a screen cage attached. not an expert on them but i would go for the full screen cage
 
Get a 60 watt house bulb for his basking light. 90 is to hot, when he gets older 90 is an ok basking spot. Get rid of the sand on the bottom so he doesn't become impacted from eating it. Also your cage looks like it can use a lot more plants and vines. What are the brands of your supplements and what is the schedule?? Btw I wouldn't buy a diy cage, I have three and all of the door latches on them broke :\

EDIT: Also don't gutload with fish flakes. To high in protien and can cause gout in your chameleon. I would gutload with romain lettuce, collard greens, sweet potatoe etc.. Add more veriety in his diet. Get some silkworms, roaches, and hornworms. Don't feed him mealworms, it can make him impacted. Superworms are better and won't make him impacted.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the replies!

Regarding the basking temperature...Thank you for the feedback, my clamp light is mounted on a microphone stand which makes it really easy to adjust...I raised it a 6" inches higher...now its about 10" from his basking spot and when I put the temp probe on his branch it reads 84. What am I aiming for here ideally?

Regarding the substrate...it is tan reptile carpet...reminds me of a shamwow lol.

Im in the process of replacing the cage and buying him a newer, larger setup, and wanted to get suggestions on premade enclosures. Are the reptariums good? Im concerned about a basking light burning the material, and tearing from climbing. Any other suggestions?

For now, I ordered 5' of climbing vines for reptiles, and will definately have a live plant in there for him to climb on.

The crickets/mealworms are dusted with "Reptivite with D3" twice a week. Ill also replace the fish flakes with the suggested veggies.

Any other suggestions? Does anyone see any signs of MBD?

Thanks all!

Whats awesome is that one of my other hobbies is bonsai trees and Ive been shopping for a 2-3 foot tall ficus tree for the last few months to have a larger scale of tree to shape and display...I think the new chameleon enclosure will be perfect for my future tree!
 
No I can't see signs of mbd so that's good. You need a calcium supplement without d3 and a multivitamin supplement. I would get the caclium supplements from the brand Repcal and the multivitamin from sticky tounge farms( The one with the red cap, contains no d3) Use the calcium w/o d3 most feedings, use the multivitamin and d3 twice a month each. The cage you like is an ok cage, just expect to have a broken latch after a couple of months or even a week of putting it together. What about water, how many times does he get water, do you have a dripper?

Basking spot should be 85 degrees.
 
IceDragln said:
Thanks for the replies!

Regarding the basking temperature...Thank you for the feedback, my clamp light is mounted on a microphone stand which makes it really easy to adjust...I raised it a 6" inches higher...now its about 10" from his basking spot and when I put the temp probe on his branch it reads 84. What am I aiming for here ideally?

Regarding the substrate...it is tan reptile carpet...reminds me of a shamwow lol.

Im in the process of replacing the cage and building him a newer, larger setup, and wanted to get suggestions on premade enclosures. Are the reptariums good? Im concerned about a basking light burning the material, and tearing from climbing. Any other suggestions?

For now, I ordered 5' of climbing vines for reptiles, and will definately have a live plant in there for him to climb on.

The crickets/mealworms are dusted with "Reptivite with D3" twice a week. Ill also replace the fish flakes with the suggested veggies.

Any other suggestions? Does anyone see any signs of MBD?

Thanks all!
Click to expand...

is that all you are feeding him? crickets and mealworms? and fish flakes?
ive never heard of someone feeding a chameleon fish flakes at all. so i think get rid of them asap! also with mealworms, feed them once or twice a month one mealworm. they are high in chinton. get superworms, crickets, waxworms, dubia roaches, hornworms, and silkworms, throw in greens too. keep up a varied diet for the chameleon.

dusting:
get multivitamins,
vitamins with d3
vitamins w/o d3.

i think im missing one of them so someone else please chime in.
 
Thompson said:
No I can't see signs of mbd so that's good. You need a calcium supplement without d3 and a multivitamin supplement. I would get the caclium supplements from the brand Repcal and the multivitamin from sticky tounge farms( The one with the red cap, contains no d3) Use the calcium w/o d3 most feedings, use the multivitamin and d3 twice a month each. The cage you like is an ok cage, just expect to have a broken latch after a couple of months or even a week of putting it together. What about water, how many times does he get water, do you have a dripper?

Basking spot should be 85 degrees.
Click to expand...

are you talking about the DYI cages? why would you reccomend a cage like that if its just going to break right after setting it up? look at LLLreptile.com and look around on the internet for cage, unless you build your own.
 
Just because mine have broken doesn't meen all will break. They are still good cages and the latch can be easily fixed anyways ;)
 
true, i just didn't understand why you would reccomend a caget that might break. its all their choice though :) sooo good luck with your cage shopping.
 
I remember reading somewhere that fish flakes are high in vitamins so you can gut load critters with them. I only did it once, and wont repeat this.

Ive had him for two weeks, and have only been feeding him mealworms and crickets. I will stop with the mealworms and use them as a treat only, and replace them with superworms, silkworms, and roaches if I can find them online.

Im glad to hear hes looking healthy though!

Any advice on the reptariums?

I will go hunting for the vitamins this weekend at my local pet stores...Anything else for my shopping list?

Thank you all for the advice
 
I wouldn't feed the mealworms all together. Superworms can be found at your local pet store, the rest of the feeders are sold by some of our site sponsors.
 
mealworms will go to my roomates adult bearded dragon then! Ill buy superworms tomorrow, I know I saw them at the store but figured they would be...well super sized and too big. Ill check em out tomorrow
 
Correct...the enclosure picture is the only one I have and I took it when I first got the setup. I have since bought a 24" tube reptisun 5.0 light.

Also someone asked me about misting...I lightly mist the entire enclosure 3 times a day for 60-90 seconds. The mistking comes back in stock early september, I was planning on having it run 3 times a day for 1 minute figuring it will blast out more water than my spray bottle.
 
ChameleonRave said:
is that all you are feeding him? crickets and mealworms? and fish flakes?
ive never heard of someone feeding a chameleon fish flakes at all. so i think get rid of them asap! also with mealworms, feed them once or twice a month one mealworm. they are high in chinton. get superworms, crickets, waxworms, dubia roaches, hornworms, and silkworms, throw in greens too. keep up a varied diet for the chameleon.

dusting:
get multivitamins,
vitamins with d3
vitamins w/o d3.

i think im missing one of them so someone else please chime in.
Click to expand...

I think the person meant fish flakes to feed the crickets.
 
Thompson said:
I wouldn't feed the mealworms all together. Superworms can be found at your local pet store, the rest of the feeders are sold by some of our site sponsors.
Click to expand...

I agree, meal worms are just nasty, just forget about feeding them all together. Super worms are great, my cham loves them!
 
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