My Care habits. comments/concerns

[streetillegal66]

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 3 sides screen, one side glass. 12"x12"x16"
Lighting - zoomed 12" hood with a 40watt incandescent bulb and a reptisun fluorescent 18” 5.0 UVB tube
Temperature - Day: 75 mid cage, 80 basking spot, 70 floor temp(estimate) . Night 75 mid-cage, 80 basking spot, 70 floor temp
Humidity - use humidity gauge. humidity ranges from 40%-60%, Mist 2-4 times a day for 1 to 3 minutes depending on how she reacts
Plants - 2 types of dracaenas and a live bamboo stalk
Location - cage is on top of a book shelf, bottom of the cage is a 36" from the floor and the top is 52" from the ground.


Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veilded 2 months old in my care as of 10/8/08
Handling – Handel her about every other day
Feeding – 10-1/4 crickets a day, the most she has eaten in a day is 9 but, she has progressed from 5 a day. Crickets gutloaded with carrot, lime, ground oatmeal with a dash of reptivite.
Supplements -zoo meds reptivite reptile vitamins with D3 2 times a week (I dust all the crickets I give her that day)
Watering - I mist the plants and screens of the cage for 1 to 3 minutes depending on how she reacts. I also leave my dripper on for 4 hours a day (dripping about one drop every 20 seconds)
Fecal Description – Very light yellow and a grayish brown
History - nothing yet
Current Problem – Im new to this and I don’t want to mess anything up any comments/concerns

Changes I am making in the next week:
-Change Supplements to calcium everyday and calcium with D3 and vitimans once a week
-Upgrade my gutload
-Add other prey items to the diet

 

[wheresstimpy]

everything looks pretty good to me, but i dont know anything about plants... so they may be good, i just dont know, oh and your going to need a bigger cage soon, not yet but sooner than you think, believe me...

 

[streetillegal66]

Yeah, Im planning on getting a larger cage fairly soon. When should I move her on to a larger cage? I have her in the small cage now so I can keep a good eye on her and so she can easily find her food B/C that is what I have read is best for young chams

 

[Julirs]

Why do you have a basking temp at night-there should be NO light on at night???

 

[Kat77]

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 3 sides screen, one side glass. 12"x12"x16"
Lighting - zoomed 12" hood with a 40watt incandescent bulb and a reptisun fluorescent 18” 5.0 UVB tube
Temperature - Day: 75 mid cage, 80 basking spot, 70 floor temp(estimate) . Night 75 mid-cage, 80 basking spot, 70 floor temp
Humidity - use humidity gauge. humidity ranges from 40%-60%, Mist 2-4 times a day for 1 to 3 minutes depending on how she reacts
Plants - 2 types of dracaenas and a live bamboo stalk
Location - cage is on top of a book shelf, bottom of the cage is a 36" from the floor and the top is 52" from the ground.


Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veilded 2 months old in my care as of 10/8/08
Handling – Handel her about every other day
Feeding – 10-1/4 crickets a day, the most she has eaten in a day is 9 but, she has progressed from 5 a day. Crickets gutloaded with carrot, lime, ground oatmeal with a dash of reptivite.
Supplements -zoo meds reptivite reptile vitamins with D3 2 times a week (I dust all the crickets I give her that day)
Watering - I mist the plants and screens of the cage for 1 to 3 minutes depending on how she reacts. I also leave my dripper on for 4 hours a day (dripping about one drop every 20 seconds)
Fecal Description – Very light yellow and a grayish brown
History - nothing yet
Current Problem – Im new to this and I don’t want to mess anything up any comments/concerns

Changes I am making in the next week:
-Change Supplements to calcium everyday and calcium with D3 and vitimans once a week
-Upgrade my gutload
-Add other prey items to the diet

I'm not sure about lime in the gut load. You should use more leafy greens, romaines, collard greens, ect, just NO SPINACH. It inhibits calcium absorption.

The poo sounds a little bit dehydrated to me. Ideally the urate should be snowy white. Your misting shouldn't depend on how your chameleon reacts. He/she NEEDS more misting than once a day. I would bump it up to two to three times a day for a few minutes each time, and be sure you are using HOT water, which will come out of your mister pleasantly warm, and therefore not stress out your chameleon. My chameleons barely use their drippers. Sometimes they just don't react to them, and misting is a much more effective way to be sure that your cham is hydrated.

Also,as Juli mentioned, no night time heat or light is necessary and is probably quite stressful. They can handle temperatures far into the low sixties at night (and lower than that, even), and prefer a cool down of at LEAST ten degrees for sleeping. Otherwise, the temperatures in your cage (for day time) sound great!

Good luck with your little chameleon!

 

[sandrachameleon]

I'm The poo sounds a little bit dehydrated to me. Ideally the urate should be snowy white. Your misting shouldn't depend on how your chameleon reacts. He/she NEEDS more misting than once a day. I would bump it up to two to three times a day for a few minutes each time, and be sure you are using HOT water, which will come out of your mister pleasantly warm, and therefore not stress out your chameleon. My chameleons barely use their drippers. Sometimes they just don't react to them, and misting is a much more effective way to be sure that your cham is hydrated.

I disagree just a little. For most chameleons, Drippers can be HIGHLY effective, if done correctly. If your dripper were to drip much more frequently than reported there's a much greater likelyhood of it being noticed and used. Such a slow drip seems, to me, pointless. I would increase the drip rate to a couple drips a second, let it go for an hour that way perhaps twice a day. Pay attention also to where the drips from the dripper are dripping. Do they splash onto leaves or anything like that, to catch attention and simulate more normal behaviour?
Otherwise, greatly increase the misting to at least 5 minutes per session. Aim near but not at the chameleons.

 

[Kat77]

I disagree just a little. For most chameleons, Drippers can be HIGHLY effective, if done correctly. If your dripper were to drip much more frequently than reported there's a much greater likelyhood of it being noticed and used. Such a slow drip seems, to me, pointless. I would increase the drip rate to a couple drips a second, let it go for an hour that way perhaps twice a day. Pay attention also to where the drips from the dripper are dripping. Do they splash onto leaves or anything like that, to catch attention and simulate more normal behaviour?
Otherwise, greatly increase the misting to at least 5 minutes per session. Aim near but not at the chameleons.

My point was that the chameleon's urates point toward dehydration. Obviously the dripper and one two or three minute misting isn't enough in this situation. My chameleons ignore the drippers, wheather they are dripping on leaves or not, but always drink while being misted. I wasn't saying that this is ALWAYS the case, just giving my personal experience, as this person has a young, dehydrated chameleon...which can be dangerous. But you are right, drippers can be highly effective! I certainly never said to stop using it, or even implied that at all.