My cham info.

[JDodd]

Thought I would fill this out before being asked to get any comments advise about my setup.

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled, 1.3, Babies didn't think to ask how old, I have had them for a week.
Handling - Right now I've only handled them to move them to the food cup but I plan to handle maybe a couple times a week.
Feeding - I plan to expand my foods but currently i am feeding crickets and mealworms but they dont seem to care for mealworms i dont think they move enough. I feed around 4 in the evening. I have not researched gutloading yet but i know it is important.
Supplements - Using reticulum with D3. I was using this everyday but since joining here I'm only using it 2 times a week. I will use the d3 less when I get regular calcium.
Watering - I use a spray bottle since me and my daughter's like to me hands on. We spray 2-3 times a day and get a good saturation on the plants not enough to soil the substrate.
Fecal Description - brown solid and white maybe slightly liquid. Not been tested for parasites.
History - one of my girls had a patch of skin still attacked from previous she'd I how this doesn't become a problem.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen cage 16"×16"×20" cohabitating 4 chams at the moment I didn't know that chams were solitary when I bought them. I will fix this before it becomes a problem.
Lighting - 13watt Reptisun 10.0 uvb, 40 watt daylight blue (I'm now seeing I got suckered to get this as a basking lol). Lights are on from 630 am to about 900pm
Temperature - I do not have temp gauges yet but the house doesn't get below 68 and the chams all range throughout the cage
Humidity - I don't have a humidity gauge but I'm misting 2 to 3 times a day and just had a baby shed without apparent problens
Plants - fake plants and vine. Any real plant suggestions.
Placement - Livingroom, no fans, air vents facing away, cage is 4.5' off the floor from the top, medium trafic.
Location - Northeast Texas

 

[JDodd]

A few pics of my chams and set up.

 

[Ninkylou]

The set up looks nice, I would be concerned about how close some of those vines are to the lights, the chams can get burned easily if they go to close to the top. I would drop them down so they are at least 6" from the top.

You mention substrate. Most chameleon keepers go with a bare cage bottom. Chams can ingest the substrate and it can cause impaction. Bare is much easier to keep clean as well. Paper towels are good if you need to catch water and poop and make clean up even easier. I have large enclosures I go bare and I have a shopvac that I clean up the bottom with.

Good plants are Pothos, Sheffelera and Ficus. Here are some link to a safe plant lists. I actually printed the last one out when I went plant shopping.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/plants/
http://www.anapsid.org/resources/edible.html
http://flchams.com/safe_plant_list.asp


Invest in an infrared temperature gun, especially if you are going to have multiple habitats. Its really important to KNOW your temps in the various parts of the cage. The little ones should not get to hot. I will defer to someone else on the UVB, but it might be a bit strong at 10.0 in that small enclosure. You need to monitor the humidity as well.
Sadly the information that people are given at the petstore (the big box stores at least) is usually oh so wrong and they sell you a ton of stuff you don't need and not the things you really need.

Also I would change your feeding time to the morning. The chams need the heat to digest their food properly, so they should be fed in the first part of the day.

Live plants will help you maintain humidity. The veiled do like to eat greens and fruit so be prepared for them to nibble plants. Its a good idea to give them greens and fruit to eat as well as their live feeders. You talk about learning about gut loading and improving your feeders, but this is a very important time in the chams life as they are growing and you really need to get their diet right now, not in the future. You want to ensure they are growing correctly and have all the right nutrients.

Its important for you to get that calcium without D as soon as possible so you can dust your feeders. I never use mealworms (personal choice), but do feed some super worms, hornworms, dubia roaches and silkworms. With the little guys Repitworms and Butterworms are great too. Variety is the spice of life here.

This is not an inexpensive hobby. With 4 cham set ups you will be looking at more enclosures in a few months, lighting, possibly and auto misting system. I'm talking hundreds if not over a thousand dollars. I will confess that I spend more than I need to I'm sure, but I feel if you are going to do it, do it right!

I know you go those chams thinking they could be housed together and now know that they can't. Your enclosure is barely big enough for 1 young cham and they will outgrow it and start stressing out by being together very soon. Have you considered taking a few of them back to the store. The set up for 4 chameleons will take up a great deal of space, feeding is going to be pretty costly and equipment for them for when they are grown will be another cost.

I don't know if your plan was to breed them, but since you bought them at the same time they is a very good chance that they are related and should NEVER be bred to each other.

I know others will chime in with more information. These are just a few of my personal observations.

Welcome to the forums and years and years of chameleon addiction!!!

 

[JDodd]

Ok i will do that with the vine height. I have been a little busy I will get right on the gutloading and regular calcium. I can't take them back I got them from the NARBC show. Luckily I have some very capable friends that enjoy them that can probably take a couple. Breeding them wasn't my original intent, it had crossed my mind but you mentioning possible relation will be out of the question now I have never agreed with inbreeding. I leave for work early that's why I try to feed as soon as u get home to allow them a few hours of digestion. But if more is needed I will have to train my daughter. I think that covers most of it.

 

[JDodd]

Lol i thought I was going crazy for a minute every time I looked back at your post it was different. Didn't notice that you were editing.

 

[Ninkylou]

You will love having them. I use a feeder cup made from a creamer container, kind of like the sunny D feeder if you search that on google. I leave home at 0530, I just toss feeders in that in the morning. Their lights come on at 0600 and they get first rain showers at 0730. (i have an automated Aquazamp system). Sometimes I put their feeders in the night before. The feeder cup is great, the crickets stay in, worms and dubias climb the screening and the boys can eat whenever they want. I work from home a few days a week and notice that they really don't eat late in the day, even when food is available. The feeder is easy to make with a glue gun and some gutter screen that comes on a roll from the hardware store.

 

[Ninkylou]

Lol i thought I was going crazy for a minute every time I looked back at your post it was different. Didn't notice that you were editing.

Tee Hee just keeping you on your toes...