My first reptile ends up a chameleon

Bruce Patterson

Bruce Patterson

New Member
I know I will receive a lot of "welcome" messages so "thanks" in advance. My wife bought me a chameleon the other day for my 32nd b-day. Honestly I am scared I am going to kill it since I have never had a reptile in my life. I have been doing a lot of reading on this site and many others. It is a veiled and about 4-5 inched long from nose to base of tail. Assuming that I don't end up killing it, what is a good size cage to get for when its an adult? I don't want to end up buying 3-4 cages during its lifetime. Second, I have a reptifogger and a big dripper on the way. Where those two items a good idea to purchase? Next, the thing eats like it is starving. I got about 20 small crickets and it ate them all in about 2 minutes yesterday (3 days after getting it from the pet shop) Do they really eat that much? I put a few more in today just to see if he was hungry and he devoured them too. I don't want to starve him but I also don't want to over feed him. During his feast yesterday he earned his name Gordo. And I am assuming he is a male cause he has the high point on his head, but he does not have the spur on the back of his back feet so I am still confused on that. Also, my room is kind of cold, I know you should turn off all lights at night, but i don't want him to get to cold? Should I get a under the cage heater or a night time bulb? What is the lowest temp the cage should get so that he is still comfortable? I want to get a live plant for him too, what is the best. I have read to get pothos or ficus benjamin, are these safe for him? Will they still be good when he is full grown? I still have a lot of questions but these are my biggest right now that I cannot seam to find the answer to. Thanks for all the help.
 

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Congrats on you new guy and welcome to the forum! Lol. The repti fogger and dripper were good investments in my opinion. Here is the care sheet for veiled chameleons everything you will need to know about feeding, gut loading, lighting, humidity, appropriate enclosure size ect.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

He looks pretty healthy in the pic. Try not to handle him to much they become stressed very easy. Chameleons are fragile reptiles but if you have the proper husbandry they can thrive and live your many years :D don't be too overwhelmed I know I was when I got my first Cham, but they are probably one of the most fascinating lizards out there!!
 
So the cage should not go below 72 degrees F at night with the lights off? Another big question I had, once I get the cage, fogger and dripper set up, what can I do to keep form having a huge mess in the bottom of the cage?
 
Bruce Patterson said:
So the cage should not go below 72 degrees F at night with the lights off?
Click to expand...

Hello there and welcome to chameleon ownership and the forums! The cage can go way below 72 degrees at night. 72 is a good ambient temp for the daytime temp(not the basking area). I would not let the cage get below 55 degrees at night for a young chameleon like you have. If it is going to get colder, do not use any lights at night, but you can use a ceramic heat emitter instead. It is a bulb that screws into your dome instead of a light.
 
Sorry I forgot to answer that ha a temp drop at night is actually good, it helps their digestive system, if it gets down to 65 or 60 at the lowest I wouldn't be too worried, and thy humidity drop is good too. Also chams can see in four spectrums of light, so there needs to be complete darkness at night, if you can't do that you can simply put a blanket over the cage to help. Do you have a UVB light? With out will he will devolp MBD, they need UVB (which provides vitiman d3)to help them process the calcium they intake.
 
Yes, i have him in a 12x12x15 cage currently with a uvb light and a heat lamp. Misting it constantly for right now till I get the cage I want and fogger and all that. What is the best type of live plant to accommodate him as a juvenile and a adult? And I only have been handling him about once a day for only couple minutes each. Is that to much? And this is the cage i am thinking about? Is it a good brand, easy to clean and all?

Zoo Med Reptibreeze 24x23x48
 
As far as the handling thing it really is an individual basis type of thing. What I mean is you have to see how well your chameleon tolerates handling. You just got him so if he is timid or mad about being handled then leave him be for awhile and let him settle in. If he comes to you when you open the cage door, then fine. If you have to chase him down and corner him I would not. Some of the most popular and cham safe plants(veilds are plant eaters) are Pothos, ficus and sheffelera(umbrella, arboricola)
 
I have the zoo med 24x24x48 for my female jax and I love it. It's pretty big, but it is very easy to make a drainage system from the PVC bottom. Once your Cham is bigger I would recommend a cage like this,
 
Just want to quickly chime in and clarify that if your Veiled chameleon does not have spurs, it is a girl. The high crest does not mean anything when it comes to veileds.
 
Thanks for all the advice. Do you know if there are any pics or diagrams of a drainage system for the bottom? I want to get this thing all set up so I don't ever have to do anything else to it but clean it out. I just hope I don't lose him in it right now lol. And is it normal for him to eat that much? He is only eating crickets, and he ate about 20 small ones yesterday and i gave him about 8 more small ones today and he devoured them all.
 
Yes babies eat ALOT, as well as juveniles. So that's a good sign, also try having some variety in his diet, super worms and Dubia roaches and calci worms would be pretty good for your guy. Calci worms also turn into black soldier flys and a good snack for your GAL as well :) be sure to gut load these feeders as best as you can. It tells you all about it in the caresheet for veileds. If you look in the enclosure and supplies section there will be 3 threads at the top that will give you a good idea of a good Cham home. There is also a thread just fr drainage ideas
 
Young veileds are like teenage boys - they will eat everything they can. Don't worry about over-feeding him at this point - and if you provide a pic of his/her back feet we can give you a definitive answer as to whether you have a Gordo or a Gorda :D

As your veiled grows up, you will cut back on it's feeder numbers, and if you end up having a female you might want to cut back even more. The less (of course without starving it) food a female has, the less frequently she'll cycle eggs, and the longer she'll live.

In regards to drainage, I don't have a Zoo Med cage, but I do have the standard 24x24x48 screen cages. I took the bottom of the cage off, and zip-tied it to a plastic utility sink that I bought at Home Depot. It's the same exactly size as the diameter of the cage. There's a drain at the bottom of the sink and I just placed a PVC pipe hanging down from that and a bucket underneath. That way all you have to do is empty a bucket when needed (I water my plants on my lanai with it). The other benefit is that it gives the cage extra height, so my 48" tall cage sitting on the top of the open sink is now about 60" tall. The sink provides a stable base to place plants and is easy to clean.

Good luck and remember we are always here to help! BTW, my first reptile was an ambanja about 5 years ago :D
 
Thanks for all the advice. DO you know of any pictures or diagrams of drainage systems? I want to set this thing up and only have to worry about cleaning it. And she is eating alot. 15 small crickets yesterday and i gave her 8 more today and she devoured them. I dont want to starve her but i I also dont want to over feed.
 
I have 1 reptile store in my city and it's almost worse than pet smart or petco. I usually buy through online companies, they have a much bigger variety.
 
Hey if you need to build a cheap and efficient drainage system i know how to make one. look for a plastic drawer tower in walmart, cut holes in the top of it and matching holes in the pvc bottom of your cage. this is essentially your drainage system, the water runs through the holes and into the top drawer.

hope this helps :)
 
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