my new cage

craig

craig

New Member
Thanks for the responses everyone. Well I have them in a cage about 3ft high and 2 ft wide. They seem to not mind each other at all and will climb near each other and everything. The only times I see them get alittle stressed is when I go to grab them from the cage. Well iam going to make another cage the same size and put the female in there. I had veileds before and I had them in separate TANKS(when I was 14 thats what people told me to put them in:( ) and when I put the female in the males tank he would quickly go to the female and mate. They were neat when when the babies hatched but I had them in a 10gal tank and they kept dying. It must have been the poor ventalation.:( Iam now getting into them again and iam going to do it right. Thanks for the input and they will be separated shortly. Craig.
 
craig-do you have the proper lighting for your Chams? It sounds like you were not too sucessful in this venture before. The only time they should be handled at all is for cage cleaning, and if things are set up right-that should not be too often. Where did you get your Chams? I have found that in this area I have had to mail order the right lighting etc.
 
Hey Julirs, I got my veileds from FL CHAMS and I like their chams. I have heard great things about Mike and know these are good chameleons. I have a flourescent vitalite and a 40W bulb on them. Iam going to the show in Tampa 4/22 and hope to purchase some jackson chameleons too and lights, etc. I leave the lights on from 11am to sometimes after midnight. Am I leaving them on too long? They seem to enjoy the light. Thanks again. Craig.
 
Mine is one of Mike's also. What is the UVB output of a vitalite? You should use a 12/12 light cycle. Mine come on at 8:30 am and go out at 8:30 pm.
 
Hi Julirs. Iam not really sure of the output of the vitalite however, I will be upgrading to to a reptisun 5.0 since that vitalight is from my chameleons years ago:eek: . That was a flurescent lite and light and have a long one and a short one. What do you recommend doing as far as going to a flourescent bulb or to a regualr bulb? Thanks. Craig.
 
Craig,

You need a flourescent fixture and 5.0 or 10.0 tube for each enclosure. (Zoomed is the preferred brand)
You also need a basking light ("regular bulb") for each enclosure.
Both should be mounted outside of the habitat and the basking bulb at a distance and wattage that will provide a basking temp of around 80 - 85 degrees for each cham at this age.
Basking lights get hot and should be positioned so that the animal cannot get
too close. babies are terrible at thermoregulating and chams in general are not great at recognizing when they are being burned.

-Brad
 
Craig, I'm not sure exactly what you're asking.

"A flourescent bulb or regular bulb?"
"A long one and a short one"

Let's keep it simple.
1. You need a regular (incandescant) bulb as a basking light.
It cannot be one of those red heat lights, because the chams respond to the visible output of the regular bulbs.
It cannot be a flourescent light, because those do not put out enough heat for basking.

2. You need a flourescent UVB-rated bulb to provide the necessary UV spectrum. Don't bother with the compact flourescent bulbs, get the long tube type UVB bulbs, and get one as long as the top of your cage (the Reptisun 5.0 you mentioned is perfect).

Check out this link for more detailed help: Heat and Light

The Vitalite you mentioned is NOT an adequate UVB light for keeping reptiles. It does not put out an adequate amount of UVB (if any). If you kept your previous cham under this type of light, I suspect it was lack of UVB (and the MDB that consequently comes from that) that caused your previous chams to die, and not simply a lack of ventilation (although there may have been multiple probelms with the husbandry then).
 
lighting

hi craig, IN regaurds to your lighting I personaly use a reptisun 5.0 and a 75watt basking lamp for my veileds panthers and pygmies I have heard VERY bad horror stories about using a 10.0 uvb bulb from my breeder she lost almost a third of her chams either from serious injury or DEATH:(
 
I would be interested to know how chams were injured or died from a 10.0 flourescent light.
I have used the zoomed 10.0 the whole time with no problems of any kind.
The 5.0 is the most popular and I think preferred tube but I chose the 10.0 to hopefully get uvb a little deeper into the enclosure.
I may do the 5.0 next or not, I would feel comfortable using either.

-Brad
 
I am using a Zoomed Reptisun 10.0 due to the fact that I have a Reptarium with very dark screening. Someone on the forum used a UVB meter and found that the dark screening reduced the UVB output by 50% 6 inches down into the cage. deerhunter-how in the world did your breeder have serious injury or death from a flourescent bulb????
 
thanks for the responses everyone. I think iam going with the reptisun 5.0 rather than the 10.0. I have a 40W bulb on the cage too. I think i'll bump it to 60W. Sometimes I find the chameleons hanging under the light and it scares me because I don't want them burned so I move the light and move them around the cage. I'll take a pic of the setup I have and show you. Iam also debating whether to use a mister or not. I usually spray the cage and put ice cubes on there but I don't want to mister going off all the time because Iam afraid of too much humidity. Oh, I don't know if I said it or not but I have them in separate cages now, I made another allminum cage and it came out awful. The cage is twisted from the screen:( I wonder if it would be okay to make one with fiberglass screen?
 
10.0

sorry guys im not speaking from personal experience told by liddy at kammerflge just lookin out spreadin the word I wouldnt think she would fib about this she is very nice and knowledgeable if i am wrong i stand corrected for the both of us sorry
 
A dripper would be better than the ice cubes ( too cold).
As far as the fiberglass window screen:
I mentioned in another thread that I used window screen on my enclosure but made sure it wasn't fiberglass....uh...oops.
It is coated fiberglass window screen. I haven't had any problems with it to date and am not really sure what the problems could be.
I know it was suggested somewhere not to use it and I can't remember
why not.


-Brad
 
craig-get a good digital thermometer! The kind with a long cord and a probe on the end. That way you can guage the temps of the basking spots. Little Chams are bad at thermoregulating and people are very bad at guessing the heat put out by a lightbulb.
 
I know that Petsmart here in Clearwater has them. I buy bulbs at Reptilesupply.com. They are $19.99 there and I usually get stuff next day or 2 days later. You can get Repcal there also.
 
I don't right now but I will take some for you. These are still young and don't have their nice colors, well the female will stay her colors but when I have my male veiled several years ago, don't mean to brag but he was the brightest colored veiled I ever seen. He had bright green, white, orange and blue colors especially at night when I would bring him in from outside and I never took pics of him:( , I was 14 then. I think I will get a couple of these thermometers and those 2 reptisun lights if they don't have them at the local petshop. I want to get some jacksons too so I might get 4 lights and 4 meters. I'll get some pics of my setups and some of the veileds but don't think I can get it tomorrow.
 
Which pet store do you go to? There are pics of mine in my gallery-since he is one of Mike's they could be related.
 
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