Need cham help!

[Etunes]

BIG UPDATE

For a heat lamp any old lamp or shoplight with a 40 to 75 watt bulb will do fine. No need for a specialized bulb and lamp house there. Save your money for a good uvb bulb, that is more important.

Weather permitting get him outside in the real unfiltered sun if you want to see him perk up.

I have a 100 w heat lamp on him. He seems to enjoy it. I still have to dig out the old digital temp gauge i have so i know the temp accurately but he hangs out under it often. Right now i am un employed and dont have much money so the UVB bulb is gonna have to wait a bit. As of the out side whether goes that is a great idea as i live in FL and the whether is great but i am gonna wait as the next few weeks we have little to no sun and just overcast and rain constantly.

So i found out that these people broke the mist king they gave me. Told me it has been running fine. But turns out they were just hearing the engine going on it just not working. They used tap water with it and the nozzle got clogged by all the residue build up and it back flooded the pump and its shot now. I have another one i was planning on using for my future (still in planning stages) PDF set up that i was saving for but now it will get some use. But right now that's at my parents and i haven't had time to get it. But i have improvised with spraying him and his whole tank with a cheap spray bottle 4 times a day. And man was this guy dehidrated. He drank and drank and drank and drank some more the first day or two. But dont worry ill keep it up and hopefully have a mist king on him by this weekend.

Now feeding was tricky, i could only get him to eat about 2 crickets and he would just stop after that. idk if it was because he was dehydrated. stressed. idk. But as of today he downed 15 crickets and when i woke up this morning he had downed all the crickets i put in there yesterday. He looks like he has a fat belly but he still looks skinny to me on his limbs and such. IDK if that is just the way of a chameleon as i dont have a ton of experience with them but it worries me.

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Next up is the cage. This thing was horrible. he had one perch spot and that was it. So i made some modifications. Now special thanks to whoever suggested these wood poles you can find at home depot i secured them using zip ties and they work perfectly. I had some fake vines left over that i used to connect them all. I think i am gonna buy one more as he tends to only stay at the top and IDK why. He will go in between the top branch and down to the one in the middle around the pothos and that is it. So i am gonna try to make him feel more secure by adding another plant at the bottom (thinking umbrella plant).

Here is some pics of him. My camera broke so all of them but the first one are crappy cause i am using my mother in laws phone. But better then nothing.

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[Etunes]

Also there is a new small issue. When we first got him his tail was very active. It was curled around everything. Now, and i mean its popped up today for the first time. His tail is just a limp noodle. I mean it just hangs there. Whats going on? Its got me worried.

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EDIT: sorry that pics are so small in these pics. I hate my mother in laws phone.

 

[Etunes]

Also i want to get some grape wood for this tank, a nice center piece. Were can i get one?

 

[DanSB]

Definitely find that digital thermometer, 100 watts seems excessive, gets very hot and could potentially cause burns. If your house is super cold it would be better to use 2 60 or 40 watt bulbs than a 100 watt.

Do not skip the uvb. If a tube is too expensive get a reptisun 5.0 CFL that will screw into a normal fixture. They work well and these days, many keepers dislike them because of some early design / quality issues that have since been resolved.

UVB is very important. If it is warm but over cast you can still take him outside, he will still get some UVB exposure which could be crucially important to him now.

Your hand mister is fine, just a little more work. A good uvb bulb is more important than fixing your mist king. He should be fine once hydrated to mist 3 times a day. Check his poo, if there is a pure white cap on it that means he is hydrated ok. Orange, stinky, or other weird colors indicate an issue. Search for poo on this forum and you will find many pictures and discussion of what it should look like.

Read and reread the resources section of this site... Seriously. Most of us have spent hundreds of hours researching and reading. It is well worth it!

Keep in mind chams hide health problems really well often until it is too late. That is why most experienced keepers here are paranoid. A limp tail sounds really bad I have no clue what could cause that.

I wish you the best!