new baby chameleon, unsure about a few things

[kmarie]

hey there, im new to this forum.me and my partner own 2bearded dragons (thunder and lightning) and recently purchased a baby veiled chameleon.Im wanting to find out more about them as they are fascinating creatures and I want to ensure that I give her the best start in life .

We currently have her (calypso) in a viv on her own, she has branches and plenty of foliage to climb around on (plastic plants but wanting to get real ones soon), we are having trouble getting her basking area to the correct temp, its reading 33c at the minute and im sure thats too hot for her so any info on correct temps would be great, we have her basking bulb on a dimmer so im sure that if we fiddle with it we can get the correct temps, I am misting her 4times daily (not sure if this is too much or not though?), she is eating fruit flies, weve tried her with small crickets but she doesnt seem interested (is this normal?) and we never seem to see her drink the drips off the leaves (is this something they tend to do when nobody is around?).sorry if im asking lots of questions, we have asked the pet stores but we keep getting conflicting info so thought this forum would be a better source of information for us.Im sure ill have plenty more questions to ask so any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[ronnie]

Hi and welcome to the forum...i haven't been a member that long and i am also in the U.K! (seems to be more of us joining all the time)The site is great for support and info but as i haven't that much experience i don't really want to dish any wrong info out! all i can tell you is that in the 6 months that i have had my girl Trixxi i have hardly ever seen her drink...it's really not that unusual!most Chams seem to be secret drinkers!! Have you any pictures of your little one?everyone loves baby pic's on here!

 

[Miss Lily]

Hi and welcome! I'm in the UK too. The basking spot should be in the low 80's (Farenheit). Babies can easily over heat. You may not see her drink from the leaves. I usually mist mine twice a day and have a dripper running too. Is her urate white? Live plants also help to keep humidity levels up so you may not need to mist so often once you have those. Schefflera (Umbrella plants), Pothos (Devil's Ivy), Ficus (Weeping Fig) are all available in B&Q in a range of sizes. Hibiscus are a real fave of chameleons - mine loves to eat the leaves!

Are you dusting her food with a calcium supplement at all? What lights are you using? How old is your baby? Maybe the crix you offer are too big/small for her. You may like to fill in the 'How to ask for help' form https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ to give us a bit more info. As you know, pet shops don't always give out the correct advice with reptiles!

Another great place for info on keeping veileds is here: http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

 

[kmarie]

hiya, yes I have some pics of her so ill try to get them up soon, its hard 2take a pic tho as shes very nervous at the minute, not to mention very small lol.we have a 40w clear spotlight as her basking light, we dust her food with calypso calcium dust everyday, her urate is white in colour and looks a bit like bird poo, is this normal?.we are using a repti-sun 10.0 UVB light that came with the setup and the crickets that we were sold with her were very tiny and the crickets we have tried her with since then are slightly bigger but were the only ones the petstore had in, Ive been thinking that maybe they may be too big but im not sure???I would say that our baby is around 1 month old has she hatched on the 27/6 this year and we purchased a maidenhair fern frm homebase but are replanting it later in new compost as im worried that they may have put baby bio in their compost and dont want her eating that stuff, is this plant okay??

 

[Miss Lily]

I use Calypso powder too. I dust with this 6 days a week and use Nutrabol (vits and minerals inc. D3) on Sundays. Is the UV light a tube or a coil/spiral shape? The poop and urates sound fine. Yellow/orange urate indicates dehydration, but having beardies you probably already know this. I would try to get small crix if you can. The feeder needs to be smaller than the gap between the cham's eyes.

I'm not sure about the Maidenhair fern, I've never used that plant. The more popluar ones that I listed in my last post are all safe if eaten by the cham. Veileds can and do eat leaves and fruit and veg. You did right to repot the plant - I also cover the soil with large pebbles to stop Amy eating the soil. I also wash the leaves in soapy water and rinse well just to remove any trace of pesticides, etc.

She sounds very tiny! Normally they are not up for sale in petshops until they are at least 6 weeks old (in my experience). Most private breeders sell them at 12 weeks onwards, as they are usually feeding, drinking, pooping and shedding normally by that age.

 

[kmarie]

hey

thanks for replying, I will try to get my hands on the nutrabol as soon as I can.the UV light is a coil shape but with the beardies we use a tube light so im guessing a tube type one would be better?.Im gonna check online to see if the maidenhair is safe for her to eat, I read that It can be used in their vivarium so im guessing its safe but I want to be very sure before I put it in with her.thanks for the pebble idea, ive been wondering how im going to cover the compost but now I have my answer! lol.Im going to try to see if i can get smaller crickets for her as she seemed to like the really tiny ones but in the area that we live we are pretty limited as to where to get live foods from.I guess we were sold a cham thats too young then, thats worried me a little now as I dont want her getting ill or anything, ill try to put some pics up later and then maybe you'll get a better idea of her age

 

[Miss Lily]

Yes, you need the tube UV for a cham. The coil ones have been known to cause eye problems. Plenty of people do get chams that age, the shop where I got my first cham from sells them from 6 weeks on and as far as I know they are all doing fine. They get their livestock from a well known breeder.

At that age they don't bask much - they aren't very good at thermoregulating yet! I was worried about Amy at first as she never basked, but with chams up to 3 months old the temps should be kept in the low 80's F anyway. There were never any probs with Amy - she digested her food ok and did everything else she should. When they are so new to you and so small you can't help but worry about everything! It does get easier!

 

[kmarie]

just wondering do you use a 5.0 tube UV or a 10.0, I cant help but wonder if the 10.0 is too strong as this is the same strength we use with the beardies.Im glad u mentioned the basking thing coz I have noticed that she never hardly basks, she seems to busy hiding from us all the time to even go up towards the heat!I do find myself worrying all the time, Ive just got it constantly on my mind that shes gonna die coz of something we may be doing wrong

 

[Miss Lily]

I use a 10.0 tube UV by Repti Glo. Amy is currently in an Exoterra terrarium and the mesh top is quite dark and thick. Lily spent her whole life in an exo with a 10.0 bulb and she was always very healthy.

Don't worry about the hiding. She needs time to settle in - it was ages before Amy felt comfortable enough to sit out in the open. She is now 5 months and has started to bask a lot more in the last couple of weeks. She still runs to hide if you stand in front of the viv and look at her for too long! She's not so bad with me, but hates hubby looking at her, lol! When I open the viv door she runs and hides too. It takes them a while to get used to you, but they aren't so sociable as beardies, and certainly not as cuddly.

 

[rich]

hi im also uk and new to forum so thanks for the help ^^^, i use 10.0 uv.
this our 7 week old, we had for a one week

 

[kmarie]

lol, calypso is exactly the same, she seems to tolerate me alot more than she does my partner, whenever he even looks at her she gives him this look as to say get out my face and then hides under the nearest leaf........must just be a man thing eh lol and yeah ur right about them not being as sociable as beardies, all I want to do is pick her up and hold her but I dont want to push it so Iv literally only held her twice since we got her 5days ago, having to just watch her through the glass is killing me!! and rich, ur little cham is so cute, its a little bigger than mine but mine shed for the first time yesterday so im hoping shell start getting bigger now