Pascal_Love
Member
Hi!
I'm going to start off with a disclaimer.
I discovered this website while googling different stuff about chameleon ownership. One of the posts I read, people were very unkind. Even go as far as to tell someone they are going to kill their chameleon.
I suffer from depression and anxiety so I am asking they any opinions/facts stated in this thread, please do so with kindness as you can possibly trigger a depressive episode. I feel my mental health is just as important as the health and happiness of my cham. If I feel people are being rude or disrespectful or keyboard warriors, I will simply never visit the site again. Though I hope that's not the case?
I'm new to chameleons. I've had some lizards as a kid bur always dreamed of a chameleon.
Finally, I got Pascal. (I know it's a cliche name but I love Tangled so I don't care lol) I've had him for 3 weeks now and he is doing wonders for my depression! He honestly makes me so happy just watching him climb all over his cage.
I am posting here for thoughts on what others think of my set up, how I can improve it, and where to look for a new cage when he gets full grown! I have attached pictures!
He (who I actually think is a she) eats a lot! Hunting crickets gets him all excited! (No I don't think he has human emotions but if chams can get annoyed and scared, im sure they can get excited too!) I'd sat he eats about 15 large crickets a day..maybe 20. I gutload them with orange cube cricket diet i got from petco. (Yes Pascal is also from Petco and I know their animal's aren't always the healthiest so I have been keeping an eye on him!)
I admit, I was doing the calcium wrong for the first 2 weeks. I would dust the orange cubes the crickets eat. I now know in supposed to dust the crickets in a bag and shake!
I also feed him meel worms..like 5 every morning but he doesn't seem to like them as much as the crickets!
His lights. He has a UVB buld and a day light bulb! He loves to bask! I turn his Iights on when I wake up in the morning around 715am. He wakes up. Basks. Goes potty. Then eats. Then goes for a good long climb around is cage. At night around 10pm, i turn the daylight bulb off, he crawls into his favorite place to sleep, then 10 minutes later i turn the Uvb light off. He stays til morning.
The temperature during the day near the lights ranges between 85-90 and i mist hist cage twice a day to keep humidity between 50-70. At night the temperature reads between 70-75 with the humidity around 50.
He also had his dripper that he is an expert at using to drink so water!
All plants in his cage are fake and from the dollar store. I cleaned them very thoroughly before putting them all in.
I do have 1 live plant for him. While I'm working, I open his cage and put the plant in front. He climbs onto it and hangs out on it. Sometimes I bring the plant to my desk and he watches me work.
I do handle him. Not often, maybe every other day. I allow him to climb on me while I'm sitting on me bed. I believe he is starting to recognize me as his care taker. When I put my hand in his cage to get his food dish, sometimes he'll walk to the other end of the cage and hide and other times he'll walk on my hand and just sit on my finger. I always giggle cause I'm just trying to feed him. I wonder if he can feel my body heat? I run very warm and people call me a human heater.
There isn't anything that makes me think he has any health issues however I do notice white stuff in his nose from time to time. I read that it could be salt since chams don't have sweat glands, that's how they rid excess salt. I included a picture of him on ny finger and you can see the white stuff.
I'm very proud of his setup as I feel it mimics his natural habitat pretty well, so I hope I get food feedback on that!
Thank you and hello!!
q
I'm going to start off with a disclaimer.
I discovered this website while googling different stuff about chameleon ownership. One of the posts I read, people were very unkind. Even go as far as to tell someone they are going to kill their chameleon.
I suffer from depression and anxiety so I am asking they any opinions/facts stated in this thread, please do so with kindness as you can possibly trigger a depressive episode. I feel my mental health is just as important as the health and happiness of my cham. If I feel people are being rude or disrespectful or keyboard warriors, I will simply never visit the site again. Though I hope that's not the case?
I'm new to chameleons. I've had some lizards as a kid bur always dreamed of a chameleon.
Finally, I got Pascal. (I know it's a cliche name but I love Tangled so I don't care lol) I've had him for 3 weeks now and he is doing wonders for my depression! He honestly makes me so happy just watching him climb all over his cage.
I am posting here for thoughts on what others think of my set up, how I can improve it, and where to look for a new cage when he gets full grown! I have attached pictures!
He (who I actually think is a she) eats a lot! Hunting crickets gets him all excited! (No I don't think he has human emotions but if chams can get annoyed and scared, im sure they can get excited too!) I'd sat he eats about 15 large crickets a day..maybe 20. I gutload them with orange cube cricket diet i got from petco. (Yes Pascal is also from Petco and I know their animal's aren't always the healthiest so I have been keeping an eye on him!)
I admit, I was doing the calcium wrong for the first 2 weeks. I would dust the orange cubes the crickets eat. I now know in supposed to dust the crickets in a bag and shake!
I also feed him meel worms..like 5 every morning but he doesn't seem to like them as much as the crickets!
His lights. He has a UVB buld and a day light bulb! He loves to bask! I turn his Iights on when I wake up in the morning around 715am. He wakes up. Basks. Goes potty. Then eats. Then goes for a good long climb around is cage. At night around 10pm, i turn the daylight bulb off, he crawls into his favorite place to sleep, then 10 minutes later i turn the Uvb light off. He stays til morning.
The temperature during the day near the lights ranges between 85-90 and i mist hist cage twice a day to keep humidity between 50-70. At night the temperature reads between 70-75 with the humidity around 50.
He also had his dripper that he is an expert at using to drink so water!
All plants in his cage are fake and from the dollar store. I cleaned them very thoroughly before putting them all in.
I do have 1 live plant for him. While I'm working, I open his cage and put the plant in front. He climbs onto it and hangs out on it. Sometimes I bring the plant to my desk and he watches me work.
I do handle him. Not often, maybe every other day. I allow him to climb on me while I'm sitting on me bed. I believe he is starting to recognize me as his care taker. When I put my hand in his cage to get his food dish, sometimes he'll walk to the other end of the cage and hide and other times he'll walk on my hand and just sit on my finger. I always giggle cause I'm just trying to feed him. I wonder if he can feel my body heat? I run very warm and people call me a human heater.
There isn't anything that makes me think he has any health issues however I do notice white stuff in his nose from time to time. I read that it could be salt since chams don't have sweat glands, that's how they rid excess salt. I included a picture of him on ny finger and you can see the white stuff.
I'm very proud of his setup as I feel it mimics his natural habitat pretty well, so I hope I get food feedback on that!
Thank you and hello!!
