New Chameleon Owner - Help!

PoleCat

PoleCat

New Member
Introduction:

Hello everyone! I come to you all excited but also stressed out. I have recently purchased a Small (Maybe 3 Months Old?)
Veiled Chameleon from my Local PetCo. With that being said, I went out and bought this Chameleon on a whim (I know, it was a mistake) without doing any research.
This is also the first reptile I have owned. I am not someone who typically does things like this so I have been spending countless
amounts of hours doing research and reading up on these beautiful creatures and how to care for them properly. I come to you all for guidance!

To give you an Idea of how clueless I really was, I started with a ExoTerra Glass Terrarium with Ecoearth Substrate in the bottom. I had no UVB Bulb and my Cage temps were
hitting upwards of 115 Degrees due to having two basking bulbs. I had no water supply (dripper) and was feeding her only Superworms I bought from the Pet Store.
Unfortunately this was the setup I was stuck with for a few days. I got home, started doing research (Realized how needy these little boogers were) and figured that this
Chameleon was not going to live Happily or Healthily in these conditions. I work long hours and can't keep this Chameleon off of my mind! I worry all day, lol.

Here is my current and new situtation! --->

Equipment / Habitat (As of now, 2 Weeks into ownership):

- Small (18x18x24) ExoTerra Glass Terrarium
- ZooMed Mini Deep Dome with a 100Watt ZooMed DAYLIGHT BLUE Reptile Bulb (Basking) and a ZooMed ReptiSun 5.0 UVB Bulb
- 2 Artificial Plants with One Real Tropical Plant
- EcoCarpet on the Bottom covered with Medium/Large River Rocks
- ZooMed Digital Thermometer (x2)
- Medium Jungle Vine (Artificial)
- Large Mushroom Platform (Artificial)
- Terrarium came with a Graphic Styrofoam Background
- TheLittleDripper as the dripping system (I leave this running all day and turn it off at night)
- ZooMed Mist'r Bottle (I mist 2-3 Times a day)
- Clear Tupperware Bowl to Collect Water From Dripper Leaves (This Bowl fills up through out the day and I empty it out)


Habitat Conditions:

- Ambient Temperature in the Terrarium is pretty consistently in the 75-82 Range (70ish at night)
- Basking spot is usually sitting anywhere from 82-92 (Depending on if my ceiling fan is on or not) and 72 at night
- Humidity is typically anyhwere between 30-45 during the day and around 60-70 at Night

Diet / Nutrition:

- Crickets (Small), Superworms (Small) and Dubia Roaches (3/8") are the three main Feeders I have been rotating
- I have been gutloading all of these Feeders with: Oats, Lettuce, Apples and Potatoes
- I am using Calcium with D3 on the Feeders (on maybe 5 or 6 Dubia Roaches) twice a month
- I am also using ReptiVitamins (on maybe 5 or 6 Dubia Roaches) twice a month
- Water is pretty straight forward, I have seen her drink off of the leaves which makes me happy



Questions and Concerns:

To start, I am here becuase I am looking for any and all feedback regarding my setup/habitat/diet situation from you Chameleon Enthusiasts.

- Am I giving her enough vitamins and calcium?
- Is this terrarium going to work for it? Temperatures seem fine and she seems to be doing okay in it. I am more than willing to switch to something else though if it means the health of the Chameleon.
- Is this diet okay?
- Is the humidity okay? I see it drinking from time to time and her eyes do not look sunken or anything to that nature.
- One of my newest concerns is that when I first got the chameleon (it was actually much smaller, she is beefin' up!), she was pretty consistently always light green and then at night got very bright/neon green.
She has now been taking on a very very slight brown tone (still predominately green) and I see it develop some freckle like spots and stripes from time to time. She has only turned semi-brown once and that
was very recent. Is this a cause for concern? Is this part of the growing process? ect
- Stool and Urate seem to be okay. Brown on the stool and white on the urate, There was once instance where the urate was half white and half yellow?


I really do appreciate all of your Feedback. SORRY FOR THE LONG POST. Thanks and have a Blessed Day!
 

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Last edited:
Is this the stuff the petco employee suggested? I get that not everyone knows chameleons but they should take the responsibility and look it up or ask someone.

I use the repetivite with d3 and calcium with d3 alternating Sundays... so twice a month each like you. I also use calcium with out d3 for all other feeders except calci-worms (aka phoenix worms, repti-worms, black soldier fly larvae, BSF Larvae)

Veildes seem to be more forgiving of low humidity than they are of stagnate air. I would go with a screened enclosure unless you have super low humidity in the house. Even that can be remedied with live plants. (pothos is my favorite). what is your real tropical plant? did you check to make sure it is chameleon safe?

Keep the super worms limited to be on the safe side. Years ago when no one heard of a dubia, I fed a lot of supers and they did fine but there is a lot more research. Maybe use them for 10-20% of the diet. Add calci worms to your rotation.

Bright green at night is her resting color. Other than that, brown is her usual color if cold. Maybe someone else can give a little more info.

Don't know about the urate... Anyone?
 
NickTide said:
Is this the stuff the petco employee suggested? I get that not everyone knows chameleons but they should take the responsibility and look it up or ask someone......
Click to expand...

Thank you for the great advice. Most of this stuff was recommended unfortunately but oh well. I will pick up some calci-worms on the way home today... If I'm not mistaken, do you keep Calci-Worms refrigerated? When I see these at the pet store they look as if they are dead in the cups (in the fridge).

I just looked it up and that plant is not mentioned on any of the Chameleon safe lists, I will remove that immediately and get it replaced with another. I'm also going to start looking for a screened enclosure for the Chameleon. Will she have issues with change? Was in a glass enclosure at PetCo in addition to my home. Thanks again for the advice!
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of chameleons, this is a great place for knowledge!!

A few things I would suggest-
~ I would remove the eco carpet, it is going to get gross really quick. I use just bare bottom.
~ Change the light from blue to white, it is brighter and will help give you more light, also the blue ones break quite quickly
~ dust every feeding lightly with calcium without d3
~ I would lower the basking temp. 92 is very warm for a little one, they dehydrate fast, I would try to stick in the low 80's
~ I would change the coil bulb to a linear, it covers much more area than a concentrated area like the coils do, I use Reptisun T5 5.0

The urate being part yellow and part white, I would say was from being partly dehydrated the whiter the better!

Also I have all of my chameleons in glass enclosures and have no problems! The Exo Terras are great! Having a baby they need to stay hydrated and humid the Exo's do help with this. You just need to make sure to wipe or empty the tray on the bottom so there is no stagnant water. I love pothos that is my go to plant, they grow easy and I like how they look! Make sure you just wash the plant leaves on both sides before putting it in the enclosure.

Your feeders sound find, variety is definitely key! Some other suggestions are silkworms, hornworms, black soldier fly larvae, red runner roaches. I also would add some greens to your gut load like dandelion, collard, endive, turnip, also sweet potatoes, red peppers etc. There is a list on here of great gut load items!

If it is female, males have spurs on the back feet, females do not, she is going to need a lay bin, they lay even with no male present. There are great articles on lay bins and laying on here!

Congratulations:)
 
hopps31 said:
Welcome to the wonderful world of chameleons, this is a great place for knowledge!! ...
Click to expand...

Thank you and @jannb for the info! I went out and got a couple of other feeders and a white bulb rather than the blue! I appreciate the info on the glass terrarium because I really do prefer the look (just want to do whats best for the cham). I'll see if I can get my basking temps down a hair and I have had no luck finding Calcium WITHOUT D3 in any local pet store. Going to have to order this online.

I have also replaced the little voodoo statue that came with the terrarium with a nice big, healthy Pothos plant as of today. :D
 
PoleCat said:
Thank you for the great advice. Most of this stuff was recommended unfortunately but oh well. I will pick up some calci-worms on the way home today... If I'm not mistaken, do you keep Calci-Worms refrigerated? When I see these at the pet store they look as if they are dead in the cups (in the fridge).

I just looked it up and that plant is not mentioned on any of the Chameleon safe lists, I will remove that immediately and get it replaced with another. I'm also going to start looking for a screened enclosure for the Chameleon. Will she have issues with change? Was in a glass enclosure at PetCo in addition to my home. Thanks again for the advice!
Click to expand...


With veildes the plant is particularly important since they eat a lot of vegetation. Some people don't recommend ficus for this reason. When I kept Veildes 20 years ago, the only veiled safe plant I knew of was Pothos. Things like Ficus where considered hit or miss.

Calci worms are refrigerated at like 55 degrees at the pet shop but they cant take the cold of a regular fridge. I think they pupate in about two weeks so don't get too many. she will likely have some issue with a new cage but not too bad. Maybe for a day or two so if you decide to switch, move her after you know she ate and drank well.
 
NickTide said:
With veildes the plant is particularly important since they eat a lot of vegetation. Some people don't recommend ficus for this reason. When I kept Veildes 20 years ago, the only veiled safe plant I knew of was Pothos. Things like Ficus where considered hit or miss.

Calci worms are refrigerated at like 55 degrees at the pet shop but they cant take the cold of a regular fridge. I think they pupate in about two weeks so don't get too many. she will likely have some issue with a new cage but not too bad. Maybe for a day or two so if you decide to switch, move her after you know she ate and drank well.
Click to expand...

Good to hear! Going to stick with the Pothos. Thanks for the information.
 
Shaking my head to petco! They topically don’t know all that much. I’d get that chameleon out of the glass asap. Your humidity should be higher than 40-50% with Veiled and with just about every other species. The basting spot should be anywhere from 85-95 degrees tops. It’s good to have temperature drop at night at least 10 degrees plus. Temperature in the enclosure all different levels of temperature throughout the enclosure room temperature 72-80 degrees variation. I’d let it in the real sunlight some to get it bones strong. MEtabolic bone disease can occur in all species. I’d take the substrate out pronto. And like someone else said get rid of the blue bulb but you’ve probably already done so. 12 hours of light a day with no light at night (NO red bulb ever!) at night if you have to keep it warmer due the winter get a ceramic heat emitter. And other lights should be off around the chameleon at night it will mess up with sleep patterns circadian Rhythms as it does with humans as well. I’d put more vines and branches in the enclosure until you can get a screen enclosure and I’d recommend a dragon straind enclosure hold up well and there’s side have edges that you can attach things to. Kind of pricey but it’s well worth the money it’ll hold up well! A hibiscus umbrella plant ficus trees etc. I’ve probably missed a few things but I’m sure others will comment as well. You’re in good hands on this community nobody on here direct you wrong. Well to the chameleon world.
 
greenchamelons said:
Shaking my head to petco! They topically don’t know all that much. I’d get that chameleon out of the glass asap. Your humidity should be higher than 40-50% with Veiled and with just about every other species. The basting spot should be anywhere from 85-95 degrees tops. It’s good to have temperature drop at night at least 10 degrees plus. Temperature in the enclosure all different levels of temperature throughout the enclosure room temperature 72-80 degrees variation. I’d let it in the real sunlight some to get it bones strong. MEtabolic bone disease can occur in all species. I’d take the substrate out pronto. And like someone else said get rid of the blue bulb but you’ve probably already done so. 12 hours of light a day with no light at night (NO red bulb ever!) at night if you have to keep it warmer due the winter get a ceramic heat emitter. And other lights should be off around the chameleon at night it will mess up with sleep patterns circadian Rhythms as it does with humans as well. I’d put more vines and branches in the enclosure until you can get a screen enclosure and I’d recommend a dragon straind enclosure hold up well and there’s side have edges that you can attach things to. Kind of pricey but it’s well worth the money it’ll hold up well! A hibiscus umbrella plant ficus trees etc. I’ve probably missed a few things but I’m sure others will comment as well. You’re in good hands on this community nobody on here direct you wrong. Well to the chameleon world.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. I have bought a replacement bulb for the ZooMed Blue Bulb but was wondering why everyone is recommending replace it? It does seem to emit plenty of heat. Is it just that a standard bulb is brighter? Also, should I just lose the carpet under the rocks or the carpet and rocks all together? Is there not supposed to be standing water due to bacteria build up (I do have a little bit of standing water but is still covered by the rocks)? Thanks again!
 
So the Exo terra will work great for your chameleon. Problem is, the chameleon will outgrow your size fast. If you have a male, I recommend their largest enclosure (36x18x36). A female can do the 18x18x36. I would get rid of the carpet, yes, it will breed bacteria and mold. These cages are great for bioactive, you can create a drainage layer, and add soil to basically make a giant planter. Once you add springtails and isopods to the soil (your clean-up crew), there is very little maintenance. For now, you can use the cage, I recommend adding more horizontal vines/branches, and the more foliage the better. If it takes you awhile to find the chameleon, you are doing it right. As a tip, use amazon, or go to reptile shows to buy stuff, way cheaper than the box stores.
 
PoleCat said:
Thank you and @jannb for the info! I went out and got a couple of other feeders and a white bulb rather than the blue! I appreciate the info on the glass terrarium because I really do prefer the look (just want to do whats best for the cham). I'll see if I can get my basking temps down a hair and I have had no luck finding Calcium WITHOUT D3 in any local pet store. Going to have to order this online.

I have also replaced the little voodoo statue that came with the terrarium with a nice big, healthy Pothos plant as of today. :D
Click to expand...

I order pretty much everything online, particularly Amazon!!

Rainbowmealworms.net is an awesome place to get feeders, I have placed many orders and they have all come healthy and super fast:)
 
Goose502 said:
So the Exo terra will work great for your chameleon. Problem is, the chameleon will outgrow your size fast. If you have a male, I recommend their largest enclosure (36x18x36). A female can do the 18x18x36. I would get rid of the carpet, yes, it will breed bacteria and mold. These cages are great for bioactive, you can create a drainage layer, and add soil to basically make a giant planter. Once you add springtails and isopods to the soil (your clean-up crew), there is very little maintenance. For now, you can use the cage, I recommend adding more horizontal vines/branches, and the more foliage the better. If it takes you awhile to find the chameleon, you are doing it right. As a tip, use amazon, or go to reptile shows to buy stuff, way cheaper than the box stores.
Click to expand...


Again, you guys are life savers! The whole bioactive setup is exactly the kind of thing I have been looking for. Did some quick research and can't wait to get started!

Also, just to clear the air... Can anyone tell if the Chameleon is a boy or a girl from this quick little photo?
 

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I'm not sure if this was mentioned yet, but it doesn't really make much sense for the mushroom ledge to be there if it's intended purpose is to be "rested upon". Chameleons tend to like to grip on what they stand on and by the looks of it that isn't possible with the ledge. Now, of course, leaving the ledge in won't cause any harm, but maybe with it removed you could fit in more vines for him to climb on. Just my two cents ^^
 
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