New chameleon

[Gwendalyn.brock]

Yesterday I cleaned out my chameleon cage in preparation to have an empty cage for a while. Last night my sister got me a beautiful baby boy chameleon that I named chomper.
The cage i have is 24x24x48. Has only fake plants and branches. I love in Austin, Texas so the humidity is always between 60 and 70%. The temperature in the cage is 78° at the top 76° in the middle by the thermometer/hygrometer and 72° at the bottom during the day. We have the apartment set to 72° at night. The cage is in my room which I really only use to sleep in. I work 9:30-6:30 so the lights and mister are on a timer. On at 5am off at 5pm. Mister is set to mist every 4 hours for 60 seconds and is filled with a reptisafe solution. I had to get rid of the large superworms and bought pinhead crickets until he is big enough to eat other bugs. I put 8 crickets in there dusted with calcium without D3 today to see if he'll eat today but my other chameleon didn't until a few days after I bought her. I will take the uneaten ones out when I get home. I will be using a multivitamin every other Monday and the calcium with D3 the alternating Mondays. Is there anything else I should do for him. I've never had a male Chameleon, is it much different to care for males than females? Besides the laying bin I removed, is there anything else that I should chane?

 

[Graves923]

I assume you have a veiled chameleon? Males are similar in care. Most keepers keep them slightly more warm than females. Try to get the basking spot into the low to mid 80s since he is younger.

Also, since he is young, increase misting frequency and duration. I mist every 2-3 hours for 3-4 minutes with one long 8-10 minute misting in the morning and once per week I have a 15 minute mist session just to make sure he is hydrated. Better to provide more water than he will need instead of not enough.

Adding live plants helps maintain humidity and also holds water droplets better for the cham to drink.

Your supplement schedule is exactly what I use. Lightly dusted daily with plain calcium and mondays are the other supplements.

Since your cham is young I would use a feeder cup so you can keep track of how much he is eating. Typically, you want to feed them as much as they will eat in 5-10 minutes. I was feeding my cham between 10-15 small crickets daily which slowly became close to 18 large crickets until he hit a year old. At around a year old they slow their feeding down. I know have my male on a every other day feeding schedule and he is still putting on a few grams of weight per month.

If you havent already, check out these articles: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/

Theres a lot of info but it covers pretty much everything you need to know about keeping these creatures happy and healthy.

 

[Jevin]

Important to note, if you have a chameleon similar to mine, it might refuse to cup feed. I have to free range Chandler's food because eating from a cup is apparently something he refuses to do.

 

[Gwendalyn.brock]

I assume you have a veiled chameleon? Males are similar in care. Most keepers keep them slightly more warm than females. Try to get the basking spot into the low to mid 80s since he is younger.

Also, since he is young, increase misting frequency and duration. I mist every 2-3 hours for 3-4 minutes with one long 8-10 minute misting in the morning and once per week I have a 15 minute mist session just to make sure he is hydrated. Better to provide more water than he will need instead of not enough.

Adding live plants helps maintain humidity and also holds water droplets better for the cham to drink.

Your supplement schedule is exactly what I use. Lightly dusted daily with plain calcium and mondays are the other supplements.

Since your cham is young I would use a feeder cup so you can keep track of how much he is eating. Typically, you want to feed them as much as they will eat in 5-10 minutes. I was feeding my cham between 10-15 small crickets daily which slowly became close to 18 large crickets until he hit a year old. At around a year old they slow their feeding down. I know have my male on a every other day feeding schedule and he is still putting on a few grams of weight per month.

If you havent already, check out these articles: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/

Theres a lot of info but it covers pretty much everything you need to know about keeping these creatures happy and healthy.

I do have a veiled chameleon. I have the asking temperature at 86°. I do have a feeding cup for him because I always used one with Reptar. I used to have 3 live plants but they died when we moved. I was going to get a couple new ones but cant remeber where to find the plant list. Thank you fir the link. I'll read it after work.

 

[Longhorn1234]

Austin!! \m/

 

[Ladythrasher89]

If you ever need a vet, wells branch bird and exotics on mopac and Parmer is awesome.

Also here for the *woot Austin!*

 

[Graves923]

I do have a veiled chameleon. I have the asking temperature at 86°. I do have a feeding cup for him because I always used one with Reptar. I used to have 3 live plants but they died when we moved. I was going to get a couple new ones but cant remeber where to find the plant list. Thank you fir the link. I'll read it after work.

Here is the plant list I use: http://flchams.com/chameleon-safe-plant-list/

Most of the list only shows scientific names for the plants so when shopping around look at the plant tags that are usually stuck in the pot. They should have the scientific name listed.