New chameleon

Hypancistrus

Hypancistrus

New Member
Picked up my new veiled chameleon tonight. I checked him out and he seems to have spurs on his back feet, so I am assuming he is a male. I have him in an 18" cube ExoTerra which is making him seem super tiny. I'm going to order a nice tall screen cage which can hold some taller live plants like ficus. I am looking at a few different brands, including ZooMed and Zilla. Does anyone have a preferred brand? I have an 18" strip light with a new 5.0 UVB bulb in it, plus a 60 watt incandescent light for heat. For now, I am hand misting, though I am looking at a few other options for water. A chameleon breeder I was talking with recommends chameleon fountains, but I have found mixed reviews on those.

For now, with hand misting, how often should I mist, and how much? I'm thinking 3 times a day until the leaves are dripping. Should I mist him directly or keep it to the leaves around him? Lastly, he has a bit of stuck shed. Should I be concerned with this? Or just keep the humidity up and wait for his next shed?

This is my first chameleon, but I have a lot of experience with other reptiles. Constructive criticism is truly welcome!
 
Here are two photos of the little guy and his cage. In speaking to someone on a Facebook chameleon group, I am going to exchange the 5.0 bulb for a 10.0 bulb. I am also going to arrange a few additional horizontal branches today so he can more easily be at different heat levels. He basked under the heat bulb for a while last night and slept up near the top of the cage. Please let me know if there are any other changes I ought to make. He will be in a taller screen viv by February.

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I would hold off on the 10.0 until he is in a deeper cage if it's a t5ho bulb. @nightanole may be able to correct my thought process here but a 10.0 t5ho bulb seems like extreme over kill on a 18" tall enclosure if it is a t5ho bulb. @Matt Vanilla Gorilla hand mists though he doesn't breed veiled, he can probably give you an idea on schedule/ times. You want him to be able to rinse his eyes though while misting so you will want to mist him directly for at least part of your session. @jannb breeds veiled and I'm sure some of her past posts would be good for research purposes :D.
 
Another vote for the 5.0 Non HO. It would be perfect for the 18" since it would only penetrate 9-10". 18" and a beardy would work good with a 10.0 since it would reach all the way to the floor of the cage.
 
I think one of the most frustrating things about keeping chameleons (so far) is conflicting info. I just ordered a 10.0 bulb because folks of a chameleon FB group said he will not do well without one. Also have heard very conflicting info about substrate- some people say none, some people say orchid bark or bed a beast keeps humidity up. I guess I will just need to gather as much info as I can and weigh advice accordingly. Bah!!

So a few updates on "Malik," my new veiled chameleon.

When I got home yesterday at lunch, what I thought was stuck shed had turned into a full-blown shed. It flaked off in small chunks and for a little while he kind of looked like a walking rock. But this morning I'd say 90% is flaked off and when the lights came on he was a cheery bright green. He spent some time basking yesterday under the heat bulb (which is just a normal household incandescent bulb) and also spend a good deal of time cruising around on his vines and twigs. I added a few more horizontal twigs yesterday-- bracing them against the walls, plants and vines.

This morning I misted him and put some calcium dusted crickets into his viv, in a tallish (3" deep) ceramic crock. He started heading down that way and I was so excited I was almost late for work. I didn't get to see him eat any yet, but I am hoping for an empty dish when I get home.

Now... I was looking at screen cages on Amazon yesterday, specifically was looking at the ZooMed Repti-breeze, which is 2x2x4. Is this too big for him? He is about the size of my thumb, in length, with a curly tail hanging down. I feel like he'd be overwhelmed in such a cage. Thoughts?
 
Had my wife check and apparently he cleaned out the bowl of crickets. Do you all think he'd eat some dubia roaches if I put them in there?
 
The info you are receiving my be conflicting due to the fact that you are receiving it from mostly amatures. I consider myself an intermediate keeper at best, therefore I have to weigh any info I receive carefully. You can look at each persons bio (this will tell you how long, and often they have been giving advice). As a rule of thumb, I read these forums often, and if I see info given by someone I don’t recognize, I take it with a grain of salt. In my opinion, your substrate is wrong. People that promote having substrate are probably recommending a bioactive enclosure. I couldn’t agree more with that myself. As far as the UVB light, you can’t know for sure without measuring the UV index or UVB output with a solarmeter. I would assume that the 10.0 in an enclosure that small might be too strong. As far as the size of your next cage, just buy the biggest one you can get. Many people believe babies shouldn’t have that much room. This would make them harder to find, but they are hatched in the wild, with infinite space, and do fine. Why limit them? Checking these forums shows you are willing to learn, and that’s a great attribute. Please, keep reading these forums and asking questions, you will quickly learn “best practice” chameleon care.
 
Do you know what tube size you have on the bulb? I'll post the screen shot I took of @nightanole posting in a few, it's saved on my phone. It's possible on the roach. My male nosy be is finicky with them at times (I keep a colony of discoids because I'm not allowed to have dubia, silly Florida laws) my male ambilobe has only taken 1 in the two weeks we've had him and so far none of the 3 females at my house have taken one yet, you'll just have to try :D.

@Goose502 is correct on the amateur thing, which I would still consider myself to be, but there are several members here, @Goose502, @nightanole, @Matt Vanilla Gorilla, @Andee , @kinyonga, @jannb, @Extensionofgreen to name a few that I trust their information given to help others. Many of them having cham experience for longer then I've been alive lol.

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dshuld said:
Do you know what tube size you have on the bulb? I'll post the screen shot I took of @nightanole posting in a few, it's saved on my phone. It's possible on the roach. My male nosy be is finicky with them at times (I keep a colony of discoids because I'm not allowed to have dubia, silly Florida laws) my male ambilobe has only taken 1 in the two weeks we've had him and so far none of the 3 females at my house have taken one yet, you'll just have to try :D.
Click to expand...

The bulb is an 18", standard bulb. It's not HO. It's a 5.0 ExoTerra bulb. The 10.0 just came in the mail today. I'll set it aside for now and revisit the issue when I move him into the larger cage. I just do not want him to have a hard time finding his food, but I suppose if he continues to eat from the dish, I can find a way to mount it to the cage where he can clearly see it and get to his food.

I am going to put a couple small dubia in his bowl today. My concern is that they don't really move around much. He seems to go for the crickets because they hop around a lot. It would be nice to be able to feed him dubia as they are much easier to raise than crickets.
 
Hypancistrus said:
The bulb is an 18", standard bulb. It's not HO. It's a 5.0 ExoTerra bulb. The 10.0 just came in the mail today. I'll set it aside for now and revisit the issue when I move him into the larger cage. I just do not want him to have a hard time finding his food, but I suppose if he continues to eat from the dish, I can find a way to mount it to the cage where he can clearly see it and get to his food.

I am going to put a couple small dubia in his bowl today. My concern is that they don't really move around much. He seems to go for the crickets because they hop around a lot. It would be nice to be able to feed him dubia as they are much easier to raise than crickets.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's why my nosy be is finicky with me on them too. If they are crawling around the screen in his feed box he'll snatch them up quick but once they sit still he wants nothing to do with them haha. I've been tossing around the idea of either buying four of the stick feeder dishes from @nick barta or making my own. I'm using a small sterilite box with the snap lock lid but I went to low with my opening though and his horns, silks and occasionally a super escape and roam around for a bit. Not a bad thing entirely though because he hunts them down lol.
 
Babies usually dont eat dubia. You might be better off with a trail mix of dubia mixed in with some crickets and meal worms. My boys would not touch the dubia till they were adults. Same with the beardies.
 
Right now I am using a ceramic crock that formerly belonged in a parrot cage. It's tall(ish) and deeper than most crocks, so the crickets stay inside. I threw a few mealworms in there too. I am not sure if he ate those, as my wife only peered through the cage door.
 
@DeremensisBlue, said that you have to understand the gray, not just the black and white. You can't just go around saying that glass is bad after "learning" it 5 minutes ago, you have to understand that it depends on the environment, house, etc., in other words, the "gray".
 
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