New Chameleon

[Maggiebeas]

Honestly your cage looks pretty good as far as lights and size of the cage go but you may want to look into some live plants. veileds love to eat plants especially when they are young, and if he manages to eat a a fake leaf, it can hurt their jaw and cause impactions. Pothos and Schefflera are great for filling up space. With your cage size now you may even get away with one or two large Pothos plants from Home Depot. Get rid of all the soil from the existing pot, and repot with topsoil (no additives) and rinse off the plant itself thoroughly.

For humidity you can wrap a shower curtain around 2-3 of the sides to retain some moisture. What is the misting schedule?

Lower your temps just a smidge, shouldn't be over 85 at the basking spot.

What is your supplement schedule? Supplement brands?

One more thing, I would add some thinner branches horizontally in the cage.

Thank you so much! We will look into a live plant or two for the humidity, our home Depot is terrible but we will start looking out for those plants to add. And we will definitely get him something horizontal to hang out on. We bumped the light up a smidge and are hanging out so far around 85 so we should be good there.
His mister currently goes off three times a day, he drinks the water off the leaves and the humidity hangs around the forties and fifties. However, it drops drastically in the day but we don't want to run his mister every hour because even on the lowest setting it thoroughly drenches and I don't think it's good to have him that wet. So we got him a fogger for intermittently throughout the day which keeps him around forty. Only problem is he hates the thing. We are trying to figure out a good setting and it's kind of just making little adjustments throughout the day.
I'll look at the supplement brands but we do calcium dusting every day. We have a calcium and d3 that we will do every two weeks (skipping the only calcium on that day), and a multi for once a month. However we are just rounding out week one so at this point we have only done calcium!

 

[janjan20]

Since you have a veiled humidity can be lower during the day 30-40 with spikes from misting. I would not recommend running the fogger during the day, the increase in humidity with higher temps can cause RIs. Most keepers run the fogger/humidifier at night.

Here is a link to a blog as well as some podcasts that provide great info on night time humidity. I really enjoyed them and learned a great deal of info, enjoy!
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...s-through-the-fog-without-dispelling-it.2400/
https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-89-naturalistic-hydration-for-chameleons/
https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-110-fogging-and-airflow-with-mario-jungmann/

 

[Ares05]

That supplement schedule sounds good. Except instead of once a month for the vitamins do it twice a month. So normal plain calcium everyday, then alternate weeks with the d3 and vitamins.

Do you have a lowes near you thats any good? they carry the same plants as Home Depot.

Do you have a form of drainage in your cage?

 

[AnamCara]

Hey! Welcome to the forums! what part of colorado? I'm in Longmont -- the humidity is a blast to battle lol. Let me know if you have any questions about colorado keeping. I recently added bamboo curtains to the sides of my enclosures and added a second humidifier in the room to help with humidity.

 

[AnamCara]

Thank you so much! We will look into a live plant or two for the humidity, our home Depot is terrible but we will start looking out for those plants to add. And we will definitely get him something horizontal to hang out on. We bumped the light up a smidge and are hanging out so far around 85 so we should be good there.
His mister currently goes off three times a day, he drinks the water off the leaves and the humidity hangs around the forties and fifties. However, it drops drastically in the day but we don't want to run his mister every hour because even on the lowest setting it thoroughly drenches and I don't think it's good to have him that wet. So we got him a fogger for intermittently throughout the day which keeps him around forty. Only problem is he hates the thing. We are trying to figure out a good setting and it's kind of just making little adjustments throughout the day.
I'll look at the supplement brands but we do calcium dusting every day. We have a calcium and d3 that we will do every two weeks (skipping the only calcium on that day), and a multi for once a month. However we are just rounding out week one so at this point we have only done calcium!

I should have finished reading before saying hello! The easiest way to boost daytime humidity is to boose the humidity of the whole room. You are on the right track not wanting super wet conditions during the daytime. That fogger will come in hand at night -- boost the humidity as much as humanly possible at night.

I'd also suggest taking a listen to The Chameleon Breeder Podcast -- tons of great information there from experienced keepers.

Again, welcome!

 

[Maggiebeas]

That supplement schedule sounds good. Except instead of once a month for the vitamins do it twice a month. So normal plain calcium everyday, then alternate weeks with the d3 and vitamins.

Do you have a lowes near you thats any good? they carry the same plants as Home Depot.

Do you have a form of drainage in your cage?

What do you mean by drainage? He's got forest floor that we clean out pretty consistently. The forest floor was recommended by the place we got him from, he said it wasn't likely to hold bacteria if we are good about changing it out but I am always up for more advice and differing opinions on figuring out what is going to be best for our Cham.

 

[Maggiebeas]

Hey! Welcome to the forums! what part of colorado? I'm in Longmont -- the humidity is a blast to battle lol. Let me know if you have any questions about colorado keeping. I recently added bamboo curtains to the sides of my enclosures and added a second humidifier in the room to help with humidity.

We are in Monument currently but probably heading toward Denver soonish! We have a plastic backing right now that once we put it on definitely helped but we aren't opposed to something different if we can't get the right levels going. We don't seem to have a problem with our night humidity fortunately, only battling daytime! I appreciate the offer and if I have any questions I'll for sure shoot you a message!!!

 

[Thatwizard420]

For Supplements, Repashy Calcium Plus LoD is the way. It will guide you, it will show you the way.

 

[Ares05]

Where did you get him from ( if this was already answered I didn't see it)

Drainage is how excess water will be removed from the cage. If you have any type of carpet or bedding in his cage, remove it. It's just a hassle to change and he will end up accidentally eating it if its loose substrate. Remove it completely so you have a bare bottom. Heres a ton of ideas on how to do drainage: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/drainage-systems-for-cages-get-creative.102038/

 

[Kaizen]

Where did you get him from ( if this was already answered I didn't see it)

Drainage is how excess water will be removed from the cage. If you have any type of carpet or bedding in his cage, remove it. It's just a hassle to change and he will end up accidentally eating it if its loose substrate. Remove it completely so you have a bare bottom. Heres a ton of ideas on how to do drainage: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/drainage-systems-for-cages-get-creative.102038/

So, I think the enclosure is bioactive. There are many people doing bioactive for chameleons now, and having a substrate seems to work. I’m not promoting anything one way or the other, but it’s my understanding that the old rule that chameleons should never be kept with substrate has recently been shown to be less black and white.

 

[Ares05]

Ohh, I thought she was talking about just eco earth. I didn't see 'bioactive' anywhere in her post. She said she changes it often, and I was under the impression you don't do that with bioactive? I don't know much about it.

 

[Kaizen]

Yeah, I read her post that way too, but “forest floor” is t specific. You’re right, though: she said she changes it often, which one wouldn’t do for bioactive. Hmm. Perhaps @Maggiebeas could explain further?

 

[Maggiebeas]

Where did you get him from ( if this was already answered I didn't see it)

Drainage is how excess water will be removed from the cage. If you have any type of carpet or bedding in his cage, remove it. It's just a hassle to change and he will end up accidentally eating it if its loose substrate. Remove it completely so you have a bare bottom. Heres a ton of ideas on how to do drainage: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/drainage-systems-for-cages-get-creative.102038/

Thank you ! I need to ask for clarification on what we were recommended as you aren't the first person to bring this up in response to my post!

 

[Maggiebeas]

Yeah, I read her post that way too, but “forest floor” is t specific. You’re right, though: she said she changes it often, which one wouldn’t do for bioactive. Hmm. Perhaps @Maggiebeas could explain further?

I think I need to ask for clarification on what the guy was expecting/aiming for with the forest floor by zoo med. I think maybe I misunderstood something so I would love more explanation on the bioactive and how that differs from other methods? If you don't mind

 

[Kaizen]

I think I need to ask for clarification on what the guy was expecting/aiming for with the forest floor by zoo med. I think maybe I misunderstood something so I would love more explanation on the bioactive and how that differs from other methods? If you don't mind

Not an expert at all, but it goes: a bioactive enclosure is one in which an organic substrate—seeded with various bugs such as ispods/springtails/millipedes, etc.—is used to create a mini ecosystem. This ecosystem should eventually reach a state wherein the live plants, their waste, the reptile poop, etc are proceesessd and transformed into nutrients by the decomposes. These nutrients are them taken up by the plants, etc. to begin the cycle over again. What you basically have is a mini ecosystem.

 

[Kaizen]

Not an expert at all, but it goes: a bioactive enclosure is one in which an organic substrate—seeded with various bugs such as ispods/springtails/millipedes, etc.—is used to create a mini ecosystem. This ecosystem should eventually reach a state wherein the live plants, their waste, the reptile poop, etc are proceesessd and transformed into nutrients by the decomposes. These nutrients are them taken up by the plants, etc. to begin the cycle over again. What you basically have is a mini ecosystem.

Further to my last, various methods of creating a substrate layer, drainage layer, etc. are employed. Just google “bio active setup”

 

[Maggiebeas]

Not an expert at all, but it goes: a bioactive enclosure is one in which an organic substrate—seeded with various bugs such as ispods/springtails/millipedes, etc.—is used to create a mini ecosystem. This ecosystem should eventually reach a state wherein the live plants, their waste, the reptile poop, etc are proceesessd and transformed into nutrients by the decomposes. These nutrients are them taken up by the plants, etc. to begin the cycle over again. What you basically have is a mini ecosystem.

Cool! That sounds super cool but definitely not remotely what I was told, and I don't think we are in the right place to be trying for an ecosystem. I think we are just going to ditch the flooring, get a live plant to get our humidity up, and then figure out drainage. I just am not sure how much we need to drain as it is so dry the stuff evaporates really quick.

 

[Kaizen]

Cool! That sounds super cool but definitely not remotely what I was told, and I don't think we are in the right place to be trying for an ecosystem. I think we are just going to ditch the flooring, get a live plant to get our humidity up, and then figure out drainage. I just am not sure how much we need to drain as it is so dry the stuff evaporates really quick.

If you’re misting after lights out for 5 minutes, keeping the humidity near 90% overnight, and misting for 5 minutes before lights on, you’ll probably still need some sort or drainage.

 

[Maggiebeas]

If you’re misting after lost out for 5 minutes, keeping the humidity near 90% overnight, and misting for 5 minutes before lights on, you’ll probably still need some sort or drainage.

You're probably right! I'll look at that link and we will figure out a drainage set up and transition him to a live plant.