New here, lots of questions! :)

[Chad246emr]

Hello everyone,

My name is Chad and I live in south Florida. I purchased my first chameleon on dec 31st, and while I am not at all new to keeping reptiles, I am very new at keeping chameleons. I got a male veiled chameleon and I named him Hector. I am keeping him in an 18x18x36 screen cage as his is still pretty small. (Maybe four or so inches long with his tail curled up.) His basking temp is about 90 degrees F and I measure that with a probe thermometer. I mist him about three times a day, soaking all the leaves in his cage so he has water to drink. (Though I am picking up a dripper for him today.) He has a reptisun 5.0 uvb bulb right next to his basking area at the top of his enclosure as well. I feed him ten medium crickets a day and I'm sure you're all used to it by now, but watching him eat is the COOLEST THING EVER. haha He is even comfortable taking crickets out of my fingers which I find incredibly amusing. Haha

All that being said, I have a few questions/concerns.

1) I worry about his humidity. As it is a screen cage, the water I spray seems to evaporate very quickly, and I'm going to be going back to work on Monday and I won't be here to spray him at all from 8-5pm. I know the dripper will help with that, but I worry he's going to get respiratory issues from not having enough humidity. I live in south Florida so I have to have the air conditioning on all day, and I'm afraid it's going to suck the moisture out of the little guy. Are my concerns warranted? How do I alleviate this situation?

2) I'm worried he's stressed. He's eating and I've seen him drink water, but he's always pretty dark. I've seen him brighten up a few times when he grabs a cricket or if I'm moving something in the cage and he doesn't like it, but most of the time he's just basking and a deep hunter green color with his brown horizontal stripes and alternating verticle stripes that are a lighter green. Is this normal, or is he stressed?

3) I know the importance of misting, but he HATES IT. He gets really dark when I do it and runs away as fast as he can. It's hard not to him him when I have to mist the leaves and he's IN the leaves though. Is he going to be okay with me doing this, or is it going to stress him too much?

4) Just how fragile ARE these guys? I remember reading about keeping chameleons back in the day when I was a teenager, and the reason I've waited so long to get one is I've heard they're incredibly fragile and hard to keep. Is this true? How easily are the stressed and what do I really have to worry about?

5) He has little spots of skin that look like shed which didn't come off. Should I be worried about this, or is he going to take care of that himself?

Thanks for all your help in advance guys! I'm going to try to attach pics of Hector and his setup in a post following this, but I'm not sure if I can do it from my iPhone.

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums and congrats on your first chameleon. I keep veileds along with several other species and they are one of my favorite. They show so much personality. If you are going to be gone all day then you are going to need an automatic mister along with a dripper. I highly recommend the Mistking. The humidity with drop between mistings and he will need to be misted about three times throughout the day.

I would lower your basking temps. a bit. Please post a photo so we can guess his age. I'm attaching my blog for new keepers. It is how I have been able to successful raise my veileds over the years.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

 

[Chad246emr]

Okay, I lowered his basking temp to 85. I read a lot of conflicting information regarding which temp is correct, and LLL Reptile even stated in a video that they keep theirs at 100*F, but your chameleons all look fantastic, so I'm definitely going with your advice!

Below are some images of Hector and his setup. The basking spot is the larger dome fixture with the probe thermometer immediately underneath. There is a second incandescent bulb of a very low wattage just to bump his ambient temp up a bit, and there is also a reptisun 5.0 compact bulb in the fixture immediately to the left of the basking bulb. Also, I know the water dish at the bottom seems redundant, but it was an extra I had lying around from my other reptiles, and I use it to collect the excess water from his dripper.

How old do you think he is, should I be concerned about the small pieces of shed on him, and is my setup alright?

 

[mnlwfan]

In regards to him being stressed, that isn't abnormal for the first few weeks in a new environment. It took a 6-8 weeks for my Jackson to become comfortable in her new surroundings. The first few weeks she was always a dark shade of green and barely moved off her favorite branch. Just give it time and keep working with him. He'll start to chill as he gets used to you and his new home.

For humidity and watering, I highly recommend getting an automatic system. MistKing and Aquazamp are two that came up most often in my searches. I ended up with the Aquazamp rain dome and it's worked great. I also recommend using as many real plants in Hector's enclosure as you can. That helps keep the humidity level up, too.

 

[Chad246emr]

Do you think I have anything to worry about in regards to the dry skin left on him? I soak him every time I mist the cage even though he hates it, because I'm trying to get them off of him.

 

[kwengkynator]

Welcome to the forums. You have come to the right place!

I'm quite new myself but I'm gonna throw in a few words of advice that I have picked up when I first got my chams.

1. About the humidity, I wont worry too much about it. As long as you mist him when youre around he should be fine. Make sure you have the drippers going though. A good water supply for hydration is important. Make sure that the droplets hit the leaves on their way down so the cham sees it and can get it. If you think that you need more humidity sources I recommend a few live plants and a second dripper. Mister is optional but they are great when youre away for long weekends and such.

2. It's normal for him to be stressed being that he is in a new surroundings. Just give him about 5 days of no handling and lots of space. No sudden movements no hand feeding none of that for a while. Then after around day 5 try to be around his cage as often as you can. So he sees you. When you drop off his food be present but dont stare. Once he is comfortable eating while youre present around maybe 3 days HAND FEEDING is your best friend. Thats where the "bonding" happens. Not really in reptiles they would just associate you with food and become more tolerant with you.

Over all give him time and space and LOTS of cover *enclosure issues will be touched on later*

3. I used to have this issue. In my case it was just my mister wasn't exactly as "mister" more like a sprayer and this bullets of water hits them hard. So make sure that your mister actually gives off a mist not a garden hose spray. Get those misters that you actually have to pump and gives off a fine mist. ALSO make sure that the water you are using isn't freezing or cold. Try filling your mister up with warm water not boiling though. If done properly you should see them close their eyes and just bask upon the mist. Dont mist them directly for too long. If you see them move away mist the enclosure and the plant leaves instead.

4. Veiled chameleons are one of the most hardy chameleon species in the pet trade. They are very forgiving about the mistakes you make. They last quiet a while. One time I lost my male cham for 4 days with out water or food. I was able to find him although he was very skinny I was still able to get him back to his energetic yet grumpy self again. Just follow the caresheets and dont stress them often. If you have any questions or encounter any weird behavior (you will) ask here. Lots of experienced mind hover around the forums.

5. That shouldn't be an issue. Keep the humidity up and DONT peel it off. Just give it some time and that should take care of itself. If not try getting a she aid from any pet stores. This shedding cycle might be one of the reasons why your cham seems stressed at the moment.

*ENCLOSURE*

Basking temps seems right. Although I cant stress this enough, you need WAY more foliage and cover for your cham. He is very stressed because he doens't feel safe being exposed and uncovered. He feels like he is sitting out in the open. At least 3 more vines to climb around if youre not going to get a live plant *highly recommend that you do*. Lowes always have pots of pothos plants hanging around all year long. Get around 2 of those one at the bottom and one hooked on top with the vines dropping down. If you have a live plant you wont need the water bowl at the bottom. Just aim your dripper to cascade towards the pot and you wont have any irrigation issues.

I think the thing you need to address right now is to provide cover for your cham. That should reduce his stress level then you can proceed with the taming procedures.

*AGE* Not sure so I wont comment on this. The senior members here should have many ideas.

Thats all I have to say for now. Youre in the right track just keep going at it and youll have a healthy chameleon friend to enjoy for years to come!

 

[mvad]

I have a male veiled also. I got him in November and he looked about the same size. People on here estimated him to be around 4-5 months old. Also, I highly recommend a Mistking system. It is excellent. Also adding some real plants like Pothos will help with the humidity.

 

[Chad246emr]

Thanks for all the advice guys! I will work on getting more plant cover for him, but as someone who's owned reptiles for a while I will say excessive plants always bother me because I hate when crickets hide too well, and the reptile can't find them or I can't confirm they were eaten. But I understand if its important for him, so I will manage. I also love the idea of live plants, but I'm going to wait until he graduates to a 2x2x4 screen cage because it seems like a lot to have plant pots in the bottom of this cage. For sure all the crickets would hide and he'd never see a one!

 

[kwengkynator]

Thanks for all the advice guys! I will work on getting more plant cover for him, but as someone who's owned reptiles for a while I will say excessive plants always bother me because I hate when crickets hide too well, and the reptile can't find them or I can't confirm they were eaten. But I understand if its important for him, so I will manage. I also love the idea of live plants, but I'm going to wait until he graduates to a 2x2x4 screen cage because it seems like a lot to have plant pots in the bottom of this cage. For sure all the crickets would hide and he'd never see a one!

I believe your cage would be big enough to support at least one live plant. I understand your concern about the crickets hiding and they might nip on your cham. Basing on my experience as long as you put the plant at the top or the bottom and not close to the walls the cricket issue should be at minimal. the benefits of live plant is just too great to not include in an enclosure. That being said when I begun I didnt have a live plant for a while, as long as you have enough cover for him you should be alright. In the long run live plants are still indispensable.

Dont forget to look into our live plant database in the forum to make sure you are giving your chams safe plants.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Thanks for all the advice guys! I will work on getting more plant cover for him, but as someone who's owned reptiles for a while I will say excessive plants always bother me because I hate when crickets hide too well, and the reptile can't find them or I can't confirm they were eaten. But I understand if its important for him, so I will manage. I also love the idea of live plants, but I'm going to wait until he graduates to a 2x2x4 screen cage because it seems like a lot to have plant pots in the bottom of this cage. For sure all the crickets would hide and he'd never see a one!

I treat my plants as disposable. You can buy big, bushy safe plants at places like Home Depot for fairly cheap. Hibiscus is a super plant for a Veiled because they will eat it. Hibiscus like a lot of light, so you might have to rotate a few through the cage. Live plants hold the water drops on their leaves better, so your chameleon has a lot of time to drink. They also increase humidity. Even if the humidity in the open area of his cage is very low, the inside of the plant will have a much higher humidity level as it will be constantly putting out humidity.

My crickets will tend to crawl up to the top of the screen cage where it is warmer. In another cage with three solid sides and two strips of plastic that act as a door stop on the front screen, the crickets tend to be at the bottom. I think the strip of plastic (door stop) act as a barrier. I haven't found them in the plants as much as I would have expected. Your chameleon will enjoy having to hunt them down.

There is an observable behavior in animals called "contrafreeloading." Basically, when an animal is provided food that he has to work for (in a chameleon's case, hunt) and food he just can get without any effort (say, cup feeding) the animal will choose the food that requires the effort.

I think stress is the biggest chameleon killer, and you can help reduce stress with a lot of cover and hiding places, plus giving him the opportunity to exhibit natural behavior (hunting).

 

[Chad246emr]

You guys convinced me! I looked through some images on the enclosure section of this forum and I'm inspired! I will post updated pics when I get a plant and some additional branches added.

 

[kwengkynator]

Good to hear that

Just provide sufficient cover for him and you should see him be less stressed

 

[Carlton]

Thanks for all the advice guys! I will work on getting more plant cover for him, but as someone who's owned reptiles for a while I will say excessive plants always bother me because I hate when crickets hide too well, and the reptile can't find them or I can't confirm they were eaten. But I understand if its important for him, so I will manage. I also love the idea of live plants, but I'm going to wait until he graduates to a 2x2x4 screen cage because it seems like a lot to have plant pots in the bottom of this cage. For sure all the crickets would hide and he'd never see a one!

More live plants will also help stabilize the cage humidity level. They will hold more of the misting droplets longer and this will help slow down the dry out. You could confine your feeders so he has a better chance to get to them. Instead of a little feeder cup I like to use a larger plastic box that he can climb to...and he'll have to work a bit harder to hunt, select prey, and shoot it. You'll be able to track how much he's eating better too. There are several designs for feeder bins on the forum that other keepers like.