New Owner :)

[masters02]

Hello All,

We bought our first Chameleon at the weekend, he is a 4 month old male Yemen. We have done quite a lot of research, but just wanted to make sure we hadn't over looked anything or been told anything misleading.

Here is his enclosure, we have tried to ensure he has enough places to hide, as well as bask in the heat when he needs. His food stays in the cup (mostly), and he comes down to feed. The only thing that needs changing is the bark, we are removing that tonight. Any other thoughts?



We generally feed him 5/6 medium size locust each morning, dusted in calcium. We aim to dust in d3 every 2 weeks?

The entire enclosure gets a thorough misting at 7am and 3pm/5pm.

Is there anything else we have missed?

Many Thanks

 

[camimom]

Welcome!

You need to remove the bark from the bottom. it can be a choking hazard.

You also want to add alot more plants at the top of the cage, as they are arboreal species, and like to be up high.

You can feed him more bugs, we normally let young ones eat as much as they can in about a 5-10 minute timeframe.

you should be dusting with a plain calcium every feeding, a calcium with d3 twice a month, and a multi vitamin twice a month.

What are your basking temps at?

 

[masters02]

Hello,

Yes the bark is being removed tonight, the reptile shop advised us to get it but after reading lots of threads here it seems it should go.

The basking temps are in the high 80's about an inch from the lamp, which i read are about right? However i guess his basking spot is a little low.

How would i get more coverage at the top? I can't seem to find any logs which are long enough to reach that high. Is there anything specific that i could use?

With regards to eating, he ate 3 locusts this morning straight away but hasn't eaten again since?

 

[camimom]

Get live plants, they help with humidity, and you can fill up a cage quick.

Or you can get fake trees from like craft stores, and use those ( if you are like me and cant keep plants alive ever)

Dowel rods cut to the width of the cage, and then held up with thumbtacks works well too.

cut the dowel rod, then put it at the spot you want it to span, then from the outside of the cage, push the tack into the end of the dowel rod.

if the bugs were big, then that may be enough, but alot of times they dont like to be watched.

 

[masters02]

At the moment he has a mixture of live and fake plants. He has 4 real plants that we hope to grow, and a lot of fake ones to provide extra cover for him.

Dowel rods are a good idea, thanks!

 

[Psychobunny]

Tree branches (cut to size and cleaned) actually work better then processed
wooden dowels. They are less slipery, and more natural

 

[Tyaeda]

Besides the substrate, the bottom half of the cage looks awesome. If you could extend that foliage and branches to fill the upper half of the cage, it would be awesome

 

[spottea]

You can also buy Flukers bend a vine, which doesn't weigh very much, and can be positioned where you want, and can be secured with either, drawing pins or zip ties. But several, as you can never have too many branches for them to walk on!

 

[zsazsa85]

Can you post picture about your cham?

 

[masters02]

Hello,

I have attached 2 pictures of Houdini below. He was sold to us as a 4 month male, but looking at his back feet, i do not see any spurs? He also seems a little small to be a 4 month male? Do we definitely have a female on our hands?

If so I'm a pretty annoyed, everything we have done so far has been geared towards a male. He/she also has a few small white marks come up (can see on on his head), is this just the start of shedding?

 

[symphonica]

I think everyone else pretty much mentioned everything:
Feeding
Calcium/supplementation schedule
Enclosure set-up (no substrate + more foliage)
Temperature

One more essential question is, what type of lighting are you using?

 

[masters02]

1 inch from the basking lamp is around 96-99F, but the temp at his highest basking point is 83-86F.

The basking light is 100W ExoTerra daylight basking spot.

His UVB light is a compact, but after reading it could turn him blind we are changing this tonight for a 10% UVB strip light.

 

[symphonica]

His UVB light is a compact, but after reading it could turn him blind we are changing this tonight for a 10% UVB strip light.

What does he have right now? Compact fluorescent is just the style and doesn't have much to do with strength/output. Strip light is a compact fluorescent.

Different types of bulbs include:
coiled
R-Type
S-Type
T12
T8
T5HO

ReptiSun and ReptiGlo come in 5.0, 10.0, and Arcadia's come in 6% and 12%. These are the strengths/UVB output.

 

[masters02]

Currently the bulb is a 13W Repti Glo 2.0 compact.

This will be changing to a 15W Repti Glo 10.UVB

Is that correct?

 

[symphonica]

ReptiGlo 2.0 barely emits any UVB. Way too weak. I'm not sure what you mean by compact. Is the bulb a long tube? Or a coiled, spirally bulb?

How tall is your enclosure? A 10.0 should be fine, but some may say that it's too much UVB and recommend a 5.0. Some say that too much UVB can cause burns or even blindness, where too much can do more harm than good.

I would recommend a ReptiSun 5.0, T8 tube.

ReptiSun has been found to be better than ReptiGlo, and the long tubes (T8s) are better than the coiled.

 

[masters02]

By compact i mean it is coiled/spiral shape.

The enclosure is a repitbreeze, which is 48" tall. I was wondering which is best, 10 or 5.0 UVB, however i read that because the mesh blocks out most of the UVB a 10 would be better.

With the specifics of my enclosure in mind, do you still suggest a 5.0?

 

[masters02]

I have attached some pictures of his new light setup.

Im worried that this might be too strong now, but my thought process was that the cage mess would absorb most of the UVB preventing any issues.

Is anyone able to advise?

 

[PoshPenny]

You can buy the 18" ballast at Home Depot for your light for 12.97, just take out the light that comes with it and pop in the reptizoom.

10.0 is perfect. It's actually reduced from the screen, so you did great. Try to put the middle of the tube over his basking area as it is most strong there.

 

[szpond]

By the previous photo, your little man is a little lady. Congrats!

You'll need to read up on laying bins, as she will lay infertile eggs (like a chicken does) without a male present. It is a very stressful situation for the female, and there are some great blogs on this site that will help you set one up!

The photo shows no spurs.

 

[symphonica]

Try to put the middle of the tube over his basking area as it is most strong there.

Tubes are preferred, but since you have a coiled bulb, just make sure the UVB is overlapping with the basking spot. Tubes are preferred because it covers a greater surface area. The coils only give off UVB in a much smaller area.