New Reptile Owner

Snick1899

Snick1899

New Member
Hey everyone!
I am a new reptile owner and could use some advice! I adopted Karma, my veiled chameleon, from a family who had her for about a year and got bored with her. At least I believe it's a her? There was no knob on the back of her foot, as I'm told males have?

I've cared for reptiles in the past but this is my first time owning one. Now that she's getting settled her appetite is increasing and I'm learning what she likes and doesn't like. So far crickets are the only live food she will take. I've tried meal worms and super worms but she wants nothing to do with them. When I got her home the bottom of the enclosure was crusty with old substrate and there were just a few branches, no foliage. I cleaned out the bottom and am now doing a bare bottom enclosure. I also added a pothos plant but think I need to add more leafy vines? I've added a couple pictures of the enclosure, so any help and advice you can offer will be greatly appreciated!!

Right now I don't have a dripper or mister. The guy claimed she drinks from a water bowl, which I've never seen her do. I have been misting her enclosure several times a day. She hates it, but I think that's because she's never had it done before.
 

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Add a lot more foliage to make her feel safe. Do you have UVA and UVB lights running 12 hours a day? if not you need them. Chams don't usually drink from standing water. She needs a dripper or a misting system set up
 
Chameleomom said:
Add a lot more foliage to make her feel safe. Do you have UVA and UVB lights running 12 hours a day? if not you need them. Chams don't usually drink from standing water. She needs a dripper or a misting system set up
Click to expand...
I have one lamp with the white light and the blue light and a second lamp with just the blue light. I don't know which is which? The guy I got her from said he leaves the second blue light on 24/7 but the other two just 12 hours a day. I've been talking to people at the local reptile shop and they said all lights should be shut off at night so I'm doing that now.
 
Hang the pothos and it will grow like crazy and provide a ton of coverage and humidity. You can hang it by getting a piece of wood the length of your cage set the wood on the frame on top across the back front wherever you want really and use 50lb fishing line to hang the pothos through the screen to the wood. If your going for a clean bottom with nothing for easy cleaning this works out great as I have done it in my enclosure as well. The pothos will grow very quick and provide great vine paths and more area for water drops for drinking off leaves. Hope this helps I like that your going with a clean bottom I did as well very easy to clean.

Good luck(y)
 
Wow, she's lucky to have gotten into your hands! First, almost all your questions about care are covered in the basic husbandry articles located under the forum Resources tab above.

About drinking out of a bowl....most chams don't do this if they have access to water droplets on cage foliage. This poor cham didn't have that apparently, so she learned that a bowl provided water. Desperately thirsty chams figure this out eventually. If that's the way she'll drink its OK, you will just have to keep the bowl clear of dead feeders, feces, urates, etc. The better option is to get a lot more live foliage for her cage with a network of climbing perches all through it. Then when you spray it, use warm water (the droplets cool fast in the air) so it isn't a chilly for her. Don't mist her directly, mist the plants. This will keep the cage humidity higher as well as give her opportunities to drink, clean her eyes, etc.

If she was never offered any other feeders besides crickets she won't recognize the others as food yet. Mealworms are not a great choice anyway. If you put a new feeder or two in the same bowl with the crix she knows, she may eventually snag one and decide its on the "safe foods list". To make sure the crix she does eat are nutritious, gut load them well. Forum sponsors offer several very good gutloads you can use. Don't bother with the typical petshop cricket foods...they are not too great.

She is used to a certain poor way of living so it will take time for her to adjust to a better life, so give her time. Keep her hydrated, feed her as well as you can until her diet gets more diverse, give her correct lighting and temps, and she should adjust.
 
JamesB88 said:
Hang the pothos and it will grow like crazy and provide a ton of coverage and humidity. You can hang it by getting a piece of wood the length of your cage set the wood on the frame on top across the back front wherever you want really and use 50lb fishing line to hang the pothos through the screen to the wood. If your going for a clean bottom with nothing for easy cleaning this works out great as I have done it in my enclosure as well. The pothos will grow very quick and provide great vine paths and more area for water drops for drinking off leaves. Hope this helps I like that your going with a clean bottom I did as well very easy to clean.

Good luck(y)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the idea with the hanging pothos!!
 
Carlton said:
Wow, she's lucky to have gotten into your hands! First, almost all your questions about care are covered in the basic husbandry articles located under the forum Resources tab above.

About drinking out of a bowl....most chams don't do this if they have access to water droplets on cage foliage. This poor cham didn't have that apparently, so she learned that a bowl provided water. Desperately thirsty chams figure this out eventually. If that's the way she'll drink its OK, you will just have to keep the bowl clear of dead feeders, feces, urates, etc. The better option is to get a lot more live foliage for her cage with a network of climbing perches all through it. Then when you spray it, use warm water (the droplets cool fast in the air) so it isn't a chilly for her. Don't mist her directly, mist the plants. This will keep the cage humidity higher as well as give her opportunities to drink, clean her eyes, etc.

If she was never offered any other feeders besides crickets she won't recognize the others as food yet. Mealworms are not a great choice anyway. If you put a new feeder or two in the same bowl with the crix she knows, she may eventually snag one and decide its on the "safe foods list". To make sure the crix she does eat are nutritious, gut load them well. Forum sponsors offer several very good gutloads you can use. Don't bother with the typical petshop cricket foods...they are not too great.

She is used to a certain poor way of living so it will take time for her to adjust to a better life, so give her time. Keep her hydrated, feed her as well as you can until her diet gets more diverse, give her correct lighting and temps, and she should adjust.
Click to expand...
Thanks for all the info!!
Right now she doesn't take anything from her bowls. She will only eat crickets that run to the top of her enclosure on the screen. The higher they climb, the more she takes an interest in them.
The man I got her from said he only gave her about 4 medium sized crickets a day, but she's been eating more like 10-15 a day for me. I feel like she was severely underfed. I don't most her directly, but she still gets mad about water being sprayed in her enclosure.
I only have a very small cricket keeper right now so I've been having to get crickets every couple days. I've seen a lot of options to buy them in bulk by the hundred. I assume this would be a better option for gut loading? Again I'm just guessing, I really have no clue!
 
Definitely get a few hundred because reputable suppliers have already been gutloading to some extent, and you can keep a really high nutrient diet in the crickets for long enough that you are positive that nutrition is being passed on. I personally love Josh's frogs for feeders, they are a site sponsor. Have you looked into laying bin setups for her? She should always have access to one at her age.
 
ZacharyLeesWife said:
Definitely get a few hundred because reputable suppliers have already been gutloading to some extent, and you can keep a really high nutrient diet in the crickets for long enough that you are positive that nutrition is being passed on. I personally love Josh's frogs for feeders, they are a site sponsor. Have you looked into laying bin setups for her? She should always have access to one at her age.
Click to expand...
The reptile shop I went to last night told me about a laying bin if I determined that she was a girl. The open air enclosure she is in is 18x18x36, and the laying bin specifications I've seen seem too big for this cage? So I'm a bit confused about setting one up
 
Snick1899 said:
The reptile shop I went to last night told me about a laying bin if I determined that she was a girl. The open air enclosure she is in is 18x18x36, and the laying bin specifications I've seen seem too big for this cage? So I'm a bit confused about setting one up
Click to expand...
The depth is as important as surface area so if it covers the majority of the bottom to a depth of 8 inches or so, you'll be just fine.
 
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