New to Chameleons

[Rosco89]

Hey everybody, my name is Ryan. This is my first chameleon, it is a male veiled chameleon. I volunteer at an exotic pet store in St. Louis Mo and I had always seen the adults that we have for breeding. and finally our veiled cham. had her babies so they let me have one. I have it in a screen mesh cage, its about 20" tall with plenty of foliage. I've always had fish, especially reef aquariums but I have really been interested in the chameleons so I decided to keep one. I love having little creatures that people dont see often and it is a passion of mine. I've had him for two days, he ate the first day we got home and seems healthy. My husbandry is as follows:

Lights on at ten
Mist the cage with water
feed three crickets
About five o'clock
mist the cage again and feed two more crickets
in the evening before I go out I clean the bedding
lights of at ten at night

If there is any problem as to what I'm doing please tell me. I dust the crickets with just calcium with vitamin d. I want to star mixing in a vitamin too. I gutload the cricketts with fruit and fishfood. I'll post pics of the setup once I get a new digital camera. Thanks. Peace,

~Ryan

 

[Justin Carl]

Hey everybody, my name is Ryan. This is my first chameleon, it is a male veiled chameleon. I volunteer at an exotic pet store in St. Louis Mo and I had always seen the adults that we have for breeding. and finally our veiled cham. had her babies so they let me have one. I have it in a screen mesh cage, its about 20" tall with plenty of foliage. I've always had fish, especially reef aquariums but I have really been interested in the chameleons so I decided to keep one. I love having little creatures that people dont see often and it is a passion of mine. I've had him for two days, he ate the first day we got home and seems healthy. My husbandry is as follows:

Lights on at ten
Mist the cage with water
feed three crickets
About five o'clock
mist the cage again and feed two more crickets
in the evening before I go out I clean the bedding
lights of at ten at night

If there is any problem as to what I'm doing please tell me. I dust the crickets with just calcium with vitamin d. I want to star mixing in a vitamin too. I gutload the cricketts with fruit and fishfood. I'll post pics of the setup once I get a new digital camera. Thanks. Peace,

~Ryan

Hey Ryan!
How old is the chameleon you have now?
What size crickets are you feeding?
Why don't you follow the natural sun cycle?
10 o'clock is a little late in the day.

Please read over my care sheet in my website.
http://www.freewebs.com/justincarl/caresheet.htm
It goes over supplements and gutloading.

 

[Rosco89]

I didnt realize it would affect them as long as I was giving twelve hours of light. But I'll change that. He's I think a month old, about three inches long. He eats like quarter inch to half inch crickets.

I have a question though. What are the main stresses to a chameleon? I have heard that you want to socialize the chameleon like with any other reptile but I have also heard not to handle chameleons. And, what colors will he be if he is healthy and happy, what does it mean when he turns a pastel green? Normaly, when he's basking, he is bright green with black and yellow stripes and has black dots.

 

[Rosco89]

So can someone tell me how I should handle him and how often?

 

[dodolah]

a month old require more than 3 crickets a day.
They should be fed so they can grow bigger.
As far as handling, as minimum as possible.
preferably not at all unless necessary such as during cage cleaning.

 

[Rosco89]

Well I've been feeding more like ten crickets, I really enjoy seeing him feed. I might only dust two or three crickets in a day as well. Is that good? I mist three times a day now for about three minutes a time.

 

[dodolah]

Well I've been feeding more like ten crickets, I really enjoy seeing him feed. I might only dust two or three crickets in a day as well. Is that good? I mist three times a day now for about three minutes a time.

check out Justin link and my signature link for standard care.
It should answer all your Qs. After you read them, feel free to ask us more specific Qs.

hope that helps,
Congrats on your new pet!

 

[Rosco89]

Thanks, that was really helpful. I feel a lot more confident in keeping my chameleon. He seems nice a healthy. He is still getting used to me and his enclosure. Peace

~Ryan

 

[gregdabender]

Hey Ryan !! Im from the StLouis area as well. Which store did you get your from? I got my male veiled from Tye dyed iguana in Ofallon ill.

You came to the right place for sure to get awesome info in the care taking on your cham.

As far as handling goes I let the cham decide. I never bother my panther since its obvious he dont want to be touched...but my veiled will sometimes try to get on my arm when I clean his cage.

 

[mdkelty]

Hello Ryan,

I agree with the advice and care sheets suggested, good info and people on here. He's a baby, feed him and watch him grow like a weed. I would cut back on the misting a little. You have to remember, veiled's come from the middle east, ie. desert.

 

[Julirs]

What kind of lighting are you using-I also agree with following the daylight patterns.

Please do not cut down on the misting. The entire thing about the desert is not complete. I mist mine 3X daily.

 

[Rosco89]

I got my chameleon from tropical world pets, I volunteer there often. They have a bunch of baby veilds right now.

The veilds I have read come from Yemen which is southwest of saudi arabia and they live in the thick foliage in the mountains there. That's just what I read. I have heard veilds being called the Yemen Chameleon as well.

As for the handling I'm leaving him alone for a couple weeks but will try to acclimate him to me, let him crawl on me for short periods of time. He's still somewhat scared of people approaching the cage.

I appreciate the warm welcome, I'm sure I'll be successful if I utilize the resources I have on this forum. Thank you all.

~Ryan

 

[Rosco89]

I'm using an 18" 7%uvb 15w t-8 fixture and a 75w heatlamp. His cage is
18"L x 12"W x 20"H. I plan on upgrading in six monts or whenever I come in to some extra money. I would truthfully like to build a big one for him next year.

 

[Julirs]

I would upgrade that bulb to a Zoomed Reptisun 5.0 ASAP. Watch your temps with a 75W bulb in that small of a cage-he really should be in the low 80's as a baby. My male Veiled went into a 24X24X48 age at 4.5 months, so you will need a bigger cage before next year.

 

[Rosco89]

So the flourescent that I have now will not work? Man, I use my graduation money for all of his setup lol. So if upgrading is not an option, what should I do? Maybe they'll let me trade or I can do some more work for them.

 

[dodolah]

It is favorable for you to try your best in preparing the bigger enclosure sooner than a year.
I suggest moving him when he is about 5 mo. Some chameleon can wait till he's 6 mo. But, depending on how quick your chameleon grow, it might even be sooner (like Julirs' cham).

Learn from my mistake
I underestimate my chameleon's growth rate.
During 4 mo, he has 2 unexpected growth spurts making him too big for his cage too soon.
My chameleon has to wait for 2 week for my bad timing in preparing the custom cage.
He was clearly not happy in his baby cage.
I ended up free ranging him in the room to avoid him rubbing his nose to the screen.

 

[Rosco89]

Ok. So is that what happens? They rub their nose against the screen?

 

[Rosco89]

Ok, so it's been a week since I brought him home. He has gotten into a good reutine of when he basks and when he is ready for the lights to go out and when he wakes up. He really only seems to want the lights on for ten hours a day. His colors seem a lot more bold and there are more stripes of yellow too. No signs of dehydration or anything.

The problem I'm having is everytime I enter the room he hides. It's annoying. I just want to freakin look at him. He especially hates it when I mist the cage.

My question is will he ever grow out of being so afraid of me?

 

[Rosco89]

Update

So Gilby is doing great. He shed for the first time yesterday and is looking really good now. His shed was good it all came off in one day, he started in the afternoon and finished right before lights off. So that seems healthy, an explosive shed.

My only concern is his stool. He goes regularly and its usually firm and not soggy. Today his droppings looked wet and were more plyable than what they usually are. Is this normal? What do normal droppings look like? His urate seems normal, nothing unusual. So is there any concern here?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/


-Brad