New to the Chameleon....

B

BigSlick

New Member
Greetings from Phoenix arizona. My name is Jason, me and my son are taking on a great adventure of raising a Veil. I have bought all the materal. It actually was a crazy event. Got a juvi Cham at Pets INC in tempe. Went and bought this starter kit from Pet Smart. <----- Big Mistake, got it home and it was glass and had a top that was mesh. Well I did my research and found out that the glass cage is not recominded for them. I quess the reflection makes them nervous. Well I ran it back and ran around to find a cage. Well thank god Petco had one. I think it was 16*16*20. My numbers might be off but that sounds correct.

I got all the foliage. (Fake) I was not sure of what real plants were ok. Will research more. My son did a great job setting up the cage. Got the Floor all done inside topped with moss. And nice branches from top to bottom and accross.

I have a basking lamp on the far lft corner and a UVL lamp 5.0 long tube. (Not sure of the name or brand) I got 2 thermostats/humid. My temp is between 77-87 and the humid is +/- 30%.

Questions....

Will real plants produce more humidity? With the screen cage not sure how it holds humidty.

Feeding Dish.... Can I use a small deli dish and witr it up in top near the basking lamp. Or will that dry out the worms/ feedings?


Right now we are misting... 3 times a day for 15min. Light on the triggers produces bigger and better droplets of water on the plants. But I will be working on drip system.

Question

Do they need 24 light? The house stays at about 79 F we are using the basking light and the ULV lamp. I did read they need about 12 hours. but not sure about at night.

How soon can we take the new family member out side for some fresh heat?
Not to sure how old but he is like 3-4 inches (Little Guy)

Well thats enough for now. I am sure I will have more questions... I will post pics of our cage and Cham...

Thanks a million.

Jason
Goodyear AZ
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. I am on my phone so I can't post the links but to start off search (in the forum site) raising kitty this will be great deal of help. Also seach and fill out "how to ask for help" then post it in this thread.

Firts thing you don't need 24 hour light mine is on 12 off 12.

basking temps should be 80ish

Your uvb bulb should be a reptisun 5.0 fluorescent.

Once you fill out the help form more questions can be answered
 
You said..."I got all the foliage. (Fake) I was not sure of what real plants were ok."...since the veiled is small the fake will be okay for now but veileds will eat foliage once they are 4 or 5 months old...so by then I would recommend that it be changed to non-toxic real plants (well-washed, both sides of the leaves). They will also eat soil so it should either be covered or of a type that won't cause them an impaction.

I don't recommend substrates for the same reason that you have to watch the soil...when ingested it can cause an impaction.

You said..."I have a basking lamp on the far lft corner and a UVL lamp 5.0 long tube. (Not sure of the name or brand)"....I think you mean UVB. :)

I don't know how much humidity real plants will add to a cage when its screen. I use cages that are mostly glass with screen lids and some have screen doors as well. (I've done this for over 20 years.)

I don't use the dish feeding method, but I know the insect would dry out if its near the basking light.

With a tiny chameleon its better to make sure the droplets of water are small so that when it goes to drink it won't aspirate water. I also don't use drippers on very small chameleons.

They are like other dirunal creatures...they sleep at night in the dark...so the lights can be left on l0 to 12 hours a day.

Here are some good sites you might like to read...
http://adcham.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20060502...rnals.com/vet/index.php?show=5.Vitamin.A.html
http://chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=102
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
 
hello,

As long as your temp. in your house stays at or above 60 there is no need for any type of heat source at night. Buy a cheap timer at walmart that can switch you lights on and off for you. they are like 6 bucks or so. Your chameleon needs darkness at night.

Please find out what UVB Tube brand you are using and post pictures of your set up.
:D
Let your chameleon settle in and don't handle him if possible for a while.

Remove the moss from the bottom of the cage, you want a bare cage floor that stays dry to prevent mold.

When misting try to not spray the cham directly and use very warm water. The mist when cool down greatly by the time it reaches the cage.

You seem to be off to great start and its awesome that you care about the well being of your new friend....... just keep researching and asking questions!
 
I did see a post somewhere about taking out the moss, and leave it bare. I will drill a couple hole in the bottom and raise the cage so I can get something to catch the water. Although it doers look nice, but nice wont help my buddy.

One of my businesses is a landscape company I have plenty of timers and valves. So I will make my own automatic dripper. I will wait a couple weeks before I put real plants in there with the pot... I heard it would make a good feeder pot.

Like I had said before. I first bought a Petsmart cage /Starter kit that was glass and a screen top and heard that it would hurt the CHAM. Thats the problem I have read a million post onthe web and everyone is different. Even the books I have read are different. lol.

Here is the cage ....
097612091106a.jpg


Here is the basking light....
images


This the light....
p-35854-48184-reptile.jpg

I cant remember the wattage.... Will update..

And the rest is normal fake plants. and large branches. I will post pics in the morning...

Thanks for all the nice advise. I love Construtive Criticism.3


PS I would love to have my house temp at 60 but my wife would kick me out... lol
 
Welcome to the forum!
Dont worry, it seems lot more complicated than it is. I was in your place a week and a half ago, and am completely comfortable with my set up now.

For real plants, the most popular are ficus trees, pothos (sp?) or devils ivy, and mini umbrella plants. The important part is the drainage of your plants so you do not get root rot and yours plants die. Chams can be very sensative to their habitat, so changing out trees frequently because they are dying will be horribly stressful.

What are you feeding your guy?? You need to be making sure he is getting his calcium supplements too, MBD is something that would be horrible to get with your first cham, i know i would be devistated and give up trying to raise chams.

If you stick around and listen to what everyone has to say youll notice that 99% of the people on here have the same ideals and generaly agree on aspects of Husbandry and care.

A few links that helped me alot

List of real plants
https://www.chameleonforums.com/plants/

Some exampls of good feedes
https://www.chameleonforums.com/food/

A little on supplementatino and MBD
https://www.chameleonforums.com/supplementation-mbd-1-a-2451/


and raising kitty helped me alot here is the link for you
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

read it from front to back, and youll have all the info you need to get a solid and functioning cham kit going :D

let us know what else you are wondering about!
 
I have my ears wide open.... I started using baby crixs. I know he was fed with powdered crix at the pet store.... I know what to expect on the food. Worms/crix/bugs/ the good stuff.

Question... when will my Cham changes colors? I have seen alot in this forum that have alot of multi colors. Thats what i want..
 
patience is a virtue! the older they get, the more color they will show. IDK an exact monthly average but im sure somewhere betwen 7-10 months is where they start to get good color.
 
BigSlick said:
Question... Do I need more then 1 humid thermo in the cage and temp gage?
Click to expand...

Depending on how big your cage is you may want to just so you can keep it the same throughout the cage. You can pick up a digital indoor/outdoor thermostat that shows the humidity from Radio Shack and it is like 20 bucks. Also abouit the fake plants I had fake plants when I sarted with mine and he was about 1 month old. When I got on here the first piece of advice I got was to get rid of the fake and and get real in there. So thats what I did and Jasper loves it. I put a jasmin plant in mine that I bought at Lowes for $15 and I also bought a potho and a spider plant that I am growing outside the cage because they are a little small. The bulb you have will be fine if you give your cham some outside time, if you dont I would go with the REPTISUN 5.0. The reptiglow will also have to be changed more frequintly (by the way a 2' bulb is a 20watt bulb). You should post some pictures of your cham and cage :)
 
Now take in mind we have had the Cham less then 24 hrs and we are still working out the bugs. A couple things to take in mind is.
#1 we are getting rid of the moss bottom.

#2 the location is temp until I make room in the office...

016-1.jpg

Now he seems to only want to crawl on the netting. Not sure why. And he is hanging under the basking lamp. On the screen. We have not seen him eat anything. How long till he should be hungry?

The temp at this moment is.. 75 F humidity is 40%


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Should I move the thermos under the basking lamp??

Please fill free to chew me a new one. I want to get this right. I feel like a new dad again. lol

Jason
 
Thanks for the cool pics!

Some more vines/branches would be cool ;)


Another suggestion that was already mentioned but is real important is to go buy a digital temp gauge.....those analog can be quite inaccurate.
 
Well I think I answered one of my questions.

The only way the CHAM could get close to the basking is to climb on the screen. I Adjusted one of his sticks and well not sure buy he is not climbing on the screen now to get to the heat. I just got off work so I am going to look for a plant and get this all fixed. I hope.
 
gwjones777 said:
Thanks for the cool pics!

Some more vines/branches would be cool ;)


Another suggestion that was already mentioned but is real important is to go buy a digital temp gauge.....those analog can be quite inaccurate.
Click to expand...

Should it be under the Basking lamp?
 
What alot of people do is buy some wooden dowels or bamboo sticks from Home Depot and use thumbtacks to secure them to the sides of the cage like this

https://www.chameleonforums.com/mounting-basking-perch-27050/

and here is some good info/pictures

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/82-enclosures-housing.html

yes you want a branch under the basking light...but i suspect that your basking light is to hot for the moment. until you take temps digitally it we cant be certain. and yes you DO need a temp of the area where the cham is basking :)
 
BigSlick said:
Should it be under the Basking lamp?
Click to expand...

You want to use a digital thermometer with a probe (about $10.00 at any Petstore) and measure the temp right under the basking light. It should be about 85 for your little one. No need to know what the rest of the cage is if you know what the temps in your room are. My ambients are always about 73-75. As stated above the analog thermometers do not measure basking heat and you can end up burning your cham. Veiled love heat and they will just sit there and burn themselves.
 
your guy looks about like the size of my Reptar. One thing i noticed is he ate some of my leaves this morning, so you might wanna get real ones in there so he doesnt eat a fake on and have problems!

Its good to see your so willing to make everything perfect!
 
Because I know a lot of pet stores that aren't specialized in chameleons, and even some that are, dont know how to sex them, I just thought I'd throw out that males have tarsal spurs on the back of there hind feet.

Also, would you please post your dusting schedule so we can make sure it sounds correct. :)
 
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