Hello, I am new to Veiled Chameleons. A student gave me her Veiled chameleon because she no longer could take care of him. I had him for a month and everything seemed fine, but one day he suddenly got sick (lethargic, weak feet, wouldn't eat, heavy breathing) so I rushed him to the vet and the vet decided to euthanize my Cham and thinks he had a lung infection. Safe to say I was really sad about this and so was my class. Before I go out and get another Veiled Chameleon I want to make sure I have a proper enclosure and I am doing everything correctly. I spent countless hours reading info when I got my first Cham but he unfortunately passed away; I do not know if it was something wrong I did, or simply a sickness out of my control. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated because my chameleons health is my primary concern and I want to make sure I do this right.
- I sprayed his cage 3-4 times a day using reptisafe water conditioner.
- Fed him Calcium with D3 dusted crickets and mealworms everyday or every other day except weekends (he was a really picky eater and normally would eat a lot on Monday and Tuesday then go the rest of the week not eating or eathing maybe 1-2 crickets in the day). I gutloaded my crickets with Mazuri gutloading diet.
- It was difficult maintaing humidity in an open enclosure so it would fluctuate from 30%-70% throughout the day.
- He would be handled 3 times a week to go outside to soak up plenty of sun.
- He has two live plants in his cage (not pictured) a pothos and ficus and I put plenty of rocks in order to cover the soil so he wouldn't eat the soil.
- Dual lamp one with a 60Watt zoo med bulb for basking, and a zoomed UVB fluorescent light for UVB.
