New veiled chameleon pet owner. very worried about my lil guy

[STIZZZ92]

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - male veiled chameleon, age is unknown. and has been in my care for about a week now..
Handling - Held him the day i brought him home and that pretty much it...
Feeding - 2 week crickets, he usually eat ~10 a day,once a day in mod morning, and coating them in calcium powder
Supplements - flukers calcium powder and when we feed him
Watering - misting him 3-4x a day, i've only SEEN him drink once...
Fecal Description - regular colors, dark brown/green always solid. and sometimes has white. and has not been tested for parisites but the owner didn't say anything about a history when we bought him
History - bought him at a local pet store.. didn't really have a story for them...

Cage Info:

Cage Type - 12x12x15 glass tank with a front screen along with the whole top being screen.
Lighting - 60 wat exotera daybulb and a 50 wat exo tera night.bulb. no UV lights.
Temperature - 90_100f @the basking point. humidity is 45-55. lowest overnight is 60. temp and hygrometer
Humidity - look above for that. spraying water 3-4x daily.
Plants - no live plants. little moss for humidty control. all plastic in there is non toxic
Placement - 3 ft off ground on my nightstand.. low traffic area in my bedroom, low noise level. kind of.near a fan/air vent but ive been leaving fan off and closing vents so he doesnt get drafty
Location - Tucson Arizona

Current Problem - my chameleon has rarely shown his light or bright green color since i brought him home. he is always either brown, dark reddish, pale/gray, and today he actually turned a very dark purple and hid in the back of the tank. I am so confused and although he has only been with me barely a week, i am becoming discouraged I have done tons of research and thought id provided the correct environment for my pet. maybe he just needs time? also i dont have a uv bulb i dont know what kind of problems that creates but im in the process of getting one

 

[Tannervan20]

If its a small Cham that's too hot for him... Especially if its a small glass cage.. He has nowhere to escape! Bring down the basking temp and see if you can't get him a screen cage amazon sells them CHEAP!!!!!!

 

[STIZZZ92]

well my avatar pic is the cam. i own... and also what would you suggest for a 12Lx12Wx18H cage it has 3 glass sides rest are mesh/screen like...

 

[Kate]

Hi there welcome to the forum. By your avatar your Cham is fairly small and your viv will be too small very soon . You will need a 4 ft high one. Has your Fluckers calcium powder got d3 in it. You will need to check? His feeders need to be dusted with plain calcium without d3 daily and calcium with d3 twice a month also a multivitamin twice a month. Your temps are too high. For a baby 84 is around the mark, older around 86-88. You don't need a night light. He is best with complete darkness overnight to allow him to sleep. Also temps need to drop overnight to slow down his metabolism in order to sleep. Temps can drop to mid 50s. You need a uv light unless you are keeping him outside full time. Most on here use Reptaglow 5% ( I think. ) someone will correct me if wrong. Not having uv could cause metabolic bone disease. Live plants help with humidity. Is the moss loose in the viv? Would there be a danger of him eating it? Would love to see more pics of him and his set up. Don't be discouraged. Cham keeping is a very steep learning curve that we have all taken. Just keep posting questions and we will help you.

 

[Julija]

Hey there!

Very sorry to hear, that you're having problems with your little guy. There are quite a few issues with your husbandry, but the good news - it can be improved. Please, don't get discouraged. The thing is that there's a lot of contradictory information on the internet in regards to chameleon care, but you came to the right place to ask for help and find the right info!

First of all, here is a good caresheet for veiled chameleons written by experienced forum members: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/ You should really have a look at it!

Your temperatures are too high - it stresses out and dehydrates your cham, which is especially critical because he is still so small. Try switching to a lower wattage bulb.

Why do you have a night bulb? Chameleons need total darkness at night in order to sleep and get their rest. If it is because it gets cold at night, then you might want to consider using a ceramic heat bulb that emits no light.

You need to get a UVB bulb ASAP - UVB is absolutely necessary for chameleons. They need it to make vitamin D, which is necessary to absorb calcium. No UVB means that even though you are providing calcium supplement, your cham simply can not utilize it, and calcium is very important both for bone formation and for overall proper functioning - it is used in muscle function and other metabolic processes in the body. Lack of calcium can lead to metabolic bone disease and other serious problems. In nature chameleons get UVB from sunlight, so until you get a UVB light you might want to take him outside into the sun for at least half an hour a day.

In regards to humidity - it sounds a bit too low IMO, it should be around 70%. How long do you usually spray? You should spray at least for 1 minute, because that's about the time necessary to trigger the drinking reflex. Yet, you should allow the enclosure to dry out completely between sprayings to avoid bacteria and mold formation.

Green in the fecals does not sound good. Do you think you could post a picture? It should be solid brown with white in the end. The white tip is called urate and from it's color you can judge, how well is your cham hydrated - white is good, yellow or orange indicates different degrees of dehydration.

As far as I understood, you already have plain calcium powder. You should also look into buying multivitamins and calcium + D3. A rule of thumb is that calcium should be used every feeding, Ca+D3 and multivitamins twice a month.

Finally, it would really help if you could post some pictures of your setup and your cham. Your avatar pic is unfortunately too small, it is impossible to say how old your cham is or if there are any other visible problems.

This turned out pretty long, but I hope you can use it. And please feel free to ask questions - people here are usually very friendly and ready to help!

Cheers,
Julija

 

[Julija]

Hi there welcome to the forum. By your avatar your Cham is fairly small and your viv will be too small very soon . You will need a 4 ft high one. Has your Fluckers calcium powder got d3 in it. You will need to check? His feeders need to be dusted with plain calcium without d3 daily and calcium with d3 twice a month also a multivitamin twice a month. Your temps are too high. For a baby 84 is around the mark, older around 86-88. You don't need a night light. He is best with complete darkness overnight to allow him to sleep. Also temps need to drop overnight to slow down his metabolism in order to sleep. Temps can drop to mid 50s. You need a uv light unless you are keeping him outside full time. Most on here use Reptaglow 5% ( I think. ) someone will correct me if wrong. Not having uv could cause metabolic bone disease. Live plants help with humidity. Is the moss loose in the viv? Would there be a danger of him eating it? Would love to see more pics of him and his set up. Don't be discouraged. Cham keeping is a very steep learning curve that we have all taken. Just keep posting questions and we will help you.

Ah, Kate, you got there before me

 

[Kate]

Ah, Kate, you got there before me

Great minds and all that.

 

[AmenBrotherBen]

I'm also worried about mine

My Veiled Chameleon is also an unknown age I got him almost a week ago but I haven't seen him drink yet. I moist the cage, and have a waterfall but have yet to see him drink. What am I doing wrong?

 

[AmenBrotherBen]

And I spend like hours on this site everyday trying to make sure I'm doing everything right...

 

[bradley]

You will want to remove the waterfall as they just breed bacteria like crazy. Monitoring his urate (the white part of his poo) will tell you if he is dehydrated. If the white bit is a bit orange it is dehydration you want it to be mostly white if you can.

 

[AmenBrotherBen]

Oh ok thanks. For what I can tell they look pretty white. Does that mean I'm doing everything ok? I'm just really cautious about everything for him...

 

[dmagick2012]

Can someone help me with the age of my baby veiled Chameleon????

I bought a new baby male veiled chameleon cause the male i origially bought with my female died a month after i bought him. I asked for a 4" baby male because my female is about 4" maybe 4-1/2" and they sent me what looks to me to be a newly hatched baby male chameleon that looks about 1-1/2" close to 2" and told me that he is 3 months old. i have included pix to show comparison. Is this baby really 3 months old?

 

[AmenBrotherBen]

I'm not sure but either way he's a he's a looker.

 

[Kath44]

Not sure on age, if you start your own thread more people may be able to help. This is a few months old thread,kath.

 

[dhassin]

Hydration

The best means of watering your chams is to have a leafy plant (real or plastic) that can hold enough water droplets onto the leaves in order for the chams to lick it off. The way I do that is two fold: an automatic water mister, plus a hand held water bottle that I aim at certain "favorite" leaves that do the job well. Waterfalls don't work, nor standing water. They are not adept at "seeing" that kind of water source, since by nature they live in the trees, and not on the ground level were water accumulates.

 

[revengeveronica]

My Veiled Chameleon is also an unknown age I got him almost a week ago but I haven't seen him drink yet. I moist the cage, and have a waterfall but have yet to see him drink. What am I doing wrong?

I've had my veiled cham since January 18th. I didn't see him eat until maybe January 22. But I knew he was eating because I saw fecal matter and urate on the bottom of the cage. My chameleon will even drink the water from the leaves on the branches I have for him. I'm also a first time chameleon owner too, just give it time. It's been over a week now for me and I can have him in one hand and a small container of meal worms in the other and he'll eat from the container. Sometimes veiled take time because they are nervous to an environment.

 

[Ninkylou]

So I am seeing a ton of people posting about their cham issues on the OP's thread. if you have questions about your cham you should start your own thread. it starts to get muddled when other people start asking questions.

Two things I think are great features of this forum are the Search Page and the Care Resources.

With both of these you can pretty much get all of your questions answered. It allows your to get your answers right away without waiting on someone to reply and I know when you have concerns about your new baby any time waiting for a reply seems like forever.

Search Page
https://www.chameleonforums.com/search.php

Care Resources
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/

If you don't find answers to your questions and you are concerned that something is wrong with your cham make sure to fill out the 'How to Ask for Help" form and provide some pictures. Again, make sure to start your own thread.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/