Newbie here saying hello!

[Larsa]

Hi everyone! I have owned a few exotic lizards in the past but never a chameleon. So my spouse and I decided to get our very own! Today in the mail we just received our male Senegal chameleon. He is a wild caught imported from Africa. Senegals are my favorite chameleons, although the panthers are pretty cool, I loooove how little Senegals are!! Anywayz, I have the tall terrarium set up with the UVB light, night bulb, basking light, vines, live plants, fogger, rocks, etc etc. When we opened him up from his container in the mail, we just let him kinda crawl into the terrarium on his own and left him be. He seems to love his lights! He is climbing around his cage a lot which seems great! I have a reptile dish at the bottom filled with natural spring water in case he doesnt notice the water on the leaves, but the water doesnt move. Like I said, I am very very new to chameleons to please dont be rude. I do have a few questions I feel like I should ask members:



1. He flinches sometimes with his arm up when I look at him but seems gentle, when can I attempt to hold my chameleon or help him trust me?

2. He hasn't eaten or drank yet, when will he? He has live crickets with calcium dust running around his screen, and his plant leaves are soaked but doesn't seem interested. I do have those feeding tongs but any time I try to feed him a cricket or mealworm he grabs it and it falls to the ground, lol.

3. How old does he look?



Here are some pics:

 

[Hoj]

first off welcome to the forum. it may take a few days for you new guy to settle in and start eating and drinking. i usually dont handle new chams for the first week or two very much at all.
when you say you ffed him with tongs and he grabs it do mean shoots with his tounge or bites at it. he should be shooting his tounge, possibly try holding it about half his body lenght away from his as chams tounge are about as long as their bodies.
again welcome im sure oyu will like it here, he does look good to me

 

[carol5208]

welcome to the forums and chameleon ownership. Can I ask what the water bowl is for at the bottom? Chams do not drink out of water bowls if that is what that is for. You need to mist down the cage or get a dripper. Secondly if you are going to free range the crickets at some point you need to be careful that your cham does not get amouth full of mulch with the cricket. Or she just may elect to eat it and that could cause alot of digestive problems. As a rule chameleon cages should be left bare on the bottom. You cage looks very nice, but I would add some more foilage and a few more skinnier vines and branches that she can grip her feet around.

 

[melric]

Welcome!
I would also remove the night bulb unless it gets under 60 degrees where you're keeping him at night. And as Carol mentioned it would be best to remove the substrate to avoid him eating it and the water bowl. Cham's need to be misted at least 2-3 times a day.

Can't really tell how big he is. How long his he? Someone may be able to guess based on that.

Try filling this out and posting it here to see if there is anything else you can improve.

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

 

[Slyfox]

Agreed... A lot more foliage for him to climb and explore, it is also possible for your charm to drown in a water dish, also your charm can become impacted with the substrate on the floor.

He looks very beautiful


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=52.456507,-2.072980

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Welcome, I myself have a Senegal, they're definately one of the rarer ones on the forums... the advice you're getting is something to take heed of.

 

[Larsa]

thank you everyone!

I put in a small dish of water in there just in case :/ He actually loves to drink the water off of his spring water which is good that he is at least drinking! Now he is drinking non stop, its adorable watching him. He seems a little more calm when im close-up. He still wont eat though, maybe smaller crickets? My spouse got the size large and medium ones. However the small size crickets are like microscopic at my local petco. He doesnt seem to take interest in the mealworms. When I try to use the tongs, he litterally grabs his food with this toes and then drops it on the floor. lolz its cute! His night bulb is very very warm keeping his tank about 70F. I planned on getting more umbrella plants ( he LOVEs those) and more dangly plants for the corner. He sleeps in his umbrella tree with his tail curled, is this healthy behavior? He is honestly about 3 inches, minus the tail.

 

[Larsa]

Well good news everyone! Right after I posted my previous message I made my BF go up to the pet store and get the size small crickets. When we tried to feed him after coating them in the calcium powder. He immediately ate them!!! We fed him only 3 today. I might feed him another later on tonite. He is really loving the water more than anything...he is drinking right now! ^-^ He loves it when I take a Solo cup, poke a microscopic hole in it, and let water drip from it slowly from the top of of his cage! Its a good substitute until his water dripper comes in the mail. Also after my BF fed him, he reached his hand out and Espio crawled right on his arm, shoulder, his ear, and rested on top of his head!! ^-^ I couldnt get a picture but next time I will. Im sooooo happy that he ate! It made my day. Chams really are so beautiful.

 

[Hoj]

glas to hear things are coming together for you and yes chams tend to sleep with their tails curled up... you diont really need a night bulb unless temp are getting much lower than 65 imo

 

[kinyonga]

Senegals are one of my favorite chameleons! They are water hounds so make sure that they get well watered every day! Once acclimated they do well in captivity as a rule.

Here's some information I hope will help you with supplementing, etc.....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

A wide variety of insects that have been well fed and gutloaded should be fed to it.

Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.
Please note that various supplements have various amounts of D3 and vitamin A and so some can be given more often than others. The idea still is not to overdo the fat soluble vitamins like D3 and prEformed vitamin A.

Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.