Our new chameleon Calcifer

[DocZ]

During the Coronavirus shelter in place, our home zoo has grown significantly. My son got a leopard gecko Larry which reignited my desire to get a chameleon. I had a Senegal chameleon about 20 plus years ago. Unfortunately, likely due to my inadequate care, he only lived a few months. So I decided it was time to get another chameleon. Calcifer arrived one month ago and is settling in nicely. I filled out a care sheet and would appreciate any advice you all can give me. Thanks
Corey


Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
  Calcifer is a 4 month-old, male Amilobe panther chameleon, and he’s been with us for about one month.
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
  He and I are definitely not friends right now I do not hold him at all if it can be avoided
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
  He’s eating some combination of BSFL, crickets, dubias, discoids, silkworms, and an occasional superworms and the rare mealworm (bought those before I learned more about lizard nutrition) He eats daily, probably about 6-8 items between a couple of feedings. He tong feeds or controlled free range, doesn’t like to use feeder run. I’m gut loading with dandelion greens, carrots, bell peppers, Josh’s frogs cricket feed, Joe’s Bugz roach feed, and I dust the gut load veggies/feed with Zoo med repticalcium with D3, Rep-cal multivitamin, spirulina powder, chlorella powder, and a little bee pollen
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
  Calcifer gets Zoomed calcium without D3 6 days a week and 7th day alternates rep-cal calcium with D3 and rep-cal multivitamin
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
  have a mist king ultimate with one double nozzle and one single nozzle. It runs at 0658 for 2 minutes, 2000 for 2 minutes, 2200 for one minute, 0100 for one minute, and 0430 for one minute. I saw him drinking more when we first got him, but pretty rarely now. I also run a fogger at night that is controlled by a Herpstat 2. Its set to run for about 5 minutes or when it reaches 90% humidity 9 times a night between 0100 and 0500
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
  Stool is firm and brown with bright white urates. He’s never been tested for parasites
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
  I purchased him from Roberson reptiles. His sire is a beautiful Amilobe named Nixon

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
  Calcifer lives in a 2x2x4 Dragon Strand screen on sides, front, and top.
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? I have several lights on his cage. I have a Zoomed dual dome with a 100w basking bulb and 5% mini compact fluorescent UVB. I have a Reptisun UVB/LED fixture with 3 LED modules and a 24” 5% T5 UVB. There are also two other reptisun LED fixtures one with 2 LED modules and one with a single. I was concerned about having enough light for the plants and didn’t want to replace fluorescent bulbs all the time. The Herpstat 2 ramps up the basking bulb from 0700 to 0800 when all of the LED/UVBs come on, and it ramps down the basking bulb from 1900 to 2000 when all the lights go off. I purchased a Solarmeter 6.5 and adjusted the height of his two UVB bulbs so it reads about 6.5-7 at the cage ceiling and about 2-3 at his branches.
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
  His basking spot is regulated to 86 with the Herpstat (it was 85 and he kept basking on the ceiling, one degree up seems to have cured this. I hate it when gets on the ceiling). A digital thermometer/hygrometer in the back about 24 inches down from the ceiling usually reads about 73-75 when his basking lamp is on. Lowest overnight temp is about 63-65
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? Daytime humidity is about 40-50% the hygrometer usually shows highs of 90% from overnight which is when the fogger and the mistking run mostly.
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
  I have mostly live plants with 11 potted plants in his enclosure. 2 pothos, 2 piles, (can’t remember the others, I’ll get some pictures). There are a couple of plastics to cover some ugly spots (lots of zip ties, sticks coming together, or covering probe wires) and one that conceals one of his main travel vines to the lower part of his cage which hopefully make him feel more secure.
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
  The cage is in our basement which is always cooler than the rest of the house. I closed the vents closest to it. I built a stand for his cage which makes it stand a little over 6 feet tall at the ceiling.
• Location - Where are you geographically located?
  I’m located in Omaha, NE
  
  
• Humidity is hard to regulate. I turned up his Herpstat hygrostat to 95% today. With air conditioning running in the summer, humidity is difficult to keep up any higher. I’m considering adding some clear acrylic outside the cage to keep humidity up. It’s a big open room, so humidifying the whole room isn’t realistic. I probably should have gotten a cage with at least solid sides
• I’ve read to gut-load insects 12-24 hours before feeding. I feed the gut load mix every day not just before I feed the bugs. What do people feed their insects daily instead of the gut load?
• Having trouble uploading pictures right now. I’ll do some resizing and post some shortly
  

 

[DocZ]

Here’s some pictures of the enclosure, some of the plants, and Calcifer being a stick

 

[DocZ]

A couple more pictures of the cage. I’m considering adjusting or adding a little more plants to increase his hiding spots.
I also need to make the doors for his stand

 

[caoilinnf13]

It looks great! What plants do you have in your terrarium? I might get a chameleon after quarantine and I can't find a good plant.

 

[Gingero]

Thanks for filling out all of that info and providing pictures. Here is some feedback:

1. It is not necessary to use calcium/multivitamins as a part of your gutload. Just dust the bugs with them as you're already doing.
2. IMO you're misting way too frequently. Usually twice a day for 2-4 minutes is sufficent. The frequent short bursts may not give your cham enough time to drink and enclosure to dry out.
3. Using the compact UVB and T5 is overkill. Just use the T5 and get rid of the 5% mini compact UVB.
4. Here is video about tips and tricks for raising humidity:

1. If you feed your bugs daily, then you should be feeding them the proper gutload so that no matter what bug you pull to feed off that day, they are good to go.
2. I'd add some horizontal branches towards the bottom especially coming off of that bottom right DS ledge.

Hope this feedback is helpful!

 

[DocZ]

It looks great! What plants do you have in your terrarium? I might get a chameleon after quarantine and I can't find a good plant.

There are Pilea species, pothos, syngonium, and a couple I can’t remember the names of

 

[DocZ]

Thanks for filling out all of that info and providing pictures. Here is some feedback:

1. It is not necessary to use calcium/multivitamins as a part of your gutload. Just dust the bugs with them as you're already doing.
2. IMO you're misting way too frequently. Usually twice a day for 2-4 minutes is sufficent. The frequent short bursts may not give your cham enough time to drink and enclosure to dry out.
3. Using the compact UVB and T5 is overkill. Just use the T5 and get rid of the 5% mini compact UVB.
4. Here is video about tips and tricks for raising humidity:

1. If you feed your bugs daily, then you should be feeding them the proper gutload so that no matter what bug you pull to feed off that day, they are good to go.
2. I'd add some horizontal branches towards the bottom especially coming off of that bottom right DS ledge.

Hope this feedback is helpful!

Thank you very much for your feedback. And I love your videos, they are really informative and you’ve taken on a huge number of topics, thank you.

1. so I’ve read some of Mark Finke’s research on gut loading insects and it seems to me that by putting supplements into the gut load for the bugs, we should be able to increase the calcium and vitamin content in our lizard’s prey items. To that end, I’ve been adding a small amount to the veggies and feed.
2. I did remove a couple of the misting times. I’m doing two at night to push up the nighttime humidity and one during the “sunrise” time to provide some water for Calcifer to search for on his morning walks. I don’t most during the day. If there’s one thing he dislikes more than me sticking my hands in the cage, it’s getting doused by the mister while he’s sunbathing

3. I probably could get rid of mini compact. That used to be the only place he basked and it’s a fair distance from the T5 and I was concerned he wouldn’t get enough UVB, but after his basking warm
up he usually heads over to the branches below the T5. Which has good levels of UVB

4. I agree with changing the lower part of the cage. There’s a branch that runs behind all those plants, but I’d like to add more and possibly add some bracing to put another plant higher up where the feed

 

[Gingero]

Glad you're enjoying the videos.

Do you have a link to the research? I would love to read up on that. I don't know of any cham keepers currently who are feeding their bugs calcium. What's the thought process behind feeding them calcium with D3 instead of without? I'd be concerned about potential D3 toxicity.

 

[DocZ]

I linked the article I was reading. The reason I've been using w/ D3 is actually because Larry the leopard geckos calcium supplements are closer to the kitchen where I make up dinner for the bugs. I agree I should walk downstairs to get the no D3, just being lazy.

 

[DocZ]

I’ve read some more about calcium supplementation in the insects gut load. In a couple of articles it mentions constipation and shortening of life span of the feeder insects, so it may be something strictly for gut loading immediately prior to feeding vs being part of a long term diet for the insects

 

[kinyonga]

@DocZ said..."The reason I've been using w/ D3 is actually because Larry the leopard geckos calcium supplements are closer to the kitchen where I make up dinner for the bugs. I agree I should walk downstairs to get the no D3, just being lazy".. How often are you giving Larry the one with D3?

 

[DocZ]

The leopard gecko gets calcium with D3 on most feedings

 

[kinyonga]

I had a trio of Leo's for over 19 years and only ever gave them calcium with D3 twice a month in all those years. They got calcium at all feedings but for a month and vitamins twice a month...just like the chameleons.

 

[DocZ]

That's interesting. It seems like supplementing D3 is pretty common with leopards, i think theory being they don't get as much UVB photoconversion of D3 due to their crepuscular habits. However, there have been some studies showing significantly higher D3 levels in leopard geckos exposed to UVB, so they are certainly capable of photoconversion and likely catch some morning rays partly for this purpose in the wild. I have a UVB light on half of his cage, but i measured the levels and they are really low (probably need a new bulb), so I'm not sure how much he really gets. He does spend some time awake during the day, but rarely leaves his cave more than sticking his head out to eat.