blondebrowncoat
Member
Hello everyone.
Two weeks ago I snagged a veiled cham of craiglist from someone who didn't really know what they were doing. He's made some great progress but I'm still a fairly novice cham owner myself (my last cham was special needs and required non-traditional care). I have a good vet who he's already seen, but she recommended I also post here with husbandry details. You all helped wonderfully when I had Peet and I'm hoping you can help me make sure I give my new guy just as great of a life. He was kept in a very bad setup, so I've provided two sets of details - one from his time with me, and another with what I know about his prior conditions.
Chameleon Info:
History
Chameleon Info:
He hates/doesn't understand the mister. How to help with hydration without overdoing it?
Should I buy a fogger?
Should I mist at night?
How in the heck do I keep my plants from getting water logged? (this happened with my last cham)
Can I feed my hornworms normal gutload plants or does this make them toxic?! He's the first reptile I've had who is interested in horn worms so I'm not very familiar with them.
Anyone know local reputable feeder breeders in Austin?
Is it bad to have air fresheners/candles in the same room as your cham?
Is Earthpro-A the only supplement I need when coupled with correct UVB lighting?
Tell me about your cham's activity schedule. I've never had a normal cham (Peet was blind and not very mobile) so I don't know what is normal/abnormal behavior!
Thank you for reading this novel! Here are pictures of him and his setup
Two weeks ago I snagged a veiled cham of craiglist from someone who didn't really know what they were doing. He's made some great progress but I'm still a fairly novice cham owner myself (my last cham was special needs and required non-traditional care). I have a good vet who he's already seen, but she recommended I also post here with husbandry details. You all helped wonderfully when I had Peet and I'm hoping you can help me make sure I give my new guy just as great of a life. He was kept in a very bad setup, so I've provided two sets of details - one from his time with me, and another with what I know about his prior conditions.
Chameleon Info:
- Your Chameleon - Male veiled appx 1 yo, I've had him for two weeks. Tested positive for pinworms (medium load, lots of eggs) and had his first dose of panacur on the 7th. He has some stuck shed problems that seem to be resolving with better care. He is also missing the last few inches of his tail. Vet said no signs of MDB. She said overall he's surprisingly healthy considering his prior living conditions. He has a pretty good appetite and is a finnicky drinker. He is a little underweight and bounces between being dehydrated and being ok. He is hand tame and not very moody. I don't know if this is just a sign of him feeling bad/being stressed.
- Handling - The first week I had him I had to handle him every day while transporting/tanks swapping/providing medical care. I don't plan on handling him often - maybe once a week just to do physical checkups. I have cuddly leopard geckos, I don't need my cham to love me
- Feeding - Hornworms, silk worms, occasional supers and wax worms (get them from Linda's Gone Buggy). All are gutloaded with carrots/collards/cucumber except the horn worms (More on that in the questions section at the bottom). He eats about 5 inches of hornworms a day, a couple of silk worms, and then a treat feeder every other day. I'm offering food daily right now. I'll switch to every other day once he's put on some weight.
- Supplements - I'm dusting with Arcadia Earthpro-A every feeding. Because I don't know his history, I'm waiting a month to give him a D3 dusted meal. I read several sources that said earthpro-a is all I need if I have good lighting. Agree? Disagree? I'm concerned about getting him enough vit A. I really would appreciate more recommendations/information.
- Watering - I have a mist king and a dripper. He is misted at 9am 12pm 3pm and 7pm for 4 minutes each. I also run the mister for about 20 minutes manually in the afternoon. The dripper runs for most of the day. The first week I had a ml syringe I filled with unflavored Pedialyte and dropped on his nose-tip because he was pretty dehydrated.
- Fecal Description - Droppings have normalized - white urate most days. I have a microscope and would like to enter the wonderful world of fecal floats.
- History - See below
- Cage Type - Wire cage, 30/20/40in. Top of cage is 52in off the ground. Three sides wrapped with a plastic poncho on the outside for humidity levels. Bars have textured coating. So far it's working well and he doesn't have trouble gripping/climbing. If it becomes a problem I have screen I can line it with. Filled with branches from my yard that I collected and dried previously. Also three dowel perches that came with the cage.
- Lighting - Heat - 1 incandescent bulb, 1 arcadia deep heat projector (36cm from top of his basking back) both on a thermostat. dual 22in arcadia 6% uvb 14 in away from his basking back. All on a 12hr cycle - light comes on with daybreak. Gets additional natural lighting from nearby north-facing window.
- Temperature - Basking spot is 90~95 degrees. Daytime Top half of cage is 75~83 depending on if the mister has just run. Bottom of cage is 73~70. Nighttime is 68~64. Measured with digital thermometers that show max/min temp over 24 hours and laser thermometer for surfaces. Manual checks throughout the day. He likes to hang out in the middle of the cage in his plant cave and climbs up for basking around noon. He doesn't pace or act uncomfortable.
- Humidity - The daytime humidity range in the bottom half is 45~53% and the very top of the cage is 10~53% depending on if the mister has ran and if the heat lamps are on. At night humidity drops to around 30~35. Measured with digital hydrometers (or whatever they're called) that show max/min humidity over 24 hours plus manual checks throughout the day. Airflow seems good.
- Plants - No real plants yet I know, it's killing me, but I'm going to wait until he's parasite-free to put real plants in there. Right now I have several silk plants that I can easily disinfect daily. I have a spider plant ready and I'm planning on adding an umbrella tree/hibiscus (depending on what I can find) and some lavender/African daisies.
- Placement - The cage is in my office. I'm in there for most of the day but I'm a quiet worker (90% typing 10% heavy sighing). I've put up a screen so he can't see most of the room so he can have privacy. Our house is pretty quiet and the office is back away from the rest of the house. He seems pretty chill and acclimated to people being around. There's a vent in the room but it's pointed away from his cage. On nice days I open the window next to his cage to let fresh air in.
- Location - Austin, Texas.
History
Chameleon Info:
- Handling -It seems they handled him quite a bit because he's very tame and will climb on your hand willingly if you are calm.
- Feeding - I found about 50 loose feeders in the bottom of his tank he came with and I had a mild freak-out moment. He's obviously conditioned to climb to the bottom of the tank to hunt. So he's been eating mold/poo-gutloaded supers/random beetles/roaches. No signs of proper gutloading material in the bottom of the tank.
- Supplements - I can't see any evidence that he was receiving any supplements. He has shedding problems and he was pretty grey/dusky brown when I got him. A couple of weeks of supplementation has him looking much more colorful.
- Watering - based off the amount of rust on the screen at the top of the exoterra and the way he reacts to hand misting, I guess they would just spray a bit on the top of his tank and then run the dripper.
- Fecal Description - Yellow - he was very dehydrated but not chronically according to the vet. Pinworms.
- Cage Type - 3ftx2ftx18in exoterra glass terrarium. Perches were metal curtain rods. a molded puppy pee pad was in the bottom, along with a mixture of moldy dirt and feces. Tank walls had...algae? idk what it was but it was friggin gross.
- Lighting - Heat - 1 incandescent bulb resting directly on top. 2 bulb arcadia 12%uvb resting directly on top (tested the bulbs, their output is very low so he's been getting subpar uvb for a while now). His back/veil was about 4 inches away from the top during basking. Very shocked he doesn't have burn damage on his casque or back.
- Temperature - not regulated
- Humidity - When I measured the humidity in the tank when we got him home it was in the 70s.
- Plants - one very crispy-dead boston fern and a dragon plant that was completely molded through. Several plastic plants.
- Placement - It looks like they were keeping him in a living room with several other reptiles including cresties.
He hates/doesn't understand the mister. How to help with hydration without overdoing it?
Should I buy a fogger?
Should I mist at night?
How in the heck do I keep my plants from getting water logged? (this happened with my last cham)
Can I feed my hornworms normal gutload plants or does this make them toxic?! He's the first reptile I've had who is interested in horn worms so I'm not very familiar with them.
Anyone know local reputable feeder breeders in Austin?
Is it bad to have air fresheners/candles in the same room as your cham?
Is Earthpro-A the only supplement I need when coupled with correct UVB lighting?
Tell me about your cham's activity schedule. I've never had a normal cham (Peet was blind and not very mobile) so I don't know what is normal/abnormal behavior!
Thank you for reading this novel! Here are pictures of him and his setup