Please help!

[Colin237]

Hi I'm new to the site and I need some advice regarding my almost 6 month old veiled Chameleon. Lately his colors have been mostly very dull. He has been active so I know hes not sick but a couple months ago he had alot brighter colors most of the time and he was alot less moody so I'm gonna give you my care info and any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Basically, I just need to know if I'm giving him the right care that he needs. I found this info sheet on another thread so let me know if you need any other information.

Chameleon Info:
My Chameleon - 5 Month old,Male,veiled,has been in my care for about 3 months
Handling - Almost every day i try to take him out or let him climb out on his own and let him explore my room or climb on my head.
Feeding - 6-8 Medium sized crickets a day gut loaded with Flukers Orange cube cricket diet
Supplements - ReptoLife Plus 3 times a week
Watering - A Flukers Drip System drops through the top of his cage, the water lands on a long vine with lots of leaves to drink off of.
History - He was very active and less moody the first 2 months that ive had him and is now starting to have very dull colors and does not seem as happy.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 16 by 16 by 30 inch Screen cage
Lighting - One ExoTerra 150 watt Daylight basking spot and one ExoTerra Repti Glo 26 watt Tropical Terrarium Lamp With uvb and uva. both are simply rested on the top of the cage
Temperature - About 91-95 in the Basking spot, 85-87 in all other areas, about 78 at night give or take a few degrees
Humidity - I don't have anything in his cage to measure the humidity but i spray him thoroughly once or twice a day
Plants - lots of fake vines and plant for him to climb on also a wooden branch runs through the middle of his cage for him to bask on
Placement - His cage is located on an entertainment system in my room about 2 feet off the ground (Im not sure if this matters but i almost always keep the fan on in my room)
Location - North Texas


If anyone actually responds to this ill post some pictures

 

[ZuggieTheCham]

Not an expert or anything but is that the only supplements you give him?? Best thing u can do is get some repashy calcium plus all in one, off amazon or something got all the stuff he needs in one so u don't have to worry about anything else, maybe ur not giving him enough suppliments and that's why he's not feeling himself.

 

[shiftyeyes]

as zuggiethecham stated you should look into getting him the repashy all in one calcium "calcium plus" and you can feed that evryday to him. You also say that he is in your entertainment unit i may advise you to take him out of that the vibrations from it mabe stressing him out, he also could be coming up to a shed soon too if he is dull in color, when was the last time he shed? You should also invest into something that reads the humidity in the cage should be around 70-80%. now when you handle him do u just go in and grab him for do you gently take hime out of the cage? sometimes fast movement can stress them out. i would also lower your basking temp to about 80-85 he might be over heating and dehydrated. alot of people manually mist their chams but it is so much easier if maybe one day you invest into a misting system, but make sure tha his tank drys out in between mistings and that his tank is dry at night, last misting sould be about 1 to two hours before lights out so the tank is dry when he sleeps.

 

[Captive Creations]

Shify eyes is right he could be shedding.
I am not sure what that supplement is but Zuggy is right about the calcium plus.
It couldn't hurt to post a picture of him. imo

 

[coldbloodedAL]

It sounds like he is going to start a shed, but it could be other things.

Like the others mentioned, your supplementing is not appropriate. I am not familiar with the product you are using either. You could make the move to Repashy calcium plus and supplement with that daily, by lightly dusting every feeder.

Or Reg. Phosphorus free calcium daily- All feeders
And phosphorous free calcium WITH D3 2x a month
And a multivitamin 2x a month
^^ the last two you can rotate every weekend for example.
Personally I would just go with the Repashy Ca+ just because of its simplicity.

Now on to the other issue, HUMIDITY.. This is very important to monitor, being your in a dryer state, misting only once or twice daily may not be enough to fulfill its requirements. If you have no gauge or monitoring tool, you have no clue what it is at.
I would like to see some pics of your set up to get a better idea of your husbandry though, there may be some other things that require attention.

 

[laurie]

Hello and welcome. i copied you info sheet and will put some suggestions in red. If i miss something you want to know, please post it again or send me a pm.

Hi I'm new to the site and I need some advice regarding my almost 6 month old veiled Chameleon. Lately his colors have been mostly very dull. He has been active so I know hes not sick but a couple months ago he had alot brighter colors most of the time and he was alot less moody so I'm gonna give you my care info and any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Basically, I just need to know if I'm giving him the right care that he needs. I found this info sheet on another thread so let me know if you need any other information.

Chameleon Info:
My Chameleon - 5 Month old,Male,veiled,has been in my care for about 3 months
Handling - Almost every day i try to take him out or let him climb out on his own and let him explore my room or climb on my head.as long as he comes out it is fine, bit I would not force him to come out
Feeding - 6-8 Medium sized crickets a day gut loaded with Flukers Orange cube cricket diethe should be eating more that that and he need variety, add in some silk worm, horn worms, a FEw butter worms, some dubia, etc
You need to properly gutload his food. Use some fresh veggies, like sweet potatoes, sweet red peppers, collard greens, mustard greens
Supplements - ReptoLife Plus 3 times a week the others have covered this already
Watering - A Flukers Drip System drops through the top of his cage, the water lands on a long vine with lots of leaves to drink off of. How long and how often do you mist? where you are located may mean lots more mists, also getting lice plants will hekp the humidity, try either, pothos, umbrella trees or ficus trees
History - He was very active and less moody the first 2 months that ive had him and is now starting to have very dull colors and does not seem as happy.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 16 by 16 by 30 inch Screen cageI would be getting ready to upgrade him to a 24 x24x48 mesh cage
Lighting - One ExoTerra 150 watt Daylight basking spot and one ExoTerra Repti Glo 26 watt Tropical Terrarium Lamp With uvb and uva. both are simply rested on the top of the cage He needs 2 light sources, a good UVB bulb, like a repti-sun 5.0 the long tube kind that go all the way across his cage, and a heat light, most of us use regular household bulbs, and then vary sizes until you get the temps you want
Temperature - About 91-95 in the Basking spot, 85-87 in all other areas, about 78 at night give or take a few degrees
Humidity - I don't have anything in his cage to measure the humidity but i spray him thoroughly once or twice a day you need a good accurate way to measure humidity
Plants - lots of fake vines and plant for him to climb on also a wooden branch runs through the middle of his cage for him to bask onas above, get some live plants
Placement - His cage is located on an entertainment system in my room about 2 feet off the ground (Im not sure if this matters but i almost always keep the fan on in my room) fans are not good for chameleons, he needs a place where he gets fresh air, but not a fan blowing on him. If he is in an entertainment system he may not have fresh air except for the fan.
Location - North Texas

pictures of your chameleon and his sep up would be helpful.
, check LLL reptile for supplies, they are a sponsor, so you can find the link on the upper right hand corner of the home page, best prices on supplies


If anyone actually responds to this ill post some pictures

 

[Elizadolots]

Hi, Colin!

Is your repti-glo bulb the 2.0 or the 5.0? The 2.0 isn't recommended for use without a 5.0. It's the 5.0 that gives sufficient UVB.

I think the overall cage temperature is too high. While that's a great basking temp, I think the bottom of the cage should be around 75 degrees, it could easily be cooler. 78 at night is too hot, in my opinion. I would let it get down to 65. It could go down lower than that and still be good.

 

[Goldenarcher1328]

First off, Hello and welcome to the Forums!
I'm actually running out the door and saw this so i'll do my bit on the food portion.

Gutloaded crickets are great, however you really want to feed a variety. Imagine if you ate a Double Bacon Cheeseburger every meal. eventually you would become sick from an abundance certain nutrients and from malnutrition in other areas. Now, Yes things like Repashy's calcium plus are great dusts, however, its like taking your vitamin + that Double Bacon Cheeseburger every meal. You may get the vitamins but are you eating healthy? I would recommend feeding a variety of things such as Veggies, Crickets, Dubia Roaches, Phoenix/Calci-Worms and maybe some other feeders as treats, such as the occasional Butter worms, Moths, Bluebottle flies, Mealworms, Wax worms.

I love to feed a variety of foods to my chams, tegu's, cats, dogs, fish, family. So far, everyones healthy

 

[Colin237]

Thanks!

Hey guys, first of all i just want to say thanks ALOT for helping me out here you're all awesome. Ok so I started misting him alot more today and i decided that if the humidity is supposed to be about 70-80 percent than ill mist him about 6 or 7 times a day and also ill be going this weekend to get something to read the humidity. AS for feeding ill be taking golden archer and laurie's advice on variety and will probably be going this weekend to get some other types of feeders. Im thinking of feeding him some milkworms once a week and veggies another day with some crickets And then crickets for the rest of the week. Would that be alright? Also i might like change it up every other week or something and give him some mangos or something. For temperature alot of you said that it was too high so pretty soon I'm going to get a stand to clamp the lights onto about 6 inches off of his cage or until the temperatures are sufficient. At night their is an air conditioning vent in my room somewhat near his cage so ill try to get the temps down a little bit. Regarding supplements ive already invested in some repashy calcium plus off amazon. I think i forgot to mention that pretty soon in like a couple months i might get him a bigger cage like laurie said and hopefully a misting system. Again I want to thank all of you guys for the advice it really helped me out! ill get some pictures up later. PS: I apologize if i didnt address everything you guys said, ill pretty much be doing everything you said to do but for the sake of time i just wrote the main points.

 

[Colin237]

Elizadolots-The repti glo is the 5.0 bulb

 

[laurie]

Hey guys, first of all i just want to say thanks ALOT for helping me out here you're all awesome. Ok so I started misting him alot more today and i decided that if the humidity is supposed to be about 70-80 percent than ill mist him about 6 or 7 times a day and also ill be going this weekend to get something to read the humidity. AS for feeding ill be taking golden archer and laurie's advice on variety and will probably be going this weekend to get some other types of feeders. Im thinking of feeding him some milkworms once a week and veggies another day with some crickets And then crickets for the rest of the week. Would that be alright? Also i might like change it up every other week or something and give him some mangos or something. For temperature alot of you said that it was too high so pretty soon I'm going to get a stand to clamp the lights onto about 6 inches off of his cage or until the temperatures are sufficient. At night their is an air conditioning vent in my room somewhat near his cage so ill try to get the temps down a little bit. Regarding supplements ive already invested in some repashy calcium plus off amazon. I think i forgot to mention that pretty soon in like a couple months i might get him a bigger cage like laurie said and hopefully a misting system. Again I want to thank all of you guys for the advice it really helped me out! ill get some pictures up later. PS: I apologize if i didnt address everything you guys said, ill pretty much be doing everything you said to do but for the sake of time i just wrote the main points.

Not to worry, you are here with us now and all will be fine. It is almost like having lots of mothers- well maybe not- my daughter would scream at that idea! But we are here for you.

 

[Goldenarcher1328]

Not to worry, you are here with us now and all will be fine.

Gotta say laurie, haha all i was thinking when reading this first part was how very motherly that was of you to say! haha

 

[carol5208]

Am I the only one who thinks 85-87 for an ambient is too high? That should be more like your basking temp and your cage temp should be about 10 degrees lower in my opinion.

 

[Elizadolots]

Carol, yes, Colin is going to work to reduce the overall temperature in the enclosure.