Preparing for my first chameleon, tips appreciated

@dshuld I do not see your thread o_O' I will be looking for it so I can help in any way I can. You can also tag me in it by using the @ symbol then my name. like this @Katacara You can also PM me if you need to.
 
Traildrifterphalanx said:
Greetings all,
I have been a reptile lover all my life, and it wasn't until a few years ago I got into the hobby of caring for them. I really love chameleons, but always considered them to be "too high maintenance" for me based on what I've heard, but now having more reptile experience, I think I am up for the task.

I am a mature adult with a full-time job, money in savings, a house to myself, and no intention of ever having kids. Quiet pet-filled household.

I am new to this board and new to chameleons.
I currently own 2 bearded dragons (housed SEPARATELY!) ages 9mo and 3 mo, 3 african dwarf frogs (+2 otos), a cat, and a pacman frog. Due to my love for my bearded dragons, I spend a lot of my time on beardeddragon.org as a very active member by the same username: traildrifterphalanx. I take husbandry needs and care of my pets VERY seriously, and already have experience with a very knowledgeable reptile specialist (not exotics*) about 30mins away.
My oldest bearded dragon was just 2 years old when she succumbed to un-diagnosed kidney cancer on 5/4/17. I miss her greatly and have done everything I can to immortalize her and her effect she had on me. My animals mean everything to me.

What brings me to this forum is basically reassurance as well as possible introduction upon adopting my first little chameleon. I am planning on a veiled chameleon.
I'll start with what my plans are regarding husbandry:

Enclosure:
I purchased a Zilla Reptibreeze 18x18x36 enclosure just recently. I fully understand bigger is always better, but I plan to start with a baby and go from there and understand the dimensions above are considered a minimum (this is the same with bearded dragons, a 36x18x18 enclosure is considered the minimum.)
I do not plan to do a free range setup, however, I am open to the idea of an outdoor enclosure on nice days as I have a large and relatively empty fenced backyard. I live in Wisconsin and clearly this is not a year round option.
Lighting:
Being very familiar with bearded dragons I understand lighting is crucial. Both my enclosures are set up with an Arcadia 12% uvb along with basking bulbs to get them their desert basking temps (~105F). I do have a dual dome fixture and would be curious to use a compact 5.0 or 5% uvb bulb, however if chameleons are anything like bearded dragons, the UVB is best supplied via florescent tube (reptisun 5.0 T5 or Arcadia 5%). Reassurance on this is appreciated, but I am leaning the tube route as I would hate to waste my time on bad lighting immediately.
Plants:
I purchased a medium hibiscus plant just this weekend and plan to keep the enclosure indoors. I understand from what I read this plant can be very finicky and fail to properly thrive indoors. I was unable to find a ficus or an umbrella tree locally after checking 4 locations (local greenhouse, Walmart, Menards, Home Depot) and settled on the hibiscus. It is currently outside in the original pot it came in on these hot summery sunshine filled days to help encourage the health of the plant prior to being brought indoors. I do plan to re-pot it and "hide" the dirt. I also have 2 long pothos vines in a cup of water to encourage roots that will be added to the enclosure as well. These vines are clippings from my very healthy 3 year old pothos that hangs in my living room. My pacman frog also uses pothos clippings and loves to burrow under them, and they are flourishing in his enclosure. Healthy plant and I know the source :)
Railways:
In addition to pothos vines, I have some bamboo chutes, dried reeds, and tree branches from my large mature maple tree outside to use as railways and perches. All listed items are easily graspable with tiny chameleon mittens. I have not laid out yet how I plan to do this but figure once I start actually setting up the enclosure I'll figure it out. I do not at this time know how I am tying these up as I prefer not to use push pins due to cat.
Diet:
I am experienced with the voracious appetite of baby bearded dragons and they are omnivores, eating both insects and greens. Because of this, I breed my own dubia roaches and also keep on hand a second feeder type to add variety (currently superworms for my big boy Richter, but none for my 3mo old due to impaction risks.) I am also familiar with dusting insects as I do this for my dragons and my pacman frog and keep calcium with and without D3 on hand.
Health:
As I mentioned above, I already have a reptile specialist that has been seeing and treating my bearded dragons. In addition to this, I am familiar with the concerns of MBD, impaction, egg binding, and parasites. While I have only experienced parasites, I know the signs and symptoms of the others and suffered a personal tragic loss to a dragon with kidney cancer, so am aware of symptoms with kidney function. I am familiar with scale rot, mouth rot, paralysis, lethargy, and dehydration.
Humidity:
The one thing that I'm not super familiar with for chameleons is a drip system, or providing water for them.
Bearded dragons gain most of their moisture in plump bugs and veggies, but I do have experience bathing them or providing water via dropper. Pacman frogs absorb water through their skin and do not drink, but I am familiar with misting. I have no problem misting the enclosure, and plan to get a much nicer misting bottle than the one I've been using for my Pacman frog that keeps jamming up.
Regarding my cat:
I know cats are red flags in the herp business so wanted to set things straight. My cat is extremely nonchalant when it comes to my bearded dragons. They are handled daily, for hours, one at a time, and my cat is my lap buddy. The dragons (the large ones only) are allowed to free range the home under supervision, but the supervision is so I don't lose them, not a cat concern. My cat has interacted with the dragons, she has galloped over to them when particularly super excited because they're running around, but this ends with sniffing their face and walking away. She lacks a prey/hunt drive and has been raised by me since a kitten. As much as I understand there are many people that will still be wary, I have 0 concern and know my cat a lot better than others. Of course a new lizard, a little chameleon, which my cat has never seen before will be new and interesting, I will still be sure the enclosure is cat proof as she is still quite curious, and I do not plan to leave a tiny baby chameleon unattended with my cat. I wouldn't leave it unattended even without a cat.


Sorry for the extremely long post, but I wanted to make it clear this is a serious decision and I have experience and this is not an impulse buy. Aside from the few husbandry things to consider (which light? humidity?) I also have the hard decision regarding location. As mentioned, I live alone and do have a cat, and I have been trying to come up with the best placement. Currently, both bearded dragons are in my living room in stacked enclosures, my aquarium of african dwarf frogs and otos are in the living room, and pacman frog is in my bedroom for the time being. While I own a house, I don't have a lot of room to work with, but I do have 2 rooms that are very seldom used - the office, and the guest room. These are currently my two likely areas, but I would prefer he be located in a position that I can see him and monitor him throughout the day, i.e a more visited room. The living room is still an option, either next to or across from the dragons, or near the entryway (no one enters the actual entryway.)

Anyway, location is definitely a personal decision as no one here knows my home layout.
I hope this novel I wrote can help broadcast my intentions, and I am all for tips, tricks, and ideas regarding the things still holding me up.

Thanks for reading.
I will be publishing a paperback copy of this novel....
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Hi , welcome ! I'm a senior citizen now been retired from Toledo Jeep plant for 2 years . I have 4 cats, 1 dog , 2 crested Geckos and one parrot . 5 dart frogs too. I've been contemplating getting a Panther chameleon for a year. Went to Tinley Park's reptile show 3 times in the last 1 1/2 years. 8 hour round trip. Did my home work , become a member here since March. Watched a lot of YouTube videos... good and bad ones. lOL
Went on line looked at 5 companies that specialize in panthers and the facted that some show both parents and the babies. Which you know it's all about the colors. I settled on Kammerflage out in California and couldn't be happier. I have to tell you getting Tyrion that's what I named him,is the best pet ever. What ever you choose your going to love him ! Good luck!
 
dshuld said:
Hello, I'm new here and stumbled upon your thread while researching (again lol) about chams. My wife and I went into Pinellas County Reptiles last week to look around and ran across a young male veiled, probably 6" or 7" from nose to tip of his tail. When we first started down his aisle he was on one of the perches in the condo he was in with a few other young chams. By the time we walked the two condos down he had come to the door almost as if he wanted to say hello. We asked to hold him and it was love at first sight for both my wife and I. He came out no problems, crawled on both of our arms for a bit before settling in on my shoulder. He stayed the same color of green with 3 golden brown patches on his side the whole time so I don't think he was too bothered by us.

Sadly we didn't/don't have any supplies for a cham home, I've mostly done snakes as far as reptile children, and I wanted to brush up on reading on chams again before jumping into it on the spot despite us both wanting him to have a new home with us. Seeing your first two pass had me feeling like this is not something I wanted to venture into. But, seeing V thrive has me thinking maybe we can do this too. I've watched jdog's enclosure vids and think that's the route I'm going to go if we do decide to move forward on getting into chams. I also saw Slik Jim's pdf build and think we want to go that route for a permanent larger home after which ever one we get grows up. I'm still looking at misting systems yet, thinking of going climist since they are in my state but not dead set on that aspect yet. Anyways, just wanted to say thanks for sharing your journey getting started with these beautiful creatures as it gives me hope I too can tackle a new chameleon friend some day :).
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Hi there and welcome . I have the climmist it’s works great . You really can’t go wrong with either . I will look for your thread best of luck .
 
A tip for the hibiscus plant that I've learned through experience (I have one for a tortoise)- They don't need as much sun as you'd think, but they love love love water. My plant only gets direct sun in the morning for about 3-4 hours, after that it's shaded. They get BIG and they grow quickly, so be prepared for that. (Apparently I'm late to the party, so any newbies looking into hibiscus, there ya go)
 
Wow I did not receive notifications for any of these! Sorry guys!

Yesterday was two months with V!
Someone has decided crickets aren't as good as super worms now.
IMAG4393.jpg IMAG4390.jpg
My phone scares him in his enclosure.. IMAG4391.jpg
 
I am on a strike against crickets right now, there endless chirping by the 2 that seem to escape everytime is driving me insaneo_O I have tough loved both my Panther and veiled lately and only been feeding dubias to get them to actually eat them again, my veiled literally just woke up one day after loving dubia to "no thank you" he is still in his hormonal stage so he would rather be wondering around his cage all day looking for those girls haha(y)
 
@Traildrifterphalanx V looks great!! Happy 2 months!! Peepers has also decided that he only likes superworms, and so has Commander Komodo! I think they are bad influences on each other! LOL I think I will ground them to separate rooms LOL And they both know "the look" to give me to make me give in, it's so crazy how they run our lives, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

@hopps31 Glad to hear you are still avoiding crickets! I have lost the battle, and the war and started breeding them lol. I moved the bin into the other room though so now instead of having a whole bin of chirping crickets I only have the escapees driving me crazy!! They NEVER stop! But I just got 5 eggs so I want to make sure that I will have a good supply of pin-heads & extra small's available for when they hatch. I figure that I can always sell the overflow.
 
Traildrifter, I'm joining the veiled club. A member on here can no longer care for one so I'm gonna take him. Even though they are so common, I have always really liked the look of them. I should be driving down to Kenosha in 2-3 weeks to get him. I'm looking forward to experiencing that veiled chameleon sass first hand!
 
Scottsquatch said:
Traildrifter, I'm joining the veiled club. A member on here can no longer care for one so I'm gonna take him. Even though they are so common, I have always really liked the look of them. I should be driving down to Kenosha in 2-3 weeks to get him. I'm looking forward to experiencing that veiled chameleon sass first hand!
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Though the common chameleon, I'm very in love with veileds. Their sass is strong!
How old is your new buddy?
 
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