Raised textures on small veiled girl?

[chocokitty]

Hi everyone! I'm a new chameleon owner after rescuing a (presumed) baby female veiled. I absolutely adore her, but I've noticed just a small thing about her that I haven't noticed before: She has some interesting raised textures on her sides, and because I have no idea how old she is, I somewhat worry she might be a tad on the small side. Here's her info:


Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Female, veiled, young (unsure of exact age – rescued). I have only had her for about five days.
• Handling - Only a few minutes a day. Seems to really enjoy it, likes to climb any hands that come near her in her tank.
• Feeding - Primarily crickets, occasional mealworm – as many as she'll eat within an hour or so (usually 3-5), usually in the early afternoon but early evening if not. Gutloading feeders with a homemade blend of collards, apples (seeds + core removed), strawberries, carrots, blueberries, butternut squash. Also offering them the orange gutloading cubes as an optional food in their container, and water from a cottonball refreshed every day. Leave to gutload at least 36 hours.
• Supplements - Zoo-Med repti-calcium, dusted enough until I can visibly see the powder on the crickets, only a moment before dropping them into her tank.
• Watering - Mostly misting. Give her a nice “storm” every few hours – 3-6 times a day or whenever she seems a tidbit dry. About 2-5 minutes per storm. She initially runs from the water and hides to stay dry, but is usually drinking off of her nose and leaves right after.
• Fecal Description - I haven't been able to find a dropping since I got her. I can't be sure if she's been treated for parasites, I'm not sure where the original owner got her and I haven't yet had her registered with my regular vet.
• History - Previous owner only gutloaded with orange cubes, did not dust. Kept her in a relatively dry environment with a single, leafless foam vine and a mostly dry plant, appeared to have been watering her from a dish. Has been surprised to see that she is warming up to me so fast and green so often, so I presume this was not a common behavior for her previously.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Glass with screen top. 20” long, 10” wide, 12.5” tall.
• Lighting - Dual dome heat & UVB lamp from Zoo-Med. Turn her lights on when I wake up (9am-12pm) and shut them off when she falls asleep in the evening or when I go to bed (12am-4am)
• Temperature - Cage floor: ~76F. Her favorite basking spot: ~88F. Temp does not drop below 68 at night. Measured with an in-tank color strip.
• Humidity - Not sure, don't have a manner of testing this. I can actively feel the humidity in her tank, though.
• Plants - Only one live plant, a succulent/hen&chicken in one corner. A large decorative “driftwood” piece adorned with thickly clustered plastic leaves at the top is her highest plant, while she has a new, more realistic vine stretching across the length of her tank, with a bark-like texture and plentiful plastic leaves.
• Placement - On the top of a coffee table, about 2 feet off the ground on the far side of the room. It is a high traffic area, but we are an extremely low traffic household. The only things near her cage are a lamp and a bookshelf.
• Location - Indiana, US

Current Problem - Possible small size, raised skin on her sides/deep textures.

Here, you can see how small she is. I'm a relatively petite young woman, so my fingers are short and small and she is barely the length of my finger. (pardon her puffing up, she doesn't like my phone!)






Here's the same picture, but zoomed in a bit more. You can see a lot more clearly there are what appears to be deep rivets in her skin just behind her front elbows, around the little white stripe. Can anyone else see this? Is this normal? Is she an okay size?

 

[Joseph 1233]

If your talking about the white skin thats a little bit dry looking all veileds have that your looks skinny and you shouldnt feed mealworms and offer more crickets more times just not late in the day.

 

[carol5208]

The skin is normal looking. Nothing to worry about. Please turn off the lights as soon as it basically gets dark outside. Do not leave them on that late. You basically want the lighting schedule to be sun up/sun down just as you find in nature. It sounds as if you have your chameleon housed in a fish tank. That is really taboo in the chameleon world, as they do not provide adequate ventilation. Look into getting a screen cage. How are you determining that your chameleon is a female? I don't know if her size is ok because you do not know how old she is. She looks to be a couple of months old by the size comparison to your finger. I would also raise the cage higher up off the ground. Chameleons like to be high up, Also, does you calcium contain D3? If so, you should get a plain calcium to use daily.

 

[chocokitty]

If your talking about the white skin thats a little bit dry looking all veileds have that your looks skinny and you shouldnt feed mealworms and offer more crickets more times just not late in the day.

That's what I was thinking, thank you! I know she's on the skinny side, so hopefully she'll beef up a little more soon as she gets comfy

 

[chocokitty]

The skin is normal looking. Nothing to worry about. Please turn off the lights as soon as it basically gets dark outside. Do not leave them on that late. You basically want the lighting schedule to be sun up/sun down just as you find in nature. It sounds as if you have your chameleon housed in a fish tank. That is really taboo in the chameleon world, as they do not provide adequate ventilation. Look into getting a screen cage. How are you determining that your chameleon is a female? I don't know if her size is ok because you do not know how old she is. She looks to be a couple of months old by the size comparison to your finger. I would also raise the cage higher up off the ground. Chameleons like to be high up, Also, does you calcium contain D3? If so, you should get a plain calcium to use daily.

Phew, okay, that's a relief! I'll start changing her lights more regularly then for sure! And yes, I do think the tank is a fish tank...I couldn't imagine it was terribly comfortable for her, so I will double down on getting her a better screen cage -- I know she needs a much bigger one than what she has. Honestly her sex is a wild guess -- I was told she was female, and because she's so small, I've had trouble seeing for myself if she has the appropriate bumps and spurs to be male. As for her calcium supplement, I actually just had to check that -- it does contain D3. Boo on Petsmart for telling me that one was okay. I'm definitely gonna find her one without. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[carol5208]

Post a picture of the back feet and I will see if I can tell you. You can pretty much tell if they have spurs from when they are pretty tiny. If you have a female, down the road you will have to worry about her laying infertile eggs even if she has never been mated. Not sure if you are aware of that or not! Petsmart are not too "smart" when it comes to chameleons unfortunately. Chameleons can overdose on artificial D3, but it does depend on what brand you are using as the concentrations of the d3 vary from brand to brand. If you click on the Resources tab on this page, and then click on caresheets there is one for Veilds which will help guide you with everything you need.

 

[Graves923]

Yes, please, please, please..... follow the caresheet on this forum to the letter.

A good veiled chameleon supplement schedule should be plain calcium dusted with every feeding, Cal with D3 twice per month and Multivitamin twice per month (alternating weeks with the D3). And no mealworms! They are tough to digest and not nutritional. stick to crickets, roaches, silkworms as a staple and use superworms as treats every now and then.

 

[BKO Overdrive]

I can almost tell without looking at the feet shes a female. But just post a pic to be sure. Yes follow the care sheets and you will not go wrong, ive used them religiously and i have two healthy vieleds

 

[kinyonga]

• Your Chameleon - Female, veiled, young (unsure of exact age – rescued). I have only had her for about five days.
• Handling - Only a few minutes a day. Seems to really enjoy it, likes to climb any hands that come near her in her tank.
• Feeding - Primarily crickets, occasional mealworm – as many as she'll eat within an hour or so (usually 3-5), usually in the early afternoon but early evening if not. She should be eating a lot more than that. Are the crickets a proper size that will fit in her mouth easily?Gutloading feeders with a homemade blend of collards, apples (seeds + core removed), strawberries, carrots, blueberries, butternut squash. Also offering them the orange gutloading cubes as an optional food in their container, and water from a cottonball refreshed every day. Leave to gutload at least 36 hours. I never use those orange cubes.
• Supplements - Zoo-Med repti-calcium, dusted enough until I can visibly see the powder on the crickets, only a moment before dropping them into her tank. Is it a phosphorous-free calcium powder? It's also recommended that you use a phosphorous-free calcium\D3 powder twice a month and a vitamin powder with a beta carotene source of vitamin A twice a month.
• Watering - Mostly misting. Give her a nice “storm” every few hours – 3-6 times a day or whenever she seems a tidbit dry. About 2-5 minutes per storm. She initially runs from the water and hides to stay dry, but is usually drinking off of her nose and leaves right after.
• Fecal Description - I haven't been able to find a dropping since I got her. I can't be sure if she's been treated for parasites, I'm not sure where the original owner got her and I haven't yet had her registered with my regular vet.
• History - Previous owner only gutloaded with orange cubes, did not dust. Kept her in a relatively dry environment with a single, leafless foam vine and a mostly dry plant, appeared to have been watering her from a dish. Has been surprised to see that she is warming up to me so fast and green so often, so I presume this was not a common behavior for her previously.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Glass with screen top. 20” long, 10” wide, 12.5” tall.
• Lighting - Dual dome heat & UVB lamp from Zoo-Med. Turn her lights on when I wake up (9am-12pm) and shut them off when she falls asleep in the evening or when I go to bed (12am-4am)
• Temperature - Cage floor: ~76F. Her favorite basking spot: ~88F. Temp does not drop below 68 at night. Measured with an in-tank color strip.
• Humidity - Not sure, don't have a manner of testing this. I can actively feel the humidity in her tank, though.
• Plants - Only one live plant, a succulent/hen&chicken in one corner. A large decorative “driftwood” piece adorned with thickly clustered plastic leaves at the top is her highest plant, while she has a new, more realistic vine stretching across the length of her tank, with a bark-like texture and plentiful plastic leaves.
• Placement - On the top of a coffee table, about 2 feet off the ground on the far side of the room. It is a high traffic area, but we are an extremely low traffic household. The only things near her cage are a lamp and a bookshelf.
• Location - Indiana