Sengal Chameleon Advice Please

[EntrancedByCham]

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Senegal Chameleon, Not Sure the Sex or age, he is about 3 inches without tail. I have had him since 2/14/12

Handling - Once a day or every other day I take him out to a hanging plant on my screened in porch for about 1 hour. (He really seems to like this)

Feeding - Small Crickets, about two dozen twice a week or so free ranging in cage, I purchase the crickets from a pet store that uses gutload and veggies in their cricket cage and when they sell them to me they dust them with reptical for me.

Supplements - reptical

Watering - Spray bottle to water two to three times a day misting plants with it. I have seen my chameleon drinking plenty of times but recently he has retreated to lower in the cage and I have not seen it for a day or so however I have been sick and have not spent a ton of time watching him.(update he drank water after i put him in cage after sitting outside for about one hour) Still watering of course just not sitting there watching.

Fecal Description -His poop is brown to dark brown with white and is firm. has not been tested for parasites to my knowledge. Was told that he was a captive bred though if that matters.

History - I do not have any history except I can say that the pet store I bought him from was impressive. I worked in a pet store for years and am always upset by the conditions set in most stores. This store was immaculate and the guy seemed very knowledgeable and ALL animals from dogs, to cats, fish, reptiles were immaculate and looked very healthy.


Cage Info:

Cage Type - Picture attached (this is his temp cage till we finish building the new one.

Lighting -Has varied between original blue light day bulb and black night light which through reading turned out to be no uvb and shouldnt have lights at night so now has a reptiglo 2.0 26Watt

Temperature - Temp in house during day is 76-78 and 72 at night as you can see in pic he has one side with light one not so much.

Humidity -I live in the tropics so I am gonna assume it should be high. I put him outside most days and mist at least 2 times per day.

Plants - Live Plants and fake branch. I have a bamboo and cant think of the name of the other one to save my life at the moment.

Placement - It is located in the dining room/living room off in a corner that is not frequented. He can see the living room but it is at least 10-15 feet away. he is about 3 1/2 feet off floor on stand. Used to have him on the kitchen counter/bar till we got the temp stand.

Location - Florida keys Southernmost Florida


Current Problem - I am not sure if this is a problem or if I am being overly worried. However when I first got my Cham he stayed in the top of the cage and I had a blue day light and than that bulb broke and I ordered the UVB bulb and used a regular light for 24 hours since it was Sunday and he started to hide in the bottom plant I assumed from the bulb. But when I put the REPTI GLO in there yesterday he does the same thing. Maybe he has just decided that he likes the bottom plant now but today he had his eyes closed when I went up to the cage late afternoon. He seems to me to look healthy and I know he is getting food and water. Any ideas?

 

[Larsa]

I have a currently have senegal too. Good luck on yours, so darned cute

His watering, food, and poop/urate seem good

thats good you bought him from a petstore, theres a chance he isnt wild caught. W.C. senegals usually die from stress or illnesses they have before they are captured, captive bed ones are hard to find but do much better in captivity.

Is your cham's home reaching under 50F at night? If not, take out the night bulb. The temp drop from the nighttime helps their digestion and metabolism. Night bulbs can also keep chams awake.

Do you have a thermometer and a hygrometer? those would help you find out the humidity levels and temperature, chams are very sensitive creatures and need specific levels of humidity, temperature, and basking temperatures. Also if you dont have a uva/uvb light, go get one at the petstore- reptiles need them! I use a reptisun 5.0 uva/uvb and just a regular light bulb for a basking light.

How many live plants do you have? chams love those and live plants will help increase humidy as well as catch water drops you cham can drink. My guy personally loves umbrella plants in particular

What is your supplement schedule? you should dust crix in calcium without d3 -phosphorus twice a month and use a multivitamin twice a month, use calcium -d3 -phosphorus for regular feeding.

Hmmm chams usually dont go to the bottom unless something is wrong or they want out. It could be that your basking spot is too warm and he is trying to cool off in the bottom? If he is closing his eyes, like taking a nap during the daytime, I would get him into the vet. I thought it was ok that mine was taking naps during the day and looked normal until I took him to the vet and he ended up getting a severe bacterial disease a month later.

Your vet could also sex your cham, if its a female she should get spayed to avoid becoming eggbound-even a small species. That species doesnt get very big, females usually reach 5 inches from snout to vent on average, males stay smaller than females- mine is 3.2 inches from snout to vent.

I hope your cham is ok, mine currently isnt doing so well he got sick shortly after we got him from Africa. Hopefully yours will do just fine!!! He looks great to me but be careful because reptiles take a while to get sick and it could be weeks before any signs show. Whats his name?

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

I have a currently have senegal too. Good luck on yours, so darned cute

His watering, food, and poop/urate seem good

thats good you bought him from a petstore, theres a chance he isnt wild caught. W.C. senegals usually die from stress or illnesses they have before they are captured, captive bed ones are hard to find but do much better in captivity. VERY small chance that it's wild caught, especially from a pet store.

Is your cham's home reaching under 50F at night? If not, take out the night bulb. The temp drop from the nighttime helps their digestion and metabolism. Night bulbs can also keep chams awake.

Do you have a thermometer and a hygrometer? those would help you find out the humidity levels and temperature, chams are very sensitive creatures and need specific levels of humidity, temperature, and basking temperatures. Also if you dont have a uva/uvb light, go get one at the petstore- reptiles need them! I use a reptisun 5.0 uva/uvb and just a regular light bulb for a basking light.

How many live plants do you have? chams love those and live plants will help increase humidy as well as catch water drops you cham can drink. My guy personally loves umbrella plants in particular

What is your supplement schedule? you should dust crix in calcium without d3 -phosphorus twice a month and use a multivitamin twice a month, use calcium -d3 -phosphorus for regular feeding. No, it's without d3 everyday, with d3 twice a month, and multivitamins twice a month.

Hmmm chams usually dont go to the bottom unless something is wrong or they want out. It could be that your basking spot is too warm and he is trying to cool off in the bottom? If he is closing his eyes, like taking a nap during the daytime, I would get him into the vet. I thought it was ok that mine was taking naps during the day and looked normal until I took him to the vet and he ended up getting a severe bacterial disease a month later.

Your vet could also sex your cham, if its a female she should get spayed to avoid becoming eggbound-even a small species. That species doesnt get very big, females usually reach 5 inches from snout to vent on average, males stay smaller than females- mine is 3.2 inches from snout to vent.

I hope your cham is ok, mine currently isnt doing so well he got sick shortly after we got him from Africa. Hopefully yours will do just fine!!! He looks great to me but be careful because reptiles take a while to get sick and it could be weeks before any signs show. Whats his name?

Post pics here and we can help sex, I've had a male Senegal for a few months over a year.

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Senegal Chameleon, Not Sure the Sex or age, he is about 3 inches without tail. I have had him since 2/14/12

Handling - Once a day or every other day I take him out to a hanging plant on my screened in porch for about 1 hour. (He really seems to like this)

Feeding - Small Crickets, about two dozen twice a week or so free ranging in cage, I purchase the crickets from a pet store that uses gutload and veggies in their cricket cage and when they sell them to me they dust them with reptical for me. The schedule should be calcium without d3 everyday, calcium with d3 twice a month, and multivitamins twice a month.

Supplements - reptical

Watering - Spray bottle to water two to three times a day misting plants with it. I have seen my chameleon drinking plenty of times but recently he has retreated to lower in the cage and I have not seen it for a day or so however I have been sick and have not spent a ton of time watching him.(update he drank water after i put him in cage after sitting outside for about one hour) Still watering of course just not sitting there watching.

Fecal Description -His poop is brown to dark brown with white and is firm. has not been tested for parasites to my knowledge. Was told that he was a captive bred though if that matters. It's likely he isn't captive bred, most Senegals are ripped off their vines and chucked over here. You should get a fecal test.

History - I do not have any history except I can say that the pet store I bought him from was impressive. I worked in a pet store for years and am always upset by the conditions set in most stores. This store was immaculate and the guy seemed very knowledgeable and ALL animals from dogs, to cats, fish, reptiles were immaculate and looked very healthy.


Cage Info:

Cage Type - Picture attached (this is his temp cage till we finish building the new one.

Lighting -Has varied between original blue light day bulb and black night light which through reading turned out to be no uvb and shouldnt have lights at night so now has a reptiglo 2.0 26Watt You should not use any light at night. At all. If it gets to be under 60 degrees at night you can get a ceramic heat emitter bulb. You need a UVB during the day, most suggest the reptisun 5.0. Get rid of the blue light, just use a regular household bulb in the day with the reptisun.

Temperature - Temp in house during day is 76-78 and 72 at night as you can see in pic he has one side with light one not so much.

Humidity -I live in the tropics so I am gonna assume it should be high. I put him outside most days and mist at least 2 times per day. It's important that you measure it.

Plants - Live Plants and fake branch. I have a bamboo and cant think of the name of the other one to save my life at the moment. It's also important to know the type of plants you have, some are poisonous to chameleons.

Placement - It is located in the dining room/living room off in a corner that is not frequented. He can see the living room but it is at least 10-15 feet away. he is about 3 1/2 feet off floor on stand. Used to have him on the kitchen counter/bar till we got the temp stand.

Location - Florida keys Southernmost Florida


Current Problem - I am not sure if this is a problem or if I am being overly worried. However when I first got my Cham he stayed in the top of the cage and I had a blue day light and than that bulb broke and I ordered the UVB bulb and used a regular light for 24 hours since it was Sunday and he started to hide in the bottom plant I assumed from the bulb. But when I put the REPTI GLO in there yesterday he does the same thing. Maybe he has just decided that he likes the bottom plant now but today he had his eyes closed when I went up to the cage late afternoon. He seems to me to look healthy and I know he is getting food and water. Any ideas?

If you need a list of good plants just ask.

 

[Larsa]

What is your supplement schedule? you should dust crix in calcium without d3 -phosphorus twice a month and use a multivitamin twice a month, use calcium -d3 -phosphorus for regular feeding. No, it's without d3 everyday, with d3 twice a month, and multivitamins twice a month.


^ Whoops yeah I accidently wrote "Without" on the first supplement thingy, srries

 

[EntrancedByCham]

I guess I didn't write the lighting properly. I am no longer using the night light and have moved to only a reptiglo 2.0 which I will add to a reptiglo 5.0 when his final cage is finished.

I have a dieffenbachia plant and bamboo for now.

I guess it isn't really the bottom of the cage it's the middle that he is in which is where the dieffenbachia is. I just found it odd that he did not seem to like the plant till I got the other light.

I added pics but don't know what part of the body to snapshot for sexing. I assume the underbelly or back of legs?

Humidity testers and thermometer are being retrofitted into new cage at moment so I have to wait about another week to tell temps.

He seems much more alert today and I wonder if it was a fluke that he had his eye closed yesterday.

Haven't named him yet for some reason I keep calling him Lizzie. I know not so original. Lol

Thanks for input so far

 

[ChamFreak]

What is your supplement schedule? you should dust crix in calcium without d3 -phosphorus twice a month and use a multivitamin twice a month, use calcium -d3 -phosphorus for regular feeding.

How about,
Calcium with out D3 every feeding
Calcium with D3 every 2 weeks
Vitamins 2 times a month.

Edit:

Use repti-sun 5.0 hood n bulb
basking- 50w to 75w

Feeding, every other day at most, offer about 4-7 per day, see how much he eats.

A good majority are wild caught. keep a eye on him and yes I think he's a male and see if any thing changes

 

[ChamFreak]

oh gosh and by the way, sorry to add but that cage looks to be pretty small for him.

Also, wood bottom means mold, not good. Your going to need to make a bigger cage and add more foilage, that simplily isnt alot. You want the cage to be full of places to walk and to hide. you did well, and even better coming here, just upgrade your setup or you will see a decline soon, doesnt take long and once its going down hill they are hard to recoup and costly

 

[ChamFreak]

see I have both lights, one is reptisun 5.0, then a basking and plenty of foilage.

and room. I am sure you mean well but your setup is to basic and needs to be improved. Also, looks like your basking bulb is a CFL... you need a reptile basking lamp not a home CFL... plus they can make your cham go blind... no good.

bigger cage, more plants, new lights and get meters for the cage, we dont want to know how warm your house is, we want to know how warm and wet his is

Post updates, thanks for coming to the board, help will always be given

 

[redblee]

Thanks for your post.