The time has come!!!

[Mace]

Nothing serious, just introducing my new baby to the community. He arrived yesterday morning and He is eating in cup and out of my hand. He was stressed for a little bit as you can see in the pics when he got inside the enclosure but definitely has calmed down since then. The last two are from today. I have no name for this little guy. So suggestions please.
Also what are good fruits and veggies for crickets? I’m getting 250 today and already have their cage set up just trying to figure good foods. I have given carrots and apples to the small amount I had gotten for him yesterday at Petsmart.

 

[Mrjamwin]

Welcome to the group.

 

[NashansCamos]

hello and welcome! hes a cute lil guy! can you please fill out this husbandry form to help us improve your care for him in every way possible! where did get him?

 

[NashansCamos]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
• Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

 

[Mace]

Thanks!!! And absolutely I will definitely do that. I bought him from Kammerflage Kreations. They’re awesome people and very helpful. Let me work on that husbandry form for ya and I’ll post it.

 

[NashansCamos]

Thanks!!! And absolutely I will definitely do that. I bought him from Kammerflage Kreations. They’re awesome people and very helpful. Let me work on that husbandry form for ya and I’ll post it.

thank you for filling it out. kammerflage are very good as you've noticed you'll probably end up with a beautiful cham

 

[Mace]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Ambilobe panther chameleon, Male, and hatched dates 5-30-6-11-20. A full 24 hours now.
• Handling - Just when I placed him in the enclosure.
• Feeding - 15 1/8-1/4” size crickets in the am around 7:20ish. With a fresh carrot and this repashy bug burger insect diet. It looks nasty jello and smells like wet dog food heated?
• Supplements - Repashy food calcium plus every feeding. I follow exactly what Kammerflage does for their chameleons.
• Watering - mistking goes off at 4:30 am for 1 min 30 sec Then at 8 am for 9 min and then 11 for 5 min again at 3 pm for 3 min and last one is at 5:45 for 6 min. I plan on doing a fogger at 4:40 and let it go until feeding time which is 7:20 ish am.
• Hmm ?I did yesterday but haven’t today not yet at least.
• Fecal Description - Yeah this too I haven’t found any poops or Urates ... I know what I’m looking for but haven’t found any and hard to see through all these plants..
• History - Not that I know of. And I feel like they would tell me because I stayed in contact with them throughout the process of me thinking of getting one to buying one and the stuff for it. But who knows. Lol

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Reptisun 16X16X18 screen. I’m one of those that bought the chameleon kit? but luckily Briana helped me from Kammerflage and told me what to ditch and upgrade ? amen!
• Lighting - 6am-6pm everyday. Flukers reptile clamp lamp with a 50w bulb. And a zoo med T8 reptisun hood with a 24” bulb.
• Temperature - so cage floor is 72 when middle is 74-75 to the basking being at 81-82. Haven’t checked the overnight temp yet. I have a zoo med at the basking spot. I have a bio dude thermometer/ hyrgometer and I placed that one in the back corner where heat lamp is. I use a temp gun to measure everything in between and those two spots to ensure the temps.
• Humidity - I just have that one temp/ hygrometer in the back corner. Which now I feel like I should have another one.
• Plants - Yes to live plants! I have a golden Pothos in the back and a schefflera plant in the middle. And a plastic red vine going throughout.
• Placement - Cage is in corner of the bedroom with no fans or air vents near it. The cage is a good 4 feet off the ground
• Location - college station Texas.

Current Problem - I would t say problem just want to be sure everything is good for him.

 

[Mace]

 

[NashansCamos]

Ok so right now he is getting a lot of uvb. too much. You want a t5 bulb instaed of a t8. Also the basking stick looks awfully close to the lights. It should be 9 inches away.

Humidity is a touch high, thats a very frequent misting session. I would push for 3-4 times a day for 1 minute each.

That cage dosent look like a 16x16x18, I believe thats a 18x18x36. Glad you are aware that he will need a 2x2x4.

as for supplements do you have multivit with d3? if no then buy reptivite with d3 and use that on the 1st and 15th of every month. not sure why kammers isnt using that.

Also the heat is a bit high, for a baby I would go 80 max, adult 85 max.

Everything else looks good, maybe some foliage at the top

 

[Beman]

Ok so right now he is getting a lot of uvb. too much. You want a t5 bulb instaed of a t8. Also the basking stick looks awfully close to the lights. It should be 9 inches away.

as for supplements do you have multivit with d3? if no then buy reptivite with d3 and use that on the 1st and 15th of every month. not sure why kammers isnt using that.

This is actually incorrect. The OP is following the information that their breeder gave them per lighting. Kammerflage use T8 lighting and repashy calcium plus for their chams. This combo they have found after many years of use and testing does not cause issues due to the lower T8 output and the repashy all in one supplement working well together.

 

[Mace]

Ok so right now he is getting a lot of uvb. too much. You want a t5 bulb instaed of a t8. Also the basking stick looks awfully close to the lights. It should be 9 inches away.

Humidity is a touch high, thats a very frequent misting session. I would push for 3-4 times a day for 1 minute each.

That cage dosent look like a 16x16x18, I believe thats a 18x18x36. Glad you are aware that he will need a 2x2x4.

as for supplements do you have multivit with d3? if no then buy reptivite with d3 and use that on the 1st and 15th of every month. not sure why kammers isnt using that.

Also the heat is a bit high, for a baby I would go 80 max, adult 85 max.

Everything else looks good, maybe some foliage at the top

Hmm it was further away originally, it was actually 7-8” away, but beman said with the T 8 and 5.0 bulb it should be closer more like 3-5” so I made a highway up there and put a branch there... now I’m conflicted...
as for misting.. i will cut the out 3 of those sessions out.
supplements- when using the reptiviteD3 on the 1st and 3rd of the month am I using that instead of the regular calcium plus that I use?
Heat- I need some help for sure on this because I’ve moved the light so many times and I cannot get this heat to go down. It is now 15” away from the tallest point he can go without screen climbing and the temp will climb as the day goes on. What do I do?? Ofcourse it goes down when the night rolls in but like right now 2 pm in college station it’s high 80’s.

 

[Beman]

@Mace Hi there. Cute lil bit you got there. I am going to give some feedback to your form.

Your lighting and supplement recommendations come straight from kammerflage. Which is a tried and true method they use. Nothing wrong with it. Keep in mind both work together so if you ever upgrade to a T5HO then your supplementation will need to be changed as well or the cham can have issues with the supplements and the higher uvb output that a T5 puts out.


The only thing I see that is a bit over kill is the mistings. The 11 minute long and 5 minute long are well too long. I would look into the natural hydration method. You do not what to be misting like this when the heat from the lamps is at its highest in the cage. It creates hot wet air and they can develop respiratory issues.
Here is a podcast that goes into this more https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-89-naturalistic-hydration-for-chameleons/
and a link that does as well https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-cage-set-up-naturalistic-hydration/

• Watering - mistking goes off at 4:30 am for 1 min 30 sec Then at 8 am for 9 min and then 11 for 5 min again at 3 pm for 3 min and last one is at 5:45 for 6 min. I plan on doing a fogger at 4:40 and let it go until feeding time which is 7:20 ish am.

Temps are fine. it is actually pulling the temp from the UVB rather then the heat bulb. As far as UVB just make sure that you have the branch at a measured distance of no closer then 3 inches. I would actually angle it so that one side is at 3inches and the other is at 5 inches. This will allow baby to choose a UVB and temp gradient he prefers.

 

[Beman]

Hmm it was further away originally, it was actually 7-8” away, but beman said with the T 8 and 5.0 bulb it should be closer more like 3-5” so I made a highway up there and put a branch there... now I’m conflicted...
as for misting.. i will cut the out 3 of those sessions out.
supplements- when using the reptiviteD3 on the 1st and 3rd of the month am I using that instead of the regular calcium plus that I use?
Heat- I need some help for sure on this because I’ve moved the light so many times and I cannot get this heat to go down. It is now 15” away from the tallest point he can go without screen climbing and the temp will climb as the day goes on. What do I do?? Ofcourse it goes down when the night rolls in but like right now 2 pm in college station it’s high 80’s.

See the feedback I just gave you.

 

[NashansCamos]

This is actually incorrect. The OP is following the information that their breeder gave them per lighting. Kammerflage use T8 lighting and repashy calcium plus for their chams. This combo they have found after many years of use and testing does not cause issues due to the lower T8 output and the repashy all in one supplement working well together.

ah yes... I think I understand. So they use a t8 and no d3 because the t8 gives them the adequate d3? mistake acknowledged

 

[Beman]

ah yes... I think I understand. So they use a t8 and no d3 because the t8 gives them the adequate d3? mistake acknowledged

No, They use a T8 which has a much lower UVI output then a T5. They in turn give Repashy calcium plus which is an all in one with vitamins and calcium without D3 and calcium with D3. Because they utilize a T8 this supplement works with it. They have used this method for many many many years with great success.

Issues come in when people deviate from what they were told to provide and say get a T5HO while still using the repashy calcium plus. This creates issues because the supplement is too much with the T5HO uvb output. So when you see kammerflage and they say T8 with the repashy calcium plus they are following breeder guidelines so we have to be careful what we tell them to do in changes or we can create a situation where the cham becomes sick because the husbandry is now off.

 

[Mace]

I put a fan on next to the dresser which is about 8” away from the cage I’m hoping it helps bring the temp down.
Thank you both for your input because this is exactly what I’m looking for. I want to ensure I do things correctly because I want him to live as long as possible. And I want to expand my chameleon live down the road. I am sure you will see a lot of me asking questions.

 

[NashansCamos]

I put a fan on next to the dresser which is about 8” away from the cage I’m hoping it helps bring the temp down.
Thank you both for your input because this is exactly what I’m looking for. I want to ensure I do things correctly because I want him to live as long as possible. And I want to expand my chameleon live down the road. I am sure you will see a lot of me asking questions.

never be afraid to ask questions

 

[Mace]

Are these safe..? The look odd.. lol

 

[NashansCamos]

View attachment 274092Are these safe..? The look odd.. lol

II'm guessing its the larvae stage of the fly.

I gotta say that cham on the box looks awfully photoshopped lol

 

[Beman]

View attachment 274092Are these safe..? The look odd.. lol

So those are flightless fruit flies you can see them in the top on the lid. If you take a piece of egg carton or a little plastic bowl. put a little piece of banana in it and then put the flies in on top they will stay near the fruit and the cham will come eat them.