rlschwer
Member
Please forgive me for the photos of a terrified chameleon; I needed to see inside her mouth
Chameleon Info:
Chameleon Info:
- Your Chameleon - Gert/Gertrude is a female ambilobe panther, about 8 months old. She and her sister (separate enclosures) have been in my care for 4 months
- Handling - 1-3 times/week; she doesn't seem to enjoy it, but I want her used to it for cage cleaning/weighing/health checks. I do hand feed dubia daily, however, and she has no problem taking from my fingers
- Feeding - Staple is dubia. Was allowed to eat as much as she wanted until ~1.5 months ago, now down to 5-7 small-medium roaches/day. Also have ~5 medium bsfl 2x/week, and the occasional hornworm/waxworm. I throw in 4 blue bottle flies each week so she has something to hunt; they're usually all gone by the end of the 2nd day.
- Supplements - I have human-grade powdered calcium carbonate that I dust all feeders lightly with; One day each week, instead of plain calcium, I use the following: flukers calcium powder with D3 on weeks 1 and 3, Exo-terra multivitamin on week 2, and Miner-all indoor formula multivitamin on week 4.
- Watering - There is a homemade dripper set to drip 1x every 4 seconds, which lands on a Maranta leaf before falling into a catch glass. In addition, I mist the enclosure by hand before I leave (~4 AM) before lights on, and again when I get home around 3PM. There is a mister set to run ~1/2 hour before lights go off and continue to run for another 2-3 hours after.
- Fecal Description - Seem normal, occasionally less firm if multiple hornworms are given in the same day. Urates are usually white, but occasionally (maybe 1-2 in 10 poops) have a yellowish-orange tinge towards the brown half. She usually poops every day, but has never gone more than 2 days without. Has not had a fecal, but was recently dosed with Panacur anyway (see history)
- History - Has a laybin (12L*8W*12H), but has never laid. Did go through what looked like a receptive period around 4 weeks ago, though. She was treated with Panacur a week ago as a preventative (as were my other two chameleons) because my tortoises had pinworms. I do wash my hands between switching enclosures and usually tend to the chameleons first, however, since they seem to have more delicate immune systems.
- Cage Type - Homemade cage constructed of wood/steel screen. Had trouble with humidity, so two sides are solid and one more has a panel ~2 inches away.
- Lighting - Have a T8 reptisun 10.0; I know that is too strong, so it is 8 inches above the top of the cage and the basking perch is another 6ish inches below that. I have a 75w incandescent bulb for heat. The light bar running across the enclosure is a 6500k led for the plants; it does NOT pose a burn risk as it barely gets to skin temp; my heat gun reads it as 88° currently, after a few hours of use. Lights come on at 7:30 AM and go off at 7:30 PM. I do not have a dimming routine, unfortunately, and everything runs on a timer.
- Temperature - Temps drop to 65-68 at night; daytime is usually~70°F. Basking is at 83°
- Humidity - Humidity fluctuates, but usually stays ~40% during the day. Sometimes it drops as low as 30% unfortunately, which I've been trying to combat with solid sides while not restricting airflow. It goes up to 60-70% when spraying, and usually stays %70-80% at night.
- Plants - There are a few species of peperomia, transcadentia, and schlumbera. Also a Maranta, calathea, philodendron, spider plant, and monstera adansonii. There was a pitcher plant for a while, but I removed it as I heard they can be harmful (though the pitchers were too small to fit so much as her hand in). All soil has been replaced, plants washed, and each were owned for 3 months-several years before being introduced, to eliminate chances of systemic pesticides
- Placement - The cage is in the living room/hallway of the house (it's a small house, haha) ; not a great area, but it is quiet. I and one other person live here, and nobody is home for 7+ hours each day until recently (now we are both home all day due to quarantine). I did cover her cage the last few days to give her a break.
- Location - Madison, WI
