UVB lighting
- Thread starter Lxcky
- Start date
BleuSaphir
Chameleon Enthusiast
I believe they should.
Lxcky
New Member
I appreciate your response I hope it does I can’t seem to find the same one not sold out
Steve A
Chameleon Enthusiast
Absolutely. It's just a different brand of the same thing. As long as you have the proper hood and the proper light you're good. Obviously you probably want to stay away from off brands with something so important, but Arcadia is obviously well trusted within the chameleon community. If anything it's an upgrade over the zoo med from my understanding.
Steve A
Chameleon Enthusiast
oh boy lol so.... not only does it look like to me that it's a she... but it looks like she may already be overdue for her lay bin!! I could be totally wrong though.
@Beman or @MissSkittles would likely be able to give you a definitive answer on this.
elizaann2
Chameleon Enthusiast
Yep. You have a beautiful female there! She is showing off her colors to try and find a boyfriend so you do need to get a lay bin in for her today. Give me one second and I’ll post some info for you.
While I’m working on that can you tell me:
What her ambient temps are
What her basking temp is
How many bugs you feed her and how often
Your supplementation schedule
What kind of UVB lighting she has
While I’m working on that can you tell me:
What her ambient temps are
What her basking temp is
How many bugs you feed her and how often
Your supplementation schedule
What kind of UVB lighting she has
elizaann2
Chameleon Enthusiast
Here you go!
I got my lay bin at Target in their $5 section, its just a large plastic bin to put shoes or supplies in. Drill holes in the bottom of it so the water can drain out. The play sand and organic dirt you can get from Home Depot...
Attached is a picture of my current lay bin so you can see how its a little covered by plants, has a plant in the sand/dirt mixture for a root ball and some leaves on the top. You don't have to go all out with all those things, minimum you just need a decent size, the play sand and organic dirt. Make sure its moist enough that when you dig out a hole it wont collapse on her.
You'll want some sticks leading into the bin so she can get in easily. You should see your girl roaming around the enclosure quite a bit, she will be looking for a boy as mentioned above. Once she is ready to lay her eggs you'll find her digging in her bin. She may dig a couple test holes, thats perfectly normal. Have a sheet ready to cover her enclosure with and if you see her digging, cover her up and do not disturb her until she is done laying her eggs. Its a very vulnerable process and if disturbed you run the risk of her not laying her eggs and then getting egg bound.
Let me know if you have any other questions! And I'll be waiting for your reply to the questions I asked previously. Our husbandry is directly linked to how many eggs our girls produce and veileds have a tendency to make WAY too many eggs when food is plentiful and their basking temps are too high.
I got my lay bin at Target in their $5 section, its just a large plastic bin to put shoes or supplies in. Drill holes in the bottom of it so the water can drain out. The play sand and organic dirt you can get from Home Depot...
Attached is a picture of my current lay bin so you can see how its a little covered by plants, has a plant in the sand/dirt mixture for a root ball and some leaves on the top. You don't have to go all out with all those things, minimum you just need a decent size, the play sand and organic dirt. Make sure its moist enough that when you dig out a hole it wont collapse on her.
You'll want some sticks leading into the bin so she can get in easily. You should see your girl roaming around the enclosure quite a bit, she will be looking for a boy as mentioned above. Once she is ready to lay her eggs you'll find her digging in her bin. She may dig a couple test holes, thats perfectly normal. Have a sheet ready to cover her enclosure with and if you see her digging, cover her up and do not disturb her until she is done laying her eggs. Its a very vulnerable process and if disturbed you run the risk of her not laying her eggs and then getting egg bound.
Let me know if you have any other questions! And I'll be waiting for your reply to the questions I asked previously. Our husbandry is directly linked to how many eggs our girls produce and veileds have a tendency to make WAY too many eggs when food is plentiful and their basking temps are too high.
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Lxcky
New Member
- Her ambient temperature is 70-75 Fahrenheit
- Her basking temperature is 85 Fahrenheit
- I feed her twice a day once in the morning I put 5-7 crickets and once more in the afternoon another 5-7 crickets dusted with flukers calcium without vitamin d every feeding and I use zoo med reptivite reptile vitamins with d3 twice a month (pictures of supplements are below)
- She has a zoo med reptisun terrarium hood t5 ho with a 24w 22” 5.0% uvb
- I am planing to switch out that light for an Arcadia 22” 6% uvb soon since I have the light over mesh
elizaann2
Chameleon Enthusiast
Thank you for all the information! Please see my response in bold:
- Her ambient temperature is 70-75 Fahrenheit. Perfect!
- Her basking temperature is 85 Fahrenheit. You'll want her basking temp to be between 78-80 degrees, do not let it get higher than 80, as I mentioned before, high temps and lots of food super charges our girls bodies and their bodies will make more eggs than it should. You are aiming for a clutch between 20-30 eggs, ideally closer to 20 eggs.
- I feed her twice a day once in the morning I put 5-7 crickets and once more in the afternoon another 5-7 crickets dusted with flukers calcium without vitamin d every feeding and I use zoo med reptivite reptile vitamins with d3 twice a month (pictures of supplements are below). Excellent on the supplements! You'll want to dust with calcium W/O D3 on every feeding, on the 1st and 15th of each month use your Reptivite with D3. You will want to scale back on her eating, feed her every other day moving forward 3 small feeders each time. This is also important regarding your girls egg production, make sure you do not overfeed her.
- She has a zoo med reptisun terrarium hood t5 ho with a 24w 22” 5.0% uvb. Perfect!
- I am planing to switch out that light for an Arcadia 22” 6% uvb soon since I have the light over mesh. Perfect!!
elizaann2
Chameleon Enthusiast
I would. Just remove half the sand and mix in some organic soil
Lxcky
New Member
For the feeding about how many crickets should I feed her? And you mean feed her one day 3 times small amount and the next not and keep cycling like that?
elizaann2
Chameleon Enthusiast
This is how I feed my girl:
Monday - 3 small crickets
Wednesday - 3 bsfl
Friday - 3 small silk worms
Saturday - treat bug day, 2-3 waxworms or 2-3 small super worms
Lxcky
New Member
I want to change her feeding a bit and try different food for her like your doing but I’m worried of having to take care of all the insects or then dying so I wanted to ask if it is hard at all or anything you got to do to keep them alive
elizaann2
Chameleon Enthusiast
Its really not hard at all and I'd be more than happy to help you with that if you want to add more bugs to your girls diet.
I'd recommend starting off with just adding 1 more bug to take care of. Once you have the care down for that bug and feel confident then you can work on adding another bug if you'd like.
BSFL are SUPER easy to care for and are an excellent staple food for your girl (and very cheap). BSFL can stay in the same container they were shipped to you in and you basically just put food in the container every other day and remove the old food when replacing it with new. They are a very hardy bug, I've never had any of mine just die off. If you see any black BSFL you can remove those from the deli cup and place them in a separate container with a lid, in about 2 weeks those black BSFL will hatch into a fly and you can feed that off to your girl as well and watch her enjoy a fun bug she will have to hunt down. (literally my favorite thing to do).
I have my routine down pretty good, I'll share what I do and you can use the same routine or take ideas from what I do and make adjustments for what will work for you:
- I feed my bugs on the same days that I feed my chameleons (so Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday)
- Saturday's are my 'deep clean bug days', I MOSTLY clean out my big cricket bins from all the poop, sanitize the bin, and replace any egg cartons that are not good anymore. My other bugs are in some kind of substrate, if that needs to be replaced I will do that Saturdays as well
- Also make and freeze my own gut load (same recipe shared in the document attached), I make enough of this to last me about 4 months worth at a time and keep it in gallon zip lock bags in the freezer. When I feed my crickets/grasshoppers I'll also give them 1 ice cube of gut load on top of the fresh veggie or fruit I am feeding the bugs for that day. The gut load does melt a little and make a disgusting watery mess so I place that on an upside-down cottage cheese lid over a paper towel. The paper towel gets replaced every feeding as well.
What other questions do you have for me?
