Veiled Cham color

[Camille1]

Other than the spot on the leg, the dark color, skinny and hunched down in the pictures like she is weak. The OP did say in one of the threads that she/he wasn't eating very much. I guess I'm just use to seeing fat, healthy, happy babies that stand tall.

Where are you getting he is not eating? I mentioned earlier that he eats 10-12 medium crickets a day, mealworms, veggies! He is not weak either. He climbs up and down with no problems. I'm going to put my finger on the environment is reason why he is not the color of some pics I see at this age. As mentioned before I am getting his new cage this week so will have the proper housing for him.

 

[Camille1]

I am a veiled owner, when comfortable, they turn a bright shade of green. My veiled does it all the time when he is content. When they are sleeping, they are content, that simple. Yours is male, mine is as well, expressed similar colors in his youth. That isn't how I know he is a boy though, I can clearly see his spurs in the first picture you uploaded. Nothing to worry about my good sir, he is just getting good sleep. If he is a darker green while awake, he is just soaking up heat.

I appreciate your respond. Looks like yours and mine have a lot of similarities. I have read where some veiled chams do look like this for approx first 6 months then change more in color as they get older. It is hard to get a good reading on all this when there is a lot of conflicting info and advice given.

 

[Camille1]

I see what you mean. I guess I was just thinking it was like some of the few I have had that will suck everything in and hunch down when they see me/camera (they've all grown out of it as they got bigger.) kind of like how some will pull their eyes in whenever you try to a take a picture of them, but they aren't actually dehydrated or have anything wrong.

I appreciate your response. I have been reading up a lot on younger veiled chams and process of raising them. Based off what you have said and know that from having ones like mine in the past do soak up light during day giving off a brown color and more green at night is normal. My guy (now that I know that) is not weak, climbs all over the place with no issues. He does eat plenty everyday( never said he didn't) etc.. Thanks for your advise on this since you can relate to how mine is looks and similarities with the ones you've had. I will post some more pics this week when the new cage is in and I have it set up to make sure that is done correctly. Once again thanks for you help!

 

[jannb]

He does eat plenty everyday( never said he didn't)

I love chameleons, especially veileds and have been working with chameleons since 2004. I hope nothing but the best for your Cham and all chameleons. In your thread about the spots on the leg you said he was only eating 6 to 7 crickets a day plus an occasional meal worm. Your veiled should be eating 12 or so appropriate size feeders a day especially if he's younger than 7 months old. In this current thread you are saying 4 to 5 months and he defiantly doesn't look like a 7 month old. As recommend to you earlier. He needs a variety of well guy loaded feeders.

* #10 * * *
10-30-2013, 04:54 AM

Cornelius1
Junior Member
*
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 36

I greatly appreciate all the advice. The lights I have on top of cage are not sufficient? I have been leaving the red light off to help with humidity levels and by doing that has helped balance heat as well. I mist 4 times a day. So by misting and keeping red light off will that work? Thank you for helping me with this. I will admit I do not have a lot of knowledge in keeping Chams but very determined to learn all about them and want to make sure I am taking care of him the best way possible.

His diet is 5-7 crickets a day. Occasional meal work. Kale and carrots.
Calcium every other day.
Multi vitamin with calcium twice a week.
Is this acceptable?

Thank you very much for all your help!

 

[Camille1]

Jannb - thank you for your response. I was feeding him 5-7 crickets a day because I was informed not to over feed him because it can cause MBD down the road. He should be growing slowly not rapidly to avoid that. Is that true? He has always had an appetitive since I've had him. He can eat like a horse. After the 10-12 crickets I give him he could eat more but I cut it off after that.

When I bought him I was informed he was a year old then told 7 months old. After I posted pic on here I was informed 4 months tops. That was a few weeks ago so he is around 5 months now. I hope!

His appearance is what is concerning to me but I've read where this is not abnormal and they was clarified in this thread. I know you have a lot of experience in all this so by what you have said related to his look is something you haven't seen before?

I appreciate all the help here. I feel more confident I'm heading in right direction since I was misinformed from the start about everything until I joined this forum. I am very glad I did and thankful that you and everyone are trying to help me. This has been a big challenge for me and know I'm making this a lot harder than it should be but getting off to a bad start by being misinformed by Petco didn't help!

 

[jannb]

I am glad to hear you are feeding more. As shinny as he it i would feed him all that he want for the next month or so. MBD is cause by incorrect lighting and incorrect supplementing. Did you replace that dessert light and get the correct one? Oh, I have seen plenty that have his look in person and here on the forums, it's just I'm use to seeing my veileds and their offspring fat, healthy and happy.

 

[Camille1]

I did get the light changed out to the Reptisun 5.0 tube light. I figured he could eat more than the 5-7 crickets so I doubled that recently. I will give him more now that you mentioned that. He is still at that stage to eat a lot. I'm surprised someone would say that about feeding too much and growing too fast causes MBD. Hopefully he will get to the colors you posted in the pics once In his new cage. I meant have you seen healthy chams 5 moths old that are the color of mine? I should have clarified that.

 

[jannb]

I did get the light changed out to the Reptisun 5.0 tube light. I figured he could eat more than the 5-7 crickets so I doubled that recently. I will give him more now that you mentioned that. He is still at that stage to eat a lot. I'm surprised someone would say that about feeding too much and growing too fast causes MBD. Hopefully he will get to the colors you posted in the pics once In his new cage. I meant have you seen healthy chams 5 moths old that are the color of mine? I should have clarified that.

Here's some good info on MBD that was put together by one of the vets here.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/wha...ase-mbd-looks-like-how-happens-how-fix-95071/

Chams do turn dark when basking, stressed or cold. The do turn beautiful colors at night when they sleep. There's been several sleeping threads, if you'll search sleeping at the top you can look at the pictures. I've seen a few people on here with brown veiled that never turned green. I'm not sure how health they were. One lady that use to post here allot had one named Hershey. You can also search Hershey or even brown veiled to see and read more.

 

[Camille1]

I will check it out. Thanks again for all the help! I will get it all figured out here at some point.

 

[jackschamnewbie]

I am getting his cage and lights this week. I was misinformed by Petco initially and spent a lot of wasted money.

same here, I left with a 10 gallon fish tank and nearly a 100$ worth of other crap.

This forum is a great place to learn before wasting more money.

How is your buddies appetite? and are you using a substrate on the ground?

 

[Camille1]

same here, I left with a 10 gallon fish tank and nearly a 100$ worth of other crap.

This forum is a great place to learn before wasting more money.

How is your buddies appetite? and are you using a substrate on the ground?

Petco should not be allowed to sell people chams and provide the wrong information to customers. We live and learn I guess.

Cornelius has a huge appetite. He eats 12 medium crickets easily. I will also be changing that up by adding a variety of things to his diet that have been suggested by everyone. His substrate is newspaper/papertowels now that I ditched the soil provided by the useless kit I bought.