Veiled Chameleon- One month

[LunaC]

With all due respect to your vet, I have to concur with others on the temps. It's always best to err on the slightly cooler side, especially given your chams very young age and being in a glass tank. Young ones overheat and dehydrate much quicker than you would imagine.

I understand you will be changing the cage within the month. Good.
Unfortunately, your current tank is also very sparse. You definitely need way more foliage and vines in that tank. Remember they live in trees. They need plenty of cover for security, for shade, especially for drinking and for hunting. I would recommend fixing that as soon as possible. Use suitable live or plastic artificial plants/vines, they hold water droplets better than silk, which just absorbs water. And no dyed silk plants unless thoroughly washed free of dye first.

The carpet on the bottom serves no purpose either, except to trap fecal fluid and urates and promote bacterial and mold growth. Use paper towels instead; much easier for cleanup.
Same with the waterfall. Nice to look at; useless in a suitable cham habitat for practical and sanitation reasons.

If your cham gapes and hisses (or exhales forcibly) when you handle, he's trying to tell you something. Keep handling to a minimum. It's only stressing him needlessly.

 

[dectr6]

I was told by my vet to keep the temperatures as they are, so... I'm going to do that instead of decreasing the temperature. I've had him for three weeks and so far nothing's gone wrong, except for the... Gasping thing, but that fear was placated.

Many of the people on this site have a much better working knowledge of husbandry than a lot of vets. Several people who are giving advice have in excess of 100 chams and have raised lot's of babies. Not telling you what to do, but basking temps are much too high for a 1 month old. Good luck and keep us posted. David

 

[Veiledviscorous]

I am working on the cage and changing everything about how I care for my "pet" chameleon.
-I am going to take back the waterfall and exchange it for something that is " approved".
-I cannot order a " zoomed" blub at this time, so I have to work with what I have or look for one at one of the specialty shops here in town, and I will decrease the temperature of his cage.
-I am going to decrease the amount of time I spend with my chameleon outside of his cage to once a week.
- I will reiterate one more time- I am going to change his cage from glass to screen.
- Along with a new cage, my chameleon will have MORE foliage. I am working with a LIMITED budget, and I have had my chameleon for three weeks. It is a work in progress.


Is there anything BESIDES the above mentioned, that I need to change?

 

[Veiledviscorous]

.:[UPDATE]:.

I just bought a 16.5" x 16.5" x 27" screen cage, and some more plants for Viscorous. He seems to enjoy his new enclosure, but on the downside he seems to be getting dehydrated, remains in the basking area for hours and I have yet to see fecal matter in his new cage... I am misting his cage often, and I am doing what I can to make sure that he's okay.

 

[dectr6]

Are you spraying him directly with warm water?

 

[Veiledviscorous]

Are you spraying him directly with warm water?

When the cage is sprayed, he generally gets hit...

And he deficated earlier, my suspsicion was confirmed, the urates had a very light yellow coloration.

 

[dectr6]

Find something that produces a very fine mist and spray him directly over his whole body and face for at least 5 full minutes. I know he's small but if you use a VERY fine mist this won't hurt him at all or cause him to breath it in. I do this to mine at least twice a day and have since he was 2 months old. Have done other chameleons the same size as yours. This should cause his drinking reflex to kick in. Your going to have to do something to get him drinking. Does he have lots of folaige to hold water droplets. Are you also using a dripper? Let me know how it works for you. David

 

[Chamero]

Hey viscorous, It seems like your cham is doing a lot better. People on this forum have lots of experience with chams and a lot of the advice is sound and supported through years of cham keeping. After all, were all doing it for fun and not a job. So it seems like you have a better enclosure for your cham. I would say him spending so much time at the basking spot is normal given the time of year. I would just recommend getting a feeding cup near or under his basking spot. This way he has everything basically brought to him, water included with nearby leaves. Then make sure to gutload your feeders with vegies as well as other because it adds to the moisture. Good luck.

 

[Veiledviscorous]

Hey viscorous, It seems like your cham is doing a lot better. People on this forum have lots of experience with chams and a lot of the advice is sound and supported through years of cham keeping. After all, were all doing it for fun and not a job. So it seems like you have a better enclosure for your cham. I would say him spending so much time at the basking spot is normal given the time of year. I would just recommend getting a feeding cup near or under his basking spot. This way he has everything basically brought to him, water included with nearby leaves. Then make sure to gutload your feeders with vegies as well as other because it adds to the moisture. Good luck.

The only problem with the cup feeding is that the foliage is too high up for any cup and certainly his tongue to reach any sort of meal. He deficated again, and it looked like a gooey glopb of brown with a white cap. I am going to PetsMart tonight and I will be purchasing a mister/dropper/spray bottle... For an unfathomable amount of money, but I do believe it will be enough. He seems to be somewhat stressed out in his new cage, but I'm going to give him time to adjust accordingly.

Both were done today, the longer one is from early this morning and the globular one was done about half an hour ago.

I have a shower head that can change phases. There is a mister phase that produces a very fine mist, would it be okay to use that on him for a few minutes? The mist gentler than the one seen in grocery store misters for the vegetables...

 

[Julirs]

You can get garden pump up style sprayers at Home Depot or Lowes for around $7.00-they end up being the same thing that Petsmart sells for $18.00 or more. From your poop description it sounds like all is well if there is a white part and a brown part. I will again caution you about your temps-babies will literally cook themselves to death in no time. I would have him no higher than 80 degrees.

 

[Veiledviscorous]

You can get garden pump up style sprayers at Home Depot or Lowes for around $7.00-they end up being the same thing that Petsmart sells for $18.00 or more. From your poop description it sounds like all is well if there is a white part and a brown part. I will again caution you about your temps-babies will literally cook themselves to death in no time. I would have him no higher than 80 degrees.

With his new cage, the temperature is maintained at about 73 degrees and I am going to lower the foliage just a bit to ensure that he is not getting too hot.

 

[Veiledviscorous]

I might be a little too... Paranoid, but just recently, like, five minutes ago I noticed Vis's head drooping. I don't know if he was eyeing a cricket, or what but it bothered me. He has NEVER done it before... -Panic stricken.- He's not, not doing anything ( I.e. he still eats, and is still being misted ( I never see him drink but I know he does)) Gah... What's with the head drooping?

 

[Julirs]

Describe head drooping???

 

[Veiledviscorous]

He's sitting on one of his plants and his head is just down, like to the side. His eyes look sleepy and he's not really moving much. I guess it could be that it's getting close to lights out, but... I don't know.

 

[Julirs]

Doesn't seem to be anything to worry about. He may have been tired or looking at something. Wait until he gets older when he will contort his body to absorb heat and climbs things in all kind of wacky ways!

 

[dectr6]

He should already be asleep by now. Time your lights to the sun. Sunup..lights on, Sundown...lights out. Mine usually asleep by 6:00. Gets up about 6:45.

 

[Veiledviscorous]

Quick question.
How big does your chameleon have to be before you can begin feeding him small or medium mealworms? Vis is approx. 5.0" long. I've waited to get mealies, for this exact reason, I don't know if he can eat them... If he can... Then how do I feed them to him?

 

[Vegas Chad]

I prefer not to feed meal worms, hard shell and overall all of my chams really seem to not like them much. Some people do like to feed them, however I just dont. Your chameleon can eat anything the size of the space between his eyeballs as a rule of thumb. Figure that wax and other soft worms can fit in as well even tho they are larger.