My little lady Cynthia has been growing really well and has been doing amazing! Today I walked in the room with her and she seems to be much darker than usual. Usually she's just a neutral green. She's showing stress lines now. She doesn't seem dehydrated, she just ate a full meal of super worms, dubia roaches, and crickets, with bee pollen and calcium without d3 dusted (I use d3 and multivitamin every other week) I also still need to figure out how to secure more branches and vines in her enclosure for some more coverage as well as more live plants so I can remove the fake plants. But I wad just wondering if anything is majorly wrong here.
Why does my chameleon look stressed
- Thread starter 2134bean
- Start date
They have the "fancier" zoomed 2x2x4 cage. Has a plastic clear door and the option of white and or red led lights that run around the outside frame on top.
I believe she's around 7 months. I'm about to put more branches at the bottom so she can access the lay bin a bit easier. But she doesn't seem to want to ever go down there or even look for a spot to lay. I know I don't always see what she's doing but all I ever see her do if just bask and sit next to her food container. I try not to overfeed her to control the egg clutch size. Just wanting to make sure I'm still on a good path with her because I really care abt her.
DonKeesh
Chameleon Enthusiast
What are the basking temps? Some evidence female veilds especially need lower temps and less food to keep clutch size small.
LukeTheLizard
Avid Member
Also, since you asked how to secure more branches to your cage, I would suggest getting some Dragon Strand Ledges. They screw on to mesh screens, and it makes it way easier to attach branches, plants, etc. 
I try to have a temperature gradient the top is around 80-85 and towards the bottom is around 75, night temps are around 70-75. My humidity levels stay 50-60 at day and around 70 at night.
I've been thinking about it but I feel like I could find a cheaper way to attach them. We screwed in a few branches and that seemed to work pretty well.Also, since you asked how to secure more branches to your cage, I would suggest getting some Dragon Strand Ledges. They screw on to mesh screens, and it makes it way easier to attach branches, plants, etc.
ERKleRose
Chameleon Enthusiast
For temps, her basking spot needs to have a digital thermometer with a probe, with the probe placed where the top of her back is when she’s on her basking branch. It should be 78-80*F. If you could get the nighttime temps down to at least 67*F, but preferably 65*F or lower, that’d be preferred. Humidity is too high during the day, it should be 30-50%, preferably on the lower end.
DonKeesh
Chameleon Enthusiast
I drill a hole through 4 branches then put one in each top corner with a zip tie through the screen over the cage frame and through the hole in branch. Then put on a horizontal branch to attach them all together and voila... Dragon ledges.
ERKleRose
Chameleon Enthusiast
Here’s some helpful images and links! If you could fill out this form in as much detail as possible, that’d be great, too!
Form: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/
Links:
Form: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/
Links:
- https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/
- https://chameleonacademy.com/veiled-chameleon-care/
- https://chameleonacademy.com/setting-up-a-chameleon-cage/
- https://chameleonacademy.com/plants/
- http://www.muchadoaboutchameleons.com/2012/04/how-to-set-up-proper-chameleon.html
- http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html
- https://caskabove.com/
- https://www.chameleons.info/en/
- https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/external-resources/
- http://www.muchadoaboutchameleons.com/
Attachments
I live in alabama and our humidity levels stay around 60% outside. How could I lower that during the day for my chameleon. Would I just need a dehumidifier? Also any suggestion on how to keep it cool because sometimes it's hard to keep everything at the right Temp
LukeTheLizard
Avid Member
I think you would just need a dehumidifier. Veiled chameleons need a humidity of around 30-50% during the day, and at night time, humidity can go up to 80-100%.
I just have an AC in my room set to 68, so at nighttime, it keeps my chams cage at that temp.
LukeTheLizard
Avid Member
You just beat me to it!
- Here is an updated one of these btw
- Your Chameleon - Veiled cham female, 7 months old.
- Handling - occasionally I feed here and lure her on to my hand just to tame her and get her used to me. Then she goes right back to her basking spot.
- Feeding - I feed mostly dubia roaches, sometimes superworms, wax worms, and hornworms as treats. Also sometimes crickets i feed her every other day and around 10-15 insects. I gutload with carrots mostly.
- Supplements - I use calcium with d3 every other Monday and on the Mondays in between I use multivitamin, also everyday I feed her I use calcium without d3 and occasionally bee pollen
- Watering - I have a dripper set up and I Mist every morning and twixe a night? Just until it spikes to around 90 so it can dry out and still be where I need it to be.ive never seen her drink but he eyes don't look sunken at all so I believe she's drinking.
- Fecal Description - I've never tested her for parasites but her poops have always looked the same and very normal from what I've researched.
- History -
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - reptibreeze led deluxe. I only use the plain white lights in it. Not the red ones.
- Lighting - I have a basking bulb which came with my old reptibreeze kit which I occasionally use only when it's too cold. I have a plant light, and an arcadia t5 uvb bulb. ( I'm about to get a new one, mine is a bit too small for this new enclosure but it works for now. 12 hrs on and 12 hrs off at night there are no lights present
- Temperature - I have 3 probes set up and the hot spot measures around 80 and the lower side around 75
- Humidity - I have a dripper set up and I Mist frequently to maintain levels. My new levels will begin to be 30-40 at day and 70 at night. I have a hygrometer probe.
- Plants - pothos and an umbrella plant. A few fake plants but they are only the hard plastic she can't eat. I'm abt to be replacing them with live plants soon.
- Placement - this enclosure is in our bedroom which has the best privacy. Not in the way on too much activity, we keep the door open and window unit on to keep good airflow.
- Location - alabama, which means it's a bit too hot and humid so I'm concerned about that but we try to keep it as consistent and at the correct levels.
- If there's anything I missed please let me know
LukeTheLizard
Avid Member
I am going to put the feedback in red. example:hello!
Also, all the experts out there, please correct me if I am wrong on any of this, as I am still learning new stuff too.
- Here is an updated one of these btw
- Your Chameleon - Veiled cham female, 7 months old.
- Handling - occasionally I feed here and lure her on to my hand just to tame her and get her used to me. Then she goes right back to her basking spot.How often do you handle her?
- Feeding - I feed mostly dubia roaches, sometimes superworms, wax worms, and hornworms as treats. Also sometimes crickets i feed her every other day and around 10-15 insects. I gutload with carrots mostly. Good variety of bugs, dubia roaches and crickets are a good staple feeder, the rest of the bugs you said are more of treat bugs. 10-15 bugs is too much. the more bugs you feed, the bigger her clutch size is going to be, which will wear her out, and shorten her lifespan. just gut loading with carrots isn't enough. Im pretty sure someone already linked a gut loading sheet, but I will link it if it's not already linked here
- Supplements - I use calcium with d3 every other Monday and on the Mondays in between I use multivitamin, also everyday I feed her I use calcium without d3 and occasionally bee pollen. I would put the bee pollen into the gutload and not directly onto the bugs.
- Watering - I have a dripper set up and I Mist every morning and twixe a night? Just until it spikes to around 90 so it can dry out and still be where I need it to be.ive never seen her drink but he eyes don't look sunken at all so I believe she's drinking.
- Fecal Description - I've never tested her for parasites but her poops have always looked the same and very normal from what I've researched. Her poop should be brown with some whitish yellowish stuff attached to it. I would get her tested for parasites just to be safe.
- History -
Cage Info:
- Cage Type - reptibreeze led deluxe. I only use the plain white lights in it. Not the red ones. Thats good, because the red lights could damage chameleons eyes. What size is your cage?
- Lighting - I have a basking bulb which came with my old reptibreeze kit which I occasionally use only when it's too cold. I have a plant light, and an arcadia t5 uvb bulb. ( I'm about to get a new one, mine is a bit too small for this new enclosure but it works for now. 12 hrs on and 12 hrs off at night there are no lights present
- Temperature - I have 3 probes set up and the hot spot measures around 80 and the lower side around 75 Pretty good temps
- Humidity - I have a dripper set up and I Mist frequently to maintain levels. My new levels will begin to be 30-40 at day and 70 at night. I have a hygrometer probe.
- Plants - pothos and an umbrella plant. A few fake plants but they are only the hard plastic she can't eat. I'm abt to be replacing them with live plants soon. Fake plants are a no go. Especially the plastic ones. even the hard plastic ones will get brittle. Veiled chameleons will eat plants, and if she tries to eat the fake plants, it could break off, and she could become impacted which could lead to death. Try to get some more live plants as soon as possible. Btw the pothos and umbrella plants are both amazing plants for chameleons.
- Placement - this enclosure is in our bedroom which has the best privacy. Not in the way on too much activity, we keep the door open and window unit on to keep good airflow.
- Location - alabama, which means it's a bit too hot and humid so I'm concerned about that but we try to keep it as consistent and at the correct levels. As some of us have said above, dehumidifier and AC unit.
- If there's anything I missed please let me know
Thank you so much! I only try to handle her once a week if that, just to get her used to me and showing her I'm here to feed her and not hurt hurt. And not enough to stress her out, if she's not feeling it that day I won't force her. I will start using more fruits and vegetables to gutload with as well as gutloading with bee pollen. I'm about to replace the fake plants with more pothos and probably a weeping fig tree. And yes I'm also about to go out and but a dehumidifier. I have a window unit but I can't run it too cold right now due to my cresties. I'm about to also get better heat lights for them so that everyone will be happy. Thank you for all of yalls feedback in helping me with my reptiles!I am going to put the feedback in red. example:hello!
Also, all the experts out there, please correct me if I am wrong on any of this, as I am still learning new stuff too.
Similar threads
