Why is she not bright green?

[damionvincent]

Hi everyone

Any advice would be grateful. My female veiled 'Cleo' is 7 months old now and generally healthy. She eats well and drinks fine (even though I don't see her do it that often). I'm just wondering because I have seen a few veileds of the same age that look bright green during the day. Mine looks like a darker green and sometimes the skin looks a bit dry. But when she goes to sleep she's the bright green. I have a UVB bulb that is three months old and heat bulb (60w) and I spray her enclosure regularly during the day and calcium dust her food three times a week. When she was really little she shed quite often but her last shed was in the middle of August. She likes to come out when the sun is coming through the window so I sit her in her window tree and I have a fitting that I hang my light on for her, she's happy there. Anyways, any thoughts would be great, I have attached a picture of her (excuse my serious look!)

 

[cass737]

Do you measure the humidity in her enclosure?

 

[damionvincent]

Hi,yes I do and it's usually pretty good but difficult to stay constant as it's a mesh enclosure. Could that be a cause?

 

[CharlieCharmingo]

Do you use live plants? They keep the humidity longer. The more live plants the better.

 

[Carlton]

Hi everyone

Any advice would be grateful. My female veiled 'Cleo' is 7 months old now and generally healthy. She eats well and drinks fine (even though I don't see her do it that often). I'm just wondering because I have seen a few veileds of the same age that look bright green during the day. Mine looks like a darker green and sometimes the skin looks a bit dry. But when she goes to sleep she's the bright green. I have a UVB bulb that is three months old and heat bulb (60w) and I spray her enclosure regularly during the day and calcium dust her food three times a week. When she was really little she shed quite often but her last shed was in the middle of August. She likes to come out when the sun is coming through the window so I sit her in her window tree and I have a fitting that I hang my light on for her, she's happy there. Anyways, any thoughts would be great, I have attached a picture of her (excuse my serious look!)

As veileds age the shade of green they show tends to change. There is also a huge amount of individual variation. Babies tend to be brighter "leaf" green than adolescents, as hormones and their other markings are changing more rapidly then. They often go through a duller color phase as adolescents, and when they reach hormonal maturity it can brighten up again. Also, remember that the excitement stage a particular veiled is at affects their coloration from moment to moment. I don't think of color as very static because it is constantly affected by their hormonal state. Most chams wear a brighter lighter color while sleeping. I don't think hydration level affects their day to day color that much, but it will affect the skin texture (looking wrinkled, rougher, or patchy with bits of unshed skin). And finally, as they age their growth rate slows down so they shed less often.

I noticed your comment about your dusting schedule. Veileds should get plain calcium (no added vit D3) daily. Dust with calcium WITH added D3 once every 2 weeks, and dust with a herp multivitamin once every 2 weeks.

 

[Randall-the-Chameleon]

When I had a dark green fake tree in my Chams cage she often turned darker green but bright at night. The area around the cage and things in the cage could be affecting her color a little bit.

 

[damionvincent]

As veileds age the shade of green they show tends to change. There is also a huge amount of individual variation. Babies tend to be brighter "leaf" green than adolescents, as hormones and their other markings are changing more rapidly then. They often go through a duller color phase as adolescents, and when they reach hormonal maturity it can brighten up again. Also, remember that the excitement stage a particular veiled is at affects their coloration from moment to moment. I don't think of color as very static because it is constantly affected by their hormonal state. Most chams wear a brighter lighter color while sleeping. I don't think hydration level affects their day to day color that much, but it will affect the skin texture (looking wrinkled, rougher, or patchy with bits of unshed skin). And finally, as they age their growth rate slows down so they shed less often.

I noticed your comment about your dusting schedule. Veileds should get plain calcium (no added vit D3) daily. Dust with calcium WITH added D3 once every 2 weeks, and dust with a herp multivitamin once every 2 weeks.

Hi
Thank you so much for this advice, its puts my mind at ease a bit more and I will definitely bear in mind the supplement advice. I think I just worry a bit about her

 

[Carlton]

Hi
Thank you so much for this advice, its puts my mind at ease a bit more and I will definitely bear in mind the supplement advice. I think I just worry a bit about her

It is every cham's goal in life to make us worry about them. Completely normal and expected!

 

[Andee]

It's really important to keep to the dusting schedule with FEMALE veileds as they need help with producing eggs. And since veileds are egg producing factories and produce large amounts even when you try to control the amount they do produce, usually it only goes down to 50 eggs a clutch if your lucky, they especially need the calcium.