Carpet Chameleon

I just got a Carpet Chameleon last week and it seems to be doing fine. I would appreciate any pointers from anyone who has Carpets or just general info. It is a young adult, wild caught, female (I think). I have it in a wire mesh cage with a ficus and some jungle vine in a room that is heated to about 72 degrees. I spray 4-5 times a day as well as put a drip cup on her at least twice a day. Feeding Crickets and waxworms. I will be bringing her to a vet early next week.
Mercury Vapor 60watt bulb and supplementing mineral once a week and Calcium every day. Please let me know what I need to change or add/remove to help acclimate her - I know that these chameleons are very 'fragile' or 'hard to keep in captivity'. Thanks!

judeszoo said:

I know that these chameleons are very 'fragile' or 'hard to keep in captivity'. Thanks!

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Yikes! They are? No one ever told me that

Well, it's wild caught so there are of course more risks and no way of knowing how old she is if adult size. Most likely she will have some parasites that should be dealt with so the vet is a good idea. Oh, and I said she because males and their tail bulge are pretty obvious. If it's not packin', it's a female.

I'm sure Chad will be along to add something, he keeps the lat lats. Until then there's an article about them in the May 06 issue of http://www.chameleonnews.com/

carpet chameleons

Very occasionally i've come across some carpet chameleons that are CB. I'm dying to get one that is CB. They are such beautiful creatures.

judeszoo said:

I just got a Carpet Chameleon last week and it seems to be doing fine. I would appreciate any pointers from anyone who has Carpets or just general info. It is a young adult, wild caught, female (I think). I have it in a wire mesh cage with a ficus and some jungle vine in a room that is heated to about 72 degrees. I spray 4-5 times a day as well as put a drip cup on her at least twice a day. Feeding Crickets and waxworms. I will be bringing her to a vet early next week.
Mercury Vapor 60watt bulb and supplementing mineral once a week and Calcium every day. Please let me know what I need to change or add/remove to help acclimate her - I know that these chameleons are very 'fragile' or 'hard to keep in captivity'. Thanks!

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Ahem… Lat. Lat???

I actually have 2 new females inbound to me… Fresh out of the sack and showing gravid coloration, with any luck they will be good eggs and not infertile… Again… Happy day late birthday to me! And with more luck I might be even to roust up some more in Jan… But we shall see when that month rolls around. Kent, I have been asking about majors out the wazoo but the most common answer is “huh?” which will give you some idea of the progress that I am making with that.

-How big of a cage do you have her in?

-4 to 5 times a day misting is fine. Usually fresh WC will drink like they are camel or something after a few months they calm down a bit. I let my cages dry out in between misting; they don’t seem to like it overly damp, which is not to be confused with high humidity. 2 drip cups a day might be a little much, I would cut back to one a day… Or an all day slooooow drip.

-What is the temp under that bulb? 60w halogen will put off some mondo heat! That is about what I use on my dragons!!! The do love to bask though! Try to bump up the room temp a little and cut back the wattage on the basking light. Something like an 80w regular light bulb, I like the revile brand from GE… Then get a 5.0 tube bulb for above it…

-Now that she is not out in the sun you are going to have to give her some D3… Do that however you like. Some say once a month, twice a week. I do a *little* every week… Then mineral no D3 once a week… Cal 3 times a week…And again a *little* herpvie once a week… Sunday they get naked bugs or more cal for the girls… This is what works for me; but do whatever you think is best for yours.

-Actually they are very hardy chameleons that are easy to care for once you get the kinks worked out and the parasites gone. They are full of personality and all of mine will eat right out of my hand! They do like a lot more brush-ie type cages with lots of places to hide. Give her a week to be alone then you can start to keep more of an eye on her. They are really fun chameleons!

Do you have a picture? My little pic is a baby carpet actually...

Here is a girl... Note no bumb of the base of the tail = girl


And a boy here... Bump at the bottomof his tail = male.


Enough for now... my fingers hurt if you have more questions shoot me a PM... Maybe Dean will jump in too.. I know he has some.

Screened cage with a nice full plant or two with lots of little branches and a basking site of 85 so you can see them once in awhile. Mine are captive bred and are still very shy its in there nature I guess. I also water them twice a day in the winter and three or more times a day in the summer. I had wc and they lived for awhile and got eggs from them but they were infertile. I think wc breed to early and this is one reason they expire early. Feed them small insects that was one of my mistakes when I first started keeping them.

Wakey wakey you lot, it's afternoon here in London!

Hi, I'm about to get some Carpets too. There's a CB female for sale in a shop near where I live and I know someone else that keeps Major's but I don't know if the shop female is Major or Minor....?!

Anyway, I have a large viv set up ready, I am interested to know:

1) can use a waterfall alone in the viv (as I do with my yems) and only spray occassionally...if at all? I have been to Madagascar, was there for 6 months and I saw many of this species. In the dry season (6 months worth) in the south it wasn't really that humid, hot but not humid, so I am wondering why they should be sprayed 4 times per day..always?

2) Do you need an incubator or can you keep the eggs the same way as yemen eggs?

3) at what age would the young have to be separated?

Anyway, your experience and advice of keeping them in captivity will greater so I bow to that and hope to hear from anyone who's interested!

Ha ha! I just posted on your thread before I read this. I haven't had mine very long so I am trying to gather all the info I can. All I can say is that she is totally awesome. She's wildcaught so she's still going through the acclimation phase - so far so good. Let me know when you get yours, and please post pics!!

shinybeetels! waterfall
this topic is a huge concern! not only for me, but on this forum in general.
Think of a waterfall as this bacteria bath/pool. it harbors the growth of these
little buggers. i really think you should consider losing it and replacing with a dripper and mister. for your chameleons sake

pics of my Carpet Cham. "Dazzle"

Yep that is a girl carpet all right. Give her another shed or two and she will look even better!

Yep that is a girl carpet all right.

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And most likely gravid! She's huge. I hope you have a lay bucket in the cage with her.

I think you are doing a great job acclimating her - she looks very good - but she is still slightly dehydrated so up her misting sessions and/or increase the humidity until she is 100%.

Cheers!
Trace

She just did a shed and boy was it quick! She had almost all of it off of her in no time!! I will definitely put a lay box in right away and will up her mistings. I'm just curious how you can tell that she is still dehydrated? I'm not recognizing the signs... I really appreciate all the help! It's funny, you do some research on things then when you get one you still ask the same stuff that you were researching - I guess it's kinda like when something happens to your own kid it is totally different than someone else's. I am really enjoying her alot!! I have Blue Bar Ambilobe Panthers but my brother and I share them and he has 'custody' so this little girl is 'all mine'.
Thanks again!

judeszoo said:

I'm just curious how you can tell that she is still dehydrated? I'm not recognizing the signs... I really appreciate all the help!

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I've been keeping chams a while now so there are subtle things I notice. Her casque could be a little more filled out, but that could also be an indicator of old age. Her eyes could be a little more bulgey as well - but maybe that's just the pics. No matter what, extra water and humidity is not going to hurt her in the short term.

As I said before, she does look good. I've seen a lot, A LOT, worse looking WC and CB animals than her, A fast, complete shed is also good sign. Feed her a variety of gutloaded bugs and try not to handle her.

Glad you are enjoying her. Keep us posted on her progress.
Cheers
t