My new baby veiled chameleon

Went to the reptile show in town here, and bought a baby veiled chameleon. I'm told he's about 1 month old, and I was hoping I could get some advice on caring for him. I've attached a pictures of my current setup. It's a bit sparse right now, I'm going to run out tomorrow and try to pick up some plants for it. Any recommendations? Things to avoid? I've got an ExoTerra Reptile UVB 100 and an ExoTerra 50W Infrared Basking Spot lamp, which were recommended by the people at the show.

I bought a dozen small crickets for him, but I'm not sure if he's eaten any yet. He seems to want to hang out at the top. You can see him in the picture near the UV light. He was over by the IR bulb earlier.

Any suggestions on things to change, add, or remove?

Thanks in advance

well lost the water dish they drink from water on the leave you need to mist them. And heres a safe list of plants http://www.flchams.com/safe_plant_list.asp

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/

Welcome to the forum! Here is a link to the Chameleon Care Sheet. It will tell you a lot! You will deffinitily need a bit of foliage. 1-month-old is very young so I would keep the leaves small. Pothos and schefflera (sp?) or umbrella plants seems really popular. There is a safe plant list somewhere in the posted link. If you put in too much your little one may have a hard time finding it's food.

You will probably want to add a water dripper. A very large majority of chams don't recognize standing water and will only drink from water running off if leaves. I've heard some people say their cham will drink from a dish, but it is definitely not the norm. You can do something as simple as poke a very small hole in a plastic cup or bucket.

Also, you need a UVB light. Most people would recommend the linear style.

Are you gut loading your feeder bugs? To get the most nutritional value out of your bugs you should feed them a good variety of fruits and veggies. There are also some very good commercial gut loads such as Repashy Bug Burger and Cricket Crack. There are others but these are the two that come to mind. It is best to avoid ones like those orange cubes you can buy at pet stores. They will keep the cricket alive but so very little for the chameleon.

Do you have a supplement schedule? I'm not sure what is best for a Cham this young but in general, you should supplement (dust feeder bugs) with calcium powder at ever feeding, calcium powder with D3 twice each month, and dust with a powder multivitiman twice each month. All you need is a very tiny pinch. You don't want the bugs caked in powder just lightly dusted.

I'm sure there are things I am forgetting. Hopefully others chime in.

Thanks for the advice so far. I've got an ExoTerra Reptile UVB 100 bulb on there (Left hand side in the picture). It was recommended by a vendor at the reptile show where I picked him up. Is this sufficient?

I'll be picking up some plants tonight or tomorrow morning, and I'll add a drip cup too. I figured the water bowl wouldn't hurt to raise the humidity a bit, as my house is very dry. Any other advice on raising the humidity? If my hygrometer (top left) is accurate, it's at about 30 now, which from my understanding is much too low.

Also, how much should I be feeding him? How long is the dozen crickets I got him going to keep him? Anything else I should try feeding him?

DevinBaillie said:

Thanks for the advice so far. I've got an ExoTerra Reptile UVB 100 bulb on there (Left hand side in the picture). It was recommended by a vendor at the reptile show where I picked him up. Is this sufficient?

I'll be picking up some plants tonight or tomorrow morning, and I'll add a drip cup too. I figured the water bowl wouldn't hurt to raise the humidity a bit, as my house is very dry. Any other advice on raising the humidity? If my hygrometer (top left) is accurate, it's at about 30 now, which from my understanding is much too low.

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Water bowls can breed bacteria so it isn't recommended. Adding live plants will definitely help keep humidity up. Typically, you want a humidity peek and then a drop. Peek humidity varies depending on the type of ch you have. I would recommend misting the enclosure with a regular spray bottle several times a day, allowing things to detour and levels to drop in between. In the future you may want to invest in an automatic misting machine. They are great to have if you are not around to mist every 2-4 hours, which is typical. AquaZamp and Mist King are a couple of the more popular brands. They can be on the higher end of the budget but are worth it!

I'm not much help on the light. But I use a regular 60w house bulb for basking and a 15w T8 fluorescent bulb for UVB. They do not need any heat or UVB at night unless your temps drop below 60 degrees at night. They need about a 10 degree drop in temp I order to slow their metabolism and get proper sleep.

DevinBaillie said:

Also, how much should I be feeding him? How long is the dozen crickets I got him going to keep him? Anything else I should try feeding him?

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He can eat anywhere from 1-dozen to 2-dozen crickets each day. At this age there is no limit. Consider them teenage boys I would get a 15 gallon tote, cut a hole in the lid and glue on some screen. Throw on some toilet paper tubes or egg cartons and buy 200-300 crickets at a time. If you buy too many at a time they will grow to big before he will get to eat them. You can gut load them all from the start, or have a smaller container that you keep tomorrow's feeders in, with the gut load. You want to gut load them about 24-hours before you give them to your guy.

BKFritz said:

He can eat anywhere from 1-dozen to 2-dozen crickets each day. At this age there is no limit. Consider them teenage boys I would get a 15 gallon tote, cut a hole in the lid and glue on some screen. Throw on some toilet paper tubes or egg cartons and buy 200-300 crickets at a time. If you buy too many at a time they will grow to big before he will get to eat them. You can gut load them all from the start, or have a smaller container that you keep tomorrow's feeders in, with the gut load. You want to gut load them about 24-hours before you give them to your guy.

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I should add...since he is new, it may take him a day or two (or 3 or 4) to get adjusted and develop his appetite. If he doesn't show much interest in food these first few day, don't be overly concerned. At this point keeping him hydrated is far more important. Offer him food and let him do his thing, just remember to remove any un-eaten bugs before light out otherwise they may try and feed on you Cham.

Congratulations for your little boy! Who did you buy him from ?
One month is pretty early, they should be sold when they are 2,5-3 months old, but you have him now so that is not a question.
I can tell how I did/do too:
I have a small screen cage. No substrate on the bottom! I had hand towels but I didn't have the Mist king back then.
I truly recommend the Mist king! It is worth it!
And if you had that you'll need drainage system (you can find good ideas on the enclosure section).
Definitely a lot foliage a live plant can raise the humidity. You have to see how much and how long the mist king should run, it depends on the humidity in the room he is in. Or until you get the Mist king, spray warm water. If your tapwater is not good, use kettle.
As the other member said, you'll need to dust the feeders with calcium without D3 every feedings, multivitamin and calcium with D3 two times a month.
Recommended to feed as many feeders to your cham as many he can eat , while he is young. Mine was a girl and she ate 15-18 crix a day, and some worms.The more variety the better just make sure they are not too big( the width sholudn't be wider as the distance between his two eyes.)
Sandrachameleon has excellent blogs about feeders and gutloading! Gutloading is very-very important!
I Use Exo terra 5.0 Uvb bulb in the small cage and 10.0 Reptisun fluorescent tube in the big permanent enclosure. You can let the lights be on 12 hours a day in the summertime and 10-11 hours a day in the wintertime but you can just run it 12 hours the whole year, it is up to you.
The basking lamp: I use 75 watts basking lamp, some people just 60 watt. It depends on how far is his basking spot from the lamp, how warm it is. You can find the temperatures on the care sheet.
No lights at night, nothing at all! He is a baby, so if he is in your bedroom for ex., he can get use to your night lamp, or you can just cover the cage for the night. Mine got used to it easily.
Read the care sheet, it tells you everything! That's all now I think of. You are at the best place to ask, this forum helped me a lot! And still does!
Good luck with your cute little boy and just ask anytime!

BKFritz said:

He can eat anywhere from 1-dozen to 2-dozen crickets each day. At this age there is no limit. Consider them teenage boys I would get a 15 gallon tote, cut a hole in the lid and glue on some screen. Throw on some toilet paper tubes or egg cartons and buy 200-300 crickets at a time. If you buy too many at a time they will grow to big before he will get to eat them. You can gut load them all from the start, or have a smaller container that you keep tomorrow's feeders in, with the gut load. You want to gut load them about 24-hours before you give them to your guy.

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That't what I did too, ordered online from Ontario and other feeders too. I can give you websites!
You can find great cricket container ideas on the Food section! That't how I made mine as well.

I agree with what others have said. I think the following would be the thing to do in order of priority based on your picture:

• Add foliage and climbing branches. Live plants like shefflera (umbrella plant) and pothos are some of the best and easiest to come by. You can get dowels from home depot to use as climbing branches, or use real branches if they are properly cleaned. Since it is a glass enclosure you can get branches that suction cup on the sides to run branches between.
• Make sure the plants are misted at least a few times a day so he can drink from them.
• Make sure he has a constant supply of plain calcium dusted crickets during the day. D3 calcium and multivitamin twice a week.
• Your basking and UVB bulbs are probably OK, but I would switch the red bulb with a white just so things are more natural.

Getting foliage and places for him to hide are definitely the first priority so I am glad to hear you are working on this. Having a cage that sparse is most likely causing him a lot of stress.

Also, welcome to the forums, I am glad you are here as you will certainly get a lot of great advice!

sharp229 said:

I agree with what others have said. I think the following would be the thing to do in order of priority based on your picture:

• Add foliage and climbing branches. Live plants like shefflera (umbrella plant) and pothos are some of the best and easiest to come by. You can get dowels from home depot to use as climbing branches, or use real branches if they are properly cleaned. Since it is a glass enclosure you can get branches that suction cup on the sides to run branches between.
• Make sure the plants are misted at least a few times a day so he can drink from them.
• Make sure he has a constant supply of plain calcium dusted crickets during the day. D3 calcium and multivitamin twice a week.
• Your basking and UVB bulbs are probably OK, but I would switch the red bulb with a white just so things are more natural.

Getting foliage and places for him to hide are definitely the first priority so I am glad to hear you are working on this. Having a cage that sparse is most likely causing him a lot of stress.

Also, welcome to the forums, I am glad you are here as you will certainly get a lot of great advice!

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Did you mean twice a month? Just curious because I've always been told 2 times each month.

Update: I went out and picked up a few plants last night, got them repotted and set up this morning. Here's what it looks like now:


And here he is on one of the plants:

Looking better!!! I'd still add another one of those vines in there just to give him more options. Also, if you raise one or two of the plants higher by setting it on an upside down bucket it would help fill the upper part of the cage until the plants grow in. Great start though!

BKFritz said:

Looking better!!! I'd still add another one of those vines in there just to give him more options. Also, if you raise one or two of the plants higher by setting it on an upside down bucket it would help fill the upper part of the cage until the plants grow in. Great start though!

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Ok, I'll lift up the plants a bit when I get home. About the vine, that one came with the terrarium (I bought it second hand), but I've noticed it's pretty expensive. I'm wondering if I can substitute rope from the hardware store, to add some colour and save some money at the same time?

How long can I leave the newspaper in the bottom? Is changing it weekly enough? I'm thinking about setting the plants on a rack 1 cm off the bottom, so I can just slide paper in and out from one side. How thorough of a cleaning is needed, and how often? Is replacing the newspaper lining the bottom good enough, or more involved cleaning?

Thanks for all the advice so far, everyone!

Also, what's the best way to feed him? I've noticed the crickets that I've given him seem to hide down in and under the newspaper. Is there any way to feed him so that the crickets will go where he can get them, and preferably to minimize the chances of them escaping as well?

zsazsa85 said:

That't what I did too, ordered online from Ontario and other feeders too. I can give you websites!
You can find great cricket container ideas on the Food section! That't how I made mine as well.

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The website would be very helpful, thanks!

What a cutie ^_^ I have the same kind of tank you have. The guy at the petstore did tell me that heat bulbs could melt the plastic on the top of it D: have you noticed the plastic warping at all? they have small deep well ones that i have on top of mine. im a paranoid, so i thought id say something

what did you name him?

I would get a much bigger plant. One that fills the enclosure up. Your cham will need privacy and places to hide in the coming weeks.

try cup feeding him with a dish shallow enough that he will be able to climb out if he accidentally falls in, but high enough that the little crickets can't jump out. Place that cup somewhere close to him, near his vine so that he can grab them from sitting on the vine.