georg_the_cham
Member
Hey all, first time cham owner so I‘m probably over careful but I‘m just trying to give my cham a good life.
Georg is about 9 months old and is in my care for about 3-4 weeks. I built the enclosure myself out of wood - it‘s about 120cm in height x 86cm width and 60cm long. The „walls“ are all an aluminium mesh/screen. I use live plants - a money tree, a ficus and a pothos. Some live branches from the garden for him to climb on.
Unfortunatly it seems kind of hard in my homecountry to find linear UVB bulbs, I mostly found UV with heat bulbs (like a combination of both). I talked a while with the guy from the shop I got Georg from and he told me he is breeding chams for about 15 years and now mostly uses this kind of bulbs. So due to a lack of alternatives I got this combination bulb in 75watts and placed it in a dome ontop of my enclosure with enough space between the basking branch and the bulb (according to the information on the bulbs package).
Due to not really finding other good feeders except for crickets, I mostly feed him that (gutloading with carrots, some cucumber, a little salad and oatmeal or breadcrumbs). I feed him about 10 +- crickets every day, dusted with plain calcium (btw -> is that enough/ to much?)
He was going through a shedd about a week ago - a little skin-to-shed is still present.
BUT - I noticed that he is not really moving all that much throughout the day. He mostly stays on one of his basking branches, maybe moving a bit back and forth. Also most of the time his skin is in a dark green kind of color (i guess to absorb the heat better), but the temps should actually be fine. I meassured about 28-32 deg Celsius on the basking spots he uses. The ambient temp in his enclosure is somewhere between 23-25 deg Celsius. So I would assume his body temp should be high enough, but the fact he isn‘t really „exploring“ or doing kind of anything else except for sitting in the basking area and beeing darker makes me wonder if he needs it warmer or if something else is of.
His poop looks normal, urinat is whitish and paste like and he currently poops every day. I read that cham poop should be odor less, but his poop still smells a bit, not really bad or anything (if i squish it while picking it up the smell gets more intense, like when you step in dog poo)
His eyes arent sunken in and overall he doesnt look to weak. In my opinion is the crest on his head a bit small for his age, but his whole body was actually kind of small for his age when I first got him. In the first few days I noticed an increase of body on him, so I figured the guy I got him from didn‘t feed him enough to grow normally….
Sometimes I notice him kind of „lying“ on the basking branch - like resting his head and belly more than he would when sitting. But his eyes are open all the time, as far as I can tell.
Maybe one of you can help me out or provide some information or feedback so I can achieve a good life for Georg
If you need more infos from my side please ask and I will be happy to provide them! I can attache pictures tomorrow as it‘s now nighttime and lightsout.
Big thanks in advance and wish you all the best,
Chris
Georg is about 9 months old and is in my care for about 3-4 weeks. I built the enclosure myself out of wood - it‘s about 120cm in height x 86cm width and 60cm long. The „walls“ are all an aluminium mesh/screen. I use live plants - a money tree, a ficus and a pothos. Some live branches from the garden for him to climb on.
Unfortunatly it seems kind of hard in my homecountry to find linear UVB bulbs, I mostly found UV with heat bulbs (like a combination of both). I talked a while with the guy from the shop I got Georg from and he told me he is breeding chams for about 15 years and now mostly uses this kind of bulbs. So due to a lack of alternatives I got this combination bulb in 75watts and placed it in a dome ontop of my enclosure with enough space between the basking branch and the bulb (according to the information on the bulbs package).
Due to not really finding other good feeders except for crickets, I mostly feed him that (gutloading with carrots, some cucumber, a little salad and oatmeal or breadcrumbs). I feed him about 10 +- crickets every day, dusted with plain calcium (btw -> is that enough/ to much?)
He was going through a shedd about a week ago - a little skin-to-shed is still present.
BUT - I noticed that he is not really moving all that much throughout the day. He mostly stays on one of his basking branches, maybe moving a bit back and forth. Also most of the time his skin is in a dark green kind of color (i guess to absorb the heat better), but the temps should actually be fine. I meassured about 28-32 deg Celsius on the basking spots he uses. The ambient temp in his enclosure is somewhere between 23-25 deg Celsius. So I would assume his body temp should be high enough, but the fact he isn‘t really „exploring“ or doing kind of anything else except for sitting in the basking area and beeing darker makes me wonder if he needs it warmer or if something else is of.
His poop looks normal, urinat is whitish and paste like and he currently poops every day. I read that cham poop should be odor less, but his poop still smells a bit, not really bad or anything (if i squish it while picking it up the smell gets more intense, like when you step in dog poo)
His eyes arent sunken in and overall he doesnt look to weak. In my opinion is the crest on his head a bit small for his age, but his whole body was actually kind of small for his age when I first got him. In the first few days I noticed an increase of body on him, so I figured the guy I got him from didn‘t feed him enough to grow normally….
Sometimes I notice him kind of „lying“ on the basking branch - like resting his head and belly more than he would when sitting. But his eyes are open all the time, as far as I can tell.
Maybe one of you can help me out or provide some information or feedback so I can achieve a good life for Georg
If you need more infos from my side please ask and I will be happy to provide them! I can attache pictures tomorrow as it‘s now nighttime and lightsout.
Big thanks in advance and wish you all the best,
Chris