advice for new chameleon keeper

[mjdunkin]

Hi everyone, would just like to gain any help & advice about the best care for my chameleon, filled in the ask for help form as suggested.

chameleon - yemen, male, 8 weeks old, had for 2 weeks
handling - daily for 5 - 10 minutes
feeding - 3 small crickets a day, gut loaded with various vegetables, weetabix or fish flakes, taken out uneaten at night
supplements - calcium additive dusted on daily
watering - waterfall
fecal - non found
history - non

cage type - (exo terra) 18" x 18" x 24" glass with glass doors & mesh top
lighting - (exo terra)60w basking light 4" above enclosure on 12 hours per day, exo terra) 2 x uvb reptigol 5.0 lights on 4.5 hours a day
temperature - under basking light 85F, coolest place about 70F
humidity - not checked
plants - ficus plant
placement - bedroom, on chest of draws, no draughts or direct sunlight, 2FT between cage top & ceiling
location - Lincoln, England

Various questions I've got are
1 - do I still need to mist the enclosure even though i have a waterfall?
2 - should i feed anything else but crickets when it' s young?
3 - should i put in the ficus plant, if not what?
4 - should i use any sort of substrate (using bark at the minute)?
5 - how long should uvb lights be on for?

 

[carol5208]

So you are sayin in two weeks, you have found no feces? That does not seem right. Is your chameleon only eating 3 crickets a day? Babies have huge appetites and he should be eating like 12-15 a day of the small crickets. Is that all you are putting in the enclousure for him, or all he is eating. Ditch the waterfall! They are not good to have as they breed bacteria!You chameleon is probably not even drinking out of it? Have you seen him? You need to be misting your cage with a spray bottle or some other form atleast 3 times a day for 3-5 minutes. Also you could run a dripper during the day also for hydration. Chameleons do not normally drink from bowls or standing water! You need three supplements to dust your feeders with, Calcium without d3, every feeding, calcium with d3 twice a month and a multivitamin twice a month. UVB need to be on a 12 hours a day. 4.5 is not near enough! Also one 5.0, needed, not two. You basking temp could be a little lower around 80. You need to check your humidity and get it regulated to around 50% or so. You can do this with live plants and a dripper will help raise the humdity also. Yes, a ficus is good.

 

[carol5208]

You can feed a variety of other feeders but make sure they are not too large for your cham to eat. Some other choices(but not sure what is available to you in the UK) would be silkworms, locusts, dubia roaches, grasshoppers, hormworms, wax worms, meal worms(not too man on those) butterworms, phoenix worms are some choices._

 

[bradleymarky]

the uv needs to be on the same time as the heab bulb around 12 hours and then turned off at night, put it on a timer,take the bark chips out straight away and put newspaper on the bottom and take out the waterfall.
give it more crickets maybe 10-15 small ones in a cup or bowl if its only eating 3 a day it will be starving

 

[kinyonga]

Here's some information that should help...

Exposure to proper UVB, appropriate temperatures, supplements, a supply of well-fed/gutloaded insects, water and an appropriate cage set-up are all important for the well-being of your chameleon.

Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption. For baby veileds I keep the temperatures more even (8oish F) since their small bodies cool, warm, dehydrate more quickly than an adult's would. For adult males I keep the basking temperature in the high 80's and for female adult veileds I keep it in the low to mid 80's. For a basking light (which I don't use until the males are several months old) you can use a regular incandescent household light bulb of a wattage that puts the temperature in the 80's (low or high depending on the age of the chameleon).

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the Repti-sun 5.0 long linear fluorescent tube light since some others can cause problems....but so far this one hasn't.

Since many of the feeder insects have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects before you feed them to the chameleon with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it.

If you dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. (Some UVB lights have been known to cause health issues, so the most often recommended one is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light.) D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it.

Dusting twice a month with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while.

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs....so its important too. You can feed the crickets a wide assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.).

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.

Here are some good sites for you to read...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200604210...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
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[Carlton]

The links given already are great ones. Also, handling every day is going to stress him a lot. He may seem to tolerate it because he isn't threatening or bluffing you at that age, but most chams prefer a lot less handling. As he gets older you will learn the visual signs of stress by watching his color changes. The brighter and more vibrant the color, the more stress he's feeling. You can get some one-on-one interaction with him by offering him favorite foods by hand (or hold those small feeders in a small dish in your hand).

 

[Gensen]

I'm with Carol on this one!

So you are sayin in two weeks, you have found no feces? That does not seem right. Is your chameleon only eating 3 crickets a day? Babies have huge appetites and he should be eating like 12-15 a day of the small crickets. Is that all you are putting in the enclousure for him, or all he is eating. Ditch the waterfall! They are not good to have as they breed bacteria!You chameleon is probably not even drinking out of it? Have you seen him? You need to be misting your cage with a spray bottle or some other form atleast 3 times a day for 3-5 minutes. Also you could run a dripper during the day also for hydration. Chameleons do not normally drink from bowls or standing water! You need three supplements to dust your feeders with, Calcium without d3, every feeding, calcium with d3 twice a month and a multivitamin twice a month. UVB need to be on a 12 hours a day. 4.5 is not near enough! Also one 5.0, needed, not two. You basking temp could be a little lower around 80. You need to check your humidity and get it regulated to around 50% or so. You can do this with live plants and a dripper will help raise the humdity also. Yes, a ficus is good.

I second what Carol says here, I am glad you filled out the "ask for help form" this is ecactly what that form is intended to do... help you correct errors in your husbandry so that your Cham can have a happy & healthy life... not to mention proper care will lead to a long lived healthy Cham and not allot of trips to the Vet. So thank you for filling the form in, we hope to be able to help you make the needed adjustments. Good luck!