After a week with my first chameleon! Any tips??

[Jaxonii]

I have always been fascinated with biology. The uniqueness, gracefulness, and unusual features of chameleons really attracted me to this brand new hobby. After several months of research, careful consideration, and preparation, I bought a 6 month old Jackson's Chameleon.

Here is my routine for care, please let me know if I am doing anything wrong or if there are things I can improve upon.

LIGHTING

7:10 AM and turn on my 75 watt heat lamp and reptisun 5.0 UVB light. I plan on replacing them after 6 months. His basking spot does not exceed 85 degrees.

7 PM I turn off both lights and he promptly falls asleep and turns solid lime green.

FEEDING

7:10 AM I place around 2-4 small crickets in his 18x18x36 cage. I also hand feed occasional wax worms and silkworms. I gutload the crickets with Cricket Crack dry gutload as well as a medley of cut up apples, tomatoes, strawberries, oranges, and carrots. I dust with Herptivite vitamins (beta carotene NOT vitamin A) and Calcium WITHOUT D3 once every 3-5 days, as well as Calcium WITH D3 once every two weeks.

HOUSING

He is housed in an 18x18x36 all screen enclosure. He has exo-terra wines hung throughout the cage, some of those vines have fake vines wrapped around them. There are three live plants in the cage, one large umbrella tree, one small umbrella tree, one medium china doll plant. I have a thermometer and humidity meter keeping everything in check. Humidity is around %50 all the time, I mist about twice a day. The bottom of the cage has a lining of paper towels which I change every 3 days or so. I also use a dripper for about 30 minutes a day in the morning.

CLEANING

I spot clean any feces and urates in the cage, and mist with a solution of dish soap and water once a week, then rinse with water and dry. I move my chameleon out of his enclosure and into a small container when I do this.

ACTIVITY

He is very active, moving around all different spots in his cage. He basks, hides, and climbs a lot. He has never been on the floor which is a good sign. He only sleeps at night. He is very enthusiastic about food. He drinks usually right after I put the dripper on and his urates are white.





Well that's about it, please let me know what to do to make him happier. I am trying to do everything in my ability. He is pretty small at the moment (about 6 months old) and he is showing his dark patterns most of the time except when he eats drinks and sleeps. This is sort of a bad sign to me, should he be solid lime green all the time? Keep in mind this is the first week of him being in his new environment.

I am also attempting to breed silkworms so any resources for that would be great.


Here is an album of all the pictures of my setup, please take a look:
http://imgur.com/a/7pCWi#3


Thanks to all,

-Nick S.

 

[Jbujarski]

I have always been fascinated with biology. The uniqueness, gracefulness, and unusual features of chameleons really attracted me to this brand new hobby. After several months of research, careful consideration, and preparation, I bought a 6 month old Jackson's Chameleon.

Here is my routine for care, please let me know if I am doing anything wrong or if there are things I can improve upon.

LIGHTING

7:10 AM and turn on my 75 watt heat lamp and reptisun 5.0 UVB light. I plan on replacing them after 6 months. His basking spot does not exceed 85 degrees.

7 PM I turn off both lights and he promptly falls asleep and turns solid lime green.

FEEDING

7:10 AM I place around 2-4 small crickets in his 18x18x36 cage. I also hand feed occasional wax worms and silkworms. I gutload the crickets with Cricket Crack dry gutload as well as a medley of cut up apples, tomatoes, strawberries, oranges, and carrots. I dust with Herptivite vitamins (beta carotene NOT vitamin A) and Calcium WITHOUT D3 once every 3-5 days, as well as Calcium WITH D3 once every two weeks.

HOUSING

He is housed in an 18x18x36 all screen enclosure. He has exo-terra wines hung throughout the cage, some of those vines have fake vines wrapped around them. There are three live plants in the cage, one large umbrella tree, one small umbrella tree, one medium china doll plant. I have a thermometer and humidity meter keeping everything in check. Humidity is around %50 all the time, I mist about twice a day. The bottom of the cage has a lining of paper towels which I change every 3 days or so. I also use a dripper for about 30 minutes a day in the morning.

CLEANING

I spot clean any feces and urates in the cage, and mist with a solution of dish soap and water once a week, then rinse with water and dry. I move my chameleon out of his enclosure and into a small container when I do this.

ACTIVITY

He is very active, moving around all different spots in his cage. He basks, hides, and climbs a lot. He has never been on the floor which is a good sign. He only sleeps at night. He is very enthusiastic about food. He drinks usually right after I put the dripper on and his urates are white.





Well that's about it, please let me know what to do to make him happier. I am trying to do everything in my ability. He is pretty small at the moment (about 6 months old) and he is showing his dark patterns most of the time except when he eats drinks and sleeps. This is sort of a bad sign to me, should he be solid lime green all the time? Keep in mind this is the first week of him being in his new environment.

I am also attempting to breed silkworms so any resources for that would be great.


Here is an album of all the pictures of my setup, please take a look:
http://imgur.com/a/7pCWi#3


Thanks to all,

-Nick S.

Most things sound good but a few things I noticed:
1. I feel that a 75w bulb might be to hot and generally you don't want your basking spot higher than 80-82 from my experience.
2. Wax worms really shouldn't be fed as they are seen as the "junk food" of feeders.
3. Possibly add some mustard greens or arugula to your crickets gut load just to add a little more variety than just fruits.

Everything else though seems rather good IMO

 

[Action Jackson]

I agree with what was said above. Try a 60 watt bulb and raise his basking branch/vine closer to the top. I personally don't use wax worms anymore. Silks, horns,supers and crickets are good. My guys have a little problem with roaches, mostly because of their size.

I use one ficus that fills the cage top to bottom in cages that size. It gives them some space to move around. Something you might try is make a circular path with one of your vines at the height of your optimum basking spot. They love this and will cruise around in circles and get lots of exercise. I would also get rid of the paper towels, it's just a place for feeders to hide and will get moldy fast is it gets wet often.

It sounds like you are really on the ball with your new guy. Good for you! I hope you have good luck with him.

Horns rule!

 

[Miss Lily]

I would agree with what has already been suggested. Monty didn't stay happy green al the time until he was over 6 months old. I don't remember when he 'changed', it just happened and one day I realised he was green all day lol!

The circular vine thing is a good idea. I have a length of plastic fencing in Monty's viv, which is held open (in almost a 'U' shape with small branches and he has various vines running backwards and forwards from it. Jacksons are very active, Monty is the same. He will bask first thing (and stays dark and brownish) for a couple of hours then he spends most of the day wandering around, going back to bask occasionally! The thing I found with getting him so young (he was 7 weeks old) is that Jackson babies are so much more active, and until they start eating bigger food than fruit flies, they don't tend to eat much more calorie-wise than they burn off, thus the slower weight gain. Once he started eating more 'bigger' feeders, then the weight started to creep on. He is 8 months old now and still really small, I have to remember that on days when he doesn't eat he is actually at the age where he won't eat so much, even though to me he still looks small! I hope that makes sense, lol!

 

[beeek0]

I heard tomatoes are harmful to chameleons.. So I wouldnt gutload with them anymore. everything else seems nice though. good luck!

 

[Miss Lily]

I heard tomatoes are harmful to chameleons.. So I wouldnt gutload with them anymore. everything else seems nice though. good luck!

I think that tomatoes themselves are ok, it's the plant and leaves that are toxic, but I would agree that leafy greens are a better gutload than tomatoes. I would think they would make things rather soggy and messy due to the water content, much like cucumber. I wouldn't use tomato or cumber as gutload. Lettuce also has little nutritional value. Other things to avoid are Spinach and Broccoli as both these contain oxylates, which bind to the calcium thus preventing absorption by the chameleon.