Hi to all,
This is more of pre-emptive set of questions to ensure I'm doing all the right things, rather than continue on and have something go wrong in the future.
After purchasing a female veiled for my girlfriend 3 1/2 months ago, I myself was fascinated and taken by owning a chameleon, as i rather enjoyed the husbandry and general care of the animal. About 15 days ago while layed up in bed with Mono (what a nasty illness) my parents surprised me with a female Flap-necked Chameleon and all the accessories. After naming her Wasabi, I set out to do all the reading I could - and this is basically taking it to the next step by getting an individual assessment.
Now on to the questions.
My best guess for the age of the animal would be in the 3-4 month range. We were unable to get an exact DOB, and according to my parents the employee at the pet store was rather uninformed on chameleons. She has a body length of about 3 inches from nose to vent, and is obviously still a baby.
She is currently residing in a 65 gallon flex tank, on which sits a 20" UV strip and a 100 watt basking spot lamp. The lights are supported with a custom cut plexiglass support to make sure no accidents happen. I have yet to have the chance to obtain a thermometre for exact ambient temps in her cage (again, having Mono keeps you housebound for a while) but I will very soon. If i had to ballpark the temps currently, it would be somewhere between 85 and 90 basking, and roughly 70 or 75 for the rest of the cage - with the temps dropping to about 60 at night. I spray her cage with warm water 3 times daily to keep the humidity up. Her cage is located in a nearly 0 traffic area, with the only people entering the room being myself to feed her or for chammy watching.
Obviously I see the flaw in not having exact temps at the moment, but i'll be getting on that ASAP as soon as im well enough. Any recommendations as to ideal conditions would be great.
As for feeding and water.
This is the part that seems a little out of the ordinary for me. Having experience with a veiled, Wasabi seems entirely different when it comes to eating. My girlfriends chameleon has a healthy appetite, and aggressively persues every cricket in the cage until she has eaten them all (usually 6-8 in a sitting). My chameleon seems very passive when it comes to eating, and rarely persues a cricket with the intention of eating it. I have only seen her track her own food 4 times, and in each case it was only 1 cricket. After talking to my parents, they said her housing at the pet store was ill constructed and literally jammed with somewhere between 50 to 60 crickets in a 30 gallon enclosure, which caused some damage to the animal as the crickets were chewing on the base of her tail.
Being concerned that she was not getting enough food, I decided that I would begin hand feeding her to ensure that she was eating enough. Now all the information that I could gather advised against overhandling for fear of stressing the animal, but I didnt want her to starve either.
Contrary to my girlfriends veiled who is quite fiesty (she hisses when you get anywhere near her) my flap necked is very docile, and as far as I can tell, the practice of hand feeding is actually an enjoyable part of her day. After a few days, she began coming towards me when i would unzip the cage and willingly crawl into my hand. She no longer expresses a stressed colour change upon removal from her cage, and her appetite has shot through the roof. Beginning this practice a week ago, she has ramped up her eating from 2 crickets per day, to 3 crickets 2 times per day. I am dusting her crickets with calcium power & vitamins 3 to 4 times per week. Crickets are roughly 1/4 inch in size and I present them until she loses interest.
Now my question is - is it normal to have her only respond to food in the hand feeding scenario? She has access to crickets in her cage, but rarely touches them. Upon removal and direct hand feeding where I grab a cricket by the leg and hold it still for her, she becomes excited and fully willing to eat.
After feeding she is placed back in the cage and I give the plants under her basking lamp a good spray with water, which she usually takes a good drink from. She has access to water all through the day with a dripper that hits some leaves and falls into a running fountain.
Overall observations:
After hand feeding her appearance has improved 10 fold. I believe she was being improperly cared for at the store, and am quite happy to get her out of there. She has gained a bit of weight, and her skin has healed where she was getting chewed. She has active eyes, and is constantly looking around the cage. Her front legs look a bit on the small side, but that could just be me. Her overall activity within the cage is fairly limited, but she does move around a bit - albeit quite slowly and cautiously. Her grip is strong, both with feet and tail. Typical colouration is a medium to light shade of green, with a stressed colouration of bright yellow with green polka dots.
As you have probably gathered, I am quite a cautious pet owner. Any advise/tips/criticism is welcomed.
Thanks
This is more of pre-emptive set of questions to ensure I'm doing all the right things, rather than continue on and have something go wrong in the future.
After purchasing a female veiled for my girlfriend 3 1/2 months ago, I myself was fascinated and taken by owning a chameleon, as i rather enjoyed the husbandry and general care of the animal. About 15 days ago while layed up in bed with Mono (what a nasty illness) my parents surprised me with a female Flap-necked Chameleon and all the accessories. After naming her Wasabi, I set out to do all the reading I could - and this is basically taking it to the next step by getting an individual assessment.
Now on to the questions.
My best guess for the age of the animal would be in the 3-4 month range. We were unable to get an exact DOB, and according to my parents the employee at the pet store was rather uninformed on chameleons. She has a body length of about 3 inches from nose to vent, and is obviously still a baby.
She is currently residing in a 65 gallon flex tank, on which sits a 20" UV strip and a 100 watt basking spot lamp. The lights are supported with a custom cut plexiglass support to make sure no accidents happen. I have yet to have the chance to obtain a thermometre for exact ambient temps in her cage (again, having Mono keeps you housebound for a while) but I will very soon. If i had to ballpark the temps currently, it would be somewhere between 85 and 90 basking, and roughly 70 or 75 for the rest of the cage - with the temps dropping to about 60 at night. I spray her cage with warm water 3 times daily to keep the humidity up. Her cage is located in a nearly 0 traffic area, with the only people entering the room being myself to feed her or for chammy watching.
Obviously I see the flaw in not having exact temps at the moment, but i'll be getting on that ASAP as soon as im well enough. Any recommendations as to ideal conditions would be great.
As for feeding and water.
This is the part that seems a little out of the ordinary for me. Having experience with a veiled, Wasabi seems entirely different when it comes to eating. My girlfriends chameleon has a healthy appetite, and aggressively persues every cricket in the cage until she has eaten them all (usually 6-8 in a sitting). My chameleon seems very passive when it comes to eating, and rarely persues a cricket with the intention of eating it. I have only seen her track her own food 4 times, and in each case it was only 1 cricket. After talking to my parents, they said her housing at the pet store was ill constructed and literally jammed with somewhere between 50 to 60 crickets in a 30 gallon enclosure, which caused some damage to the animal as the crickets were chewing on the base of her tail.
Being concerned that she was not getting enough food, I decided that I would begin hand feeding her to ensure that she was eating enough. Now all the information that I could gather advised against overhandling for fear of stressing the animal, but I didnt want her to starve either.
Contrary to my girlfriends veiled who is quite fiesty (she hisses when you get anywhere near her) my flap necked is very docile, and as far as I can tell, the practice of hand feeding is actually an enjoyable part of her day. After a few days, she began coming towards me when i would unzip the cage and willingly crawl into my hand. She no longer expresses a stressed colour change upon removal from her cage, and her appetite has shot through the roof. Beginning this practice a week ago, she has ramped up her eating from 2 crickets per day, to 3 crickets 2 times per day. I am dusting her crickets with calcium power & vitamins 3 to 4 times per week. Crickets are roughly 1/4 inch in size and I present them until she loses interest.
Now my question is - is it normal to have her only respond to food in the hand feeding scenario? She has access to crickets in her cage, but rarely touches them. Upon removal and direct hand feeding where I grab a cricket by the leg and hold it still for her, she becomes excited and fully willing to eat.
After feeding she is placed back in the cage and I give the plants under her basking lamp a good spray with water, which she usually takes a good drink from. She has access to water all through the day with a dripper that hits some leaves and falls into a running fountain.
Overall observations:
After hand feeding her appearance has improved 10 fold. I believe she was being improperly cared for at the store, and am quite happy to get her out of there. She has gained a bit of weight, and her skin has healed where she was getting chewed. She has active eyes, and is constantly looking around the cage. Her front legs look a bit on the small side, but that could just be me. Her overall activity within the cage is fairly limited, but she does move around a bit - albeit quite slowly and cautiously. Her grip is strong, both with feet and tail. Typical colouration is a medium to light shade of green, with a stressed colouration of bright yellow with green polka dots.
As you have probably gathered, I am quite a cautious pet owner. Any advise/tips/criticism is welcomed.
Thanks