Baby veiled extremely shy

[Ossian]

Hi guys, I got my first juvenile veiled chameleon just over a week ago and he is very shy. He will completely freeze up and stop moving when I move around my room, only moving around his viv when he knows I’m not looking in his direction. He doesn’t respond to hand feeding at all either. I’ve also noticed it seems like he is a complete different shade to when I first got him, originally he was a light green but now he seems to permanently be a dark green! Any suggestions how to get him to trust me?

 

[nightanole]

He still thinks hes edible. Dont put your hand in the cage, ever. And try to get him to eat some treats from a cup in your hand. When he is older he will switch from eat me to trying to punk you down.

 

[Ossian]

He still thinks hes edible. Dont put your hand in the cage, ever. And try to get him to eat some treats from a cup in your hand. When he is older he will switch from eat me to trying to punk you down.

Okay thanks for the advice! But how should I clean out his poop without putting my hand in the viv?

 

[Anisa.corp]

Can you post a picture of the whole enclosure

 

[Ossian]

It’s a wooden viv with sliding glass doors, there is an pc extractor fan attached to one of the back vents to provide better ventilation. I’m using a 100w bulb attached to a habistat thermostat and a T5 12% uvb light

 

[Beman]

It’s a wooden viv with sliding glass doors, there is an pc extractor fan attached to one of the back vents to provide better ventilation. I’m using a 100w bulb attached to a habistat thermostat and a T5 12% uvb light

Hi there welcome to the forum. Unfortunately this enclosure will not work for a chameleon... THis is more for a Bearded dragon. UVB exposure will be way too high in this and there is limited air flow which raises the risk for an Respiratory infection. 100 watt bulb would produce far too high of temps. Thermal burn risk having the fixtures in the cage.
See this link for proper set up and husbandry https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/

 

[Ossian]

Hi there welcome to the forum. Unfortunately this enclosure will not work for a chameleon... THis is more for a Bearded dragon. UVB exposure will be way too high in this and there is limited air flow which raises the risk for an Respiratory infection. 100 watt bulb would produce far too high of temps. Thermal burn risk having the fixtures in the cage.
See this link for proper set up and husbandry https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/

Unfortunately I’m kinda stuck with this set up until I have a bit more money, the reptile shop kinda did me dirty by convincing me this is what I needed. I only put it the 100 watt bulb today as the 60 watt bulb I had before wasn’t hot enough with the extractor fan on ( only getting to around 24 degrees in the basking spot), hence why I put a new stronger bulb which allows the basking spot to get to the proper temps required, plus if it is too hot then the thermostat should regulate that, right? As for the UVB, the website you just linked me to says that 12% is okay at a distance of 12” which it definitely is. I keep humidity around 40% in the day, air flow is kept up by having a fan attached to the back and creating a chimney affect ( which other members on this site have said works well for their wooden vivs). The fan is switched off at night along with everything else allowing temp to drop to around 17 degrees and humidity to rise upwards of 80%. Surely this is all okay? Plus like I said before, it’s only temporary while he is still small, I plan on getting a mesh hybrid once he is bigger and I can afford it

 

[Beman]

Unfortunately I’m kinda stuck with this set up until I have a bit more money, the reptile shop kinda did me dirty by convincing me this is what I needed. I only put it the 100 watt bulb today as the 60 watt bulb I had before wasn’t hot enough with the extractor fan on ( only getting to around 24 degrees in the basking spot), hence why I put a new stronger bulb which allows the basking spot to get to the proper temps required, plus if it is too hot then the thermostat should regulate that, right? As for the UVB, the website you just linked me to says that 12% is okay at a distance of 12” which it definitely is. I keep humidity around 40% in the day, air flow is kept up by having a fan attached to the back and creating a chimney affect ( which other members on this site have said works well for their wooden vivs). The fan is switched off at night along with everything else allowing temp to drop to around 17 degrees and humidity to rise upwards of 80%. Surely this is all okay? Plus like I said before, it’s only temporary while he is still small, I plan on getting a mesh hybrid once he is bigger and I can afford it

So the UVB is accounting for screen in between rather then putting it directly in the cage. I am assuming based on your enclosure that the UVB is inside the cage not on the outside going through screen correct? This is a t5 fixture right not a T8?
How are you actually pulling your temps at basking. Because a 100 watt focused bulb is going to produce some high temps. You would want no hotter then 27 C at the basking area. Babies will dehydrate if they are exposed to high temps.

 

[Ossian]

So the UVB is accounting for screen in between rather then putting it directly in the cage. I am assuming based on your enclosure that the UVB is inside the cage not on the outside going through screen correct? This is a t5 fixture right not a T8?
How are you actually pulling your temps at basking. Because a 100 watt focused bulb is going to produce some high temps. You would want no hotter then 27 C at the basking area. Babies will dehydrate if they are exposed to high temps.

Ahhh I see thanks for clearing that up about the uvb, as a temporary measure, do you think I could put some mesh in front of the uvb to lower the lamps intensity? Until I get a proper reptibreeze of course. I’m using a digital thermometer with a probe to measure basking

 

[kinyonga]

@Ossian where do you live?

 

[Ossian]

@Ossian where do you live?

I live in the UK

 

[kinyonga]

If you cut away most of the lid and screened over it and put the lights above the screen you would get more air flow if you place the lights properly.

 

[Rhea’s mum]

A suggestion I have seen before for vivs like this as a stop gap is to flip it on its end, take the top piece of glass out and put mesh then take the end piece off and put mesh on that so you can have the lights and uvb on that so they are outside and also helps with airflow.

 

[Ossian]

If you cut away most of the lid and screened over it and put the lights above the screen you would get more air flow if you place the lights properly.

I considered this but I’m worried I will cause the baby too much stress he is very scared of me and I don’t think he will do will out of the viv right now

 

[Ossian]

A suggestion I have seen before for vivs like this as a stop gap is to flip it on its end, take the top piece of glass out and put mesh then take the end piece off and put mesh on that so you can have the lights and uvb on that so they are outside and also helps with airflow.

I’m struggling to understand the concept, could you please elaborate?

 

[Rhea’s mum]

I’m struggling to understand the concept, could you please elaborate?

So put the Viv on its end so it’s tall rather than wide like it currently is(rotate 90•). This will cause the sliding door at the top to slide down so you can take it out and replace that part with some mesh. Then either cut or unscrew what is now the top and replace this with mesh as well. Hope that explains it a bit better.

Like I said it’s only a stop gap to getting the correct setup.