Basking under uvb light

[Marc10edora]

My female juvenile cham seems to prefer to bask under the florescent uva/uvb fixture instead of the basking light. Is this strange? The basking spot hits around 78-81* F. The rest of the cage stays around 70*F. She's beginning to look a little chalky and I think she's gonna shed soon. Do chams seek more uvb rays when getting ready to shed?

 

[Jordan]

I would think that you could get the temperature up more to help out with the lazy hunting. Without being able to warm their body up good they can not travel as far without cooling off quick. The addition of more plants may have cut off the light from keeping the cage a little warmer. With a veiled I would say the 70*F is about minimual temperature for proper digestion. I would say maybe 85-88*F basking area and 75-78*F ambient temperature. If you have to remove a plant, adjust the basking bulb location, or change wattage I think you will see an increase in activity.

As far as basking under the UVb most juvenilles I have seen do this. They reconize light as heat. Your little girl is still learning so she may not have connected the dots and go under the basking lamp. Could be possible that it is just warm there to since it is at the top of the cage. My male and female adults still from time to time will lounge around under their flourescent lights. When shedding I do see an increase in basking. Whether it is related to UVb or the heat who knows.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Be careful about that basking temp.
Your girl is in an aquarium right now and that can get too hot pretty
quickly.
I would leave your temps where they are at. Your cham is not lazy. You haven't had her that long, let her settle in before you determine how active she is.

-Brad

edit: The above statement may be incorrect concerning your cham....I thought I was addressing someone else on the forums. I'm not actually aware of how your cham is housed or it's sex. Sorry...need to pay more attention!

-B.

 

[Melany]

I just got my chameleon, a couple weeks ago and just now is he seeming settled in a comfortable, basking spot is 85-95, the cool areas are about 70, he always ate really well and drank. A few days ago I noticed he was chalky, so I made super sure he was actually drinking enough from the dripper; which he did and still does. The next day he took to showering in the dripper and the next day as well, this day he ate about half of what her normally does, weird but ok, he eats a lot. The following day I woke up and he was grumpy as heck, visibly miserable and shedding. He didn't eat that much that day but drank and showered a lot and I misted a bunch of extra times, I read that makes it easier to shed. Spud was happy and healthy looking come mid-afternoon, shedding must be awful to do all at once. I know my RES franklin isn't to font of shedding either. We shed every few minutes don't we? We're lucky.
P.S I forgot to mention that my male veiled basked under the UVB light until he shed, now he sits about six inches off his normal spot under the heat lamp. They give off two different colours of light. Well mine do anyway the uvb is more orange and the heat more blue I wonder if that had something to do with it. should i move the uvb so where ever spud is hanging out it is over top of him? or leave them where they are and let him decide what he wants.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I would leave things as they are and let him decide.
Glad to hear he had a successful shed!

-Brad

 

[Marc10edora]

Be careful about that basking temp.
Your girl is in an aquarium right now and that can get too hot pretty
quickly.

-B.

My cham is a female Juvenile Veiled. She is in an aluminum mesh cage that measurers 24L x 12W x 26H. I still have trouble keeping a consistant temprature this time of year. The weather keeps changing on me. Yesterday was raining like crazy and I woke up this morning to a sunny sunrise.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Note my edit in the post above (again, sorry).
I think you'll be okay as long as the basking area stays around 80 to 90 degrees and the enclosure is not in a drafty spot.

-Brad

 

[Melany]

So leave the lights, awesome. I figured he knew what he wanted. I hear you on the temperature thing, I haven't been doing to bad I learned its way easier to maintain a temperature if I keep the door on that room shut for a major chunk of the day.