Before acquiring my baby Panther chameleon ???

[Winterhawk1960]

I have been reading......re-reading and learning over the past month or so here on the forum. Either tomorrow or Friday I am going to order (and pay for) one of the Kammer's beautiful babies. It will be at least 3 weeks before the baby will be old enough to leave their home.

My plans (unless someone changes my mind) is to order the largest full set-up that they offer on their website. I might even order the small set-up also, because I believe that chameleons truly are like Lays potato chips, in that you can't own "just one".

My questions are........what other items do you experienced keepers have that are a "must have" in order to have happy, healthy chameleons ???

I am very seriously considering a "misting system", either the AquaZamp or the MistKing. I have read all the various reviews and don't need an opinion as to "which is best".......as much as whether they are necessary and in your opinion "worth it" in as to the animals benefit and ease of care.

I am going to need to set-up a "cricket keeper" and have also done a lot of reading about the various set-ups that people have successfully used. I want something that is easy to keep clean and as easy as possible to use without much smell or mess. Is this possible........and if so, I am all ears ???

I have read and re-read the various types of "drainage systems" employed by various keepers and want something that will work well, without getting the walls and stand all wet with a misting system in place. Once again, I am all ears and open to any and all suggestions.

I've got about $1150 to play with........and that includes the cost of the baby panther. As I said, I want to set things up correctly, and to do it right the first time so that I don't have to worry about anything in the future as far as the housing of either the crickets or the chameleon is concerned.

I realize that food, suplements, and replacing bulbs in fixtures are a maintenance item and should NOT be neglected, so they aren't included in the money I have to play with.

If you feel that I have left any important items out, please point that out to me...........I have had a Panther chameleon back in the mid 1990's up until the time we had a house fire that he didn't survive. I realize that a LOT of things have changed since then and I have been like a "sponge" reading and trying to make the very best environment for our new family member.

I am a "newbie" to the site and have learned a tremendous amount by just reading. I want to thank the people that created this site and the moderators for the "thank-less" job that they do. Please help me to make the best possible decisions.......so in the future my new pet can thank-you too. I haven't been very active, since joining........because the words that my Grandmother spoke to me so many years ago.......keep ringing in my ears. "God gave you two ears and only one mouth......for a reason".

I'm sure that I will have a lot of questions that to some seem silly, but please bear with me........I just want to learn.

Winterhawk1960

 

[Winterhawk1960]

I knew I would forget "something".........

I will have plenty of time to get the cage and have everything set-up and ready.........BEFORE........the baby ever leaves the breeders facility. As I said, I just want to do it RIGHT the first time..........Thank-You, in advance for your time and effort.

Winterhawk1960

 

[wontbme]

im sorry, but i didn't read your post, just the first few lines but this is something that many people overlook

GET AN AUTOMATIC MISTER.
i was laughing at the fact that people were so lazy, and now i regret not buying one. its AMAZING to have one because you need to mist your cham several times daily. and the auto mister is perfect for that.

also: order crickets (or roaches) in massive bulk, petco is EXPENSIVE.
they go about 10 cents EAcH, when online (even in petco.com) you can get like
1000 for 10 bucks.

 

[camimom]

I have been reading......re-reading and learning over the past month or so here on the forum. Either tomorrow or Friday I am going to order (and pay for) one of the Kammer's beautiful babies. It will be at least 3 weeks before the baby will be old enough to leave their home.

My plans (unless someone changes my mind) is to order the largest full set-up that they offer on their website. I might even order the small set-up also, because I believe that chameleons truly are like Lays potato chips, in that you can't own "just one".

My questions are........what other items do you experienced keepers have that are a "must have" in order to have happy, healthy chameleons ???

I am very seriously considering a "misting system", either the AquaZamp or the MistKing. I have read all the various reviews and don't need an opinion as to "which is best".......as much as whether they are necessary and in your opinion "worth it" in as to the animals benefit and ease of care.

I am going to need to set-up a "cricket keeper" and have also done a lot of reading about the various set-ups that people have successfully used. I want something that is easy to keep clean and as easy as possible to use without much smell or mess. Is this possible........and if so, I am all ears ???

I have read and re-read the various types of "drainage systems" employed by various keepers and want something that will work well, without getting the walls and stand all wet with a misting system in place. Once again, I am all ears and open to any and all suggestions.

I've got about $1150 to play with........and that includes the cost of the baby panther. As I said, I want to set things up correctly, and to do it right the first time so that I don't have to worry about anything in the future as far as the housing of either the crickets or the chameleon is concerned.

I realize that food, suplements, and replacing bulbs in fixtures are a maintenance item and should NOT be neglected, so they aren't included in the money I have to play with.

If you feel that I have left any important items out, please point that out to me...........I have had a Panther chameleon back in the mid 1990's up until the time we had a house fire that he didn't survive. I realize that a LOT of things have changed since then and I have been like a "sponge" reading and trying to make the very best environment for our new family member.

I am a "newbie" to the site and have learned a tremendous amount by just reading. I want to thank the people that created this site and the moderators for the "thank-less" job that they do. Please help me to make the best possible decisions.......so in the future my new pet can thank-you too. I haven't been very active, since joining........because the words that my Grandmother spoke to me so many years ago.......keep ringing in my ears. "God gave you two ears and only one mouth......for a reason".

I'm sure that I will have a lot of questions that to some seem silly, but please bear with me........I just want to learn.

Winterhawk1960

Hi! And welcome. You are correct, you cant have just one!
Now as for your 'silly' questions, there is never a silly question.
Now, for the misting systems, It depends on your life style. If you are going to be home all day everyday, you can do hand mistings. If you and everyone you live with are gone all day, you should get a system.
for Cricket keepers- I use a 10 gallon fish tank with a mesh lid. After I have fed off my crickets and before I restock them, I clean the tank out. Others use big plastic tubs with a hole cut out of the llid and mesh glued over it for air. It depends on how many crickets you plan to keep. I buy in bulk of a 1000 at a time.
As for drainage systems, I dont use one. so someone else can chime in on that one.
GET LIVE PLANTS! it helps with humidity. also get proper tools to measure your temps and your humidity levels.
WHile its great you are getting the largest cage you cna, keep in mind that your cham will be tiny, and while its fine fo rhim to be in his adult cage as a baby, you will more than likely want to cup feed him so he can find his food and you can keep track of how much he is eating.
DO you know how ot cup feed?
Now, you can hand feed, however, i find this to be a pain in a##, especially since my boy eats when he damn well wants to and not when i give him his food.
ALso, what do you plan on feeding your cham? they need multiple types of feeders to keep them healthy, interested, and off a hunger strike.
Also, you know all about how to gutload your feeders right?

Good luck with your cham!

 

[wontbme]

aah yes you did mention it, good. do get one, aqua and king are two trusted ones around these forums. please take the time

roaches smell alot less and they breed like... well... roaches.

if you can, please get them because they are a healthier choice than crickets. also they dont smell.
but if you cant then what you can do is. get a bin with some mesh at the bottom so the poop falls through the mesh and the crickets dont go eating it.

 

[camimom]

im sorry, but i didn't read your post, just the first few lines but this is something that many people overlook

GET AN AUTOMATIC MISTER.
i was laughing at the fact that people were so lazy, and now i regret not buying one. its AMAZING to have one because you need to mist your cham several times daily. and the auto mister is perfect for that.

also: order crickets (or roaches) in massive bulk, petco is EXPENSIVE.
they go about 10 cents EAcH, when online (even in petco.com) you can get like
1000 for 10 bucks.

Just a correction- 1000 crickets from mulberryfarms, one of this sites sponsors, is actually 20 bucks, plus like 20 shipping. fyi.

 

[Ace]

aah yes you did mention it, good. do get one, aqua and king are two trusted ones around these forums. please take the time

roaches smell alot less and they breed like... well... roaches.

if you can, please get them because they are a healthier choice than crickets. also they dont smell.
but if you cant then what you can do is. get a bin with some mesh at the bottom so the poop falls through the mesh and the crickets dont go eating it.

i'm sorry but how are roaches any healthier than crickets?, if you can both properly gutload them and by what you feed them should be around the same nutritional value, granted roaches may have more "meat" on them but otherwise crickets are great and to get rid of the smell, i give them oranges and that takes it away instantly, while also cleaning them


to the OP goodluck and post pics when you get your lil guy

 

[Winterhawk1960]

That is another question that I have....... I have read and am going to follow the "distance" between the eyes on size of whatever am going to feed. What I don't know is.......how fast do these various sources of nutrition grow.........and how many should I keep on hand for only one little chameleon ???

Liddy, at Kammerflage Kreations told me to go with crickets as the staple food. I do have plans to feed some other items as treats to try to avoid the "hunger strike" issue. Once again..........how many of each should I keep on hand, and how often should I give these special treats ???

I like the idea of keeping the crickets on top of some type of mesh, so the poop and pee falls below and they aren't living in it or eating it.

My wife and I will be gone some part of every day, she works strictly day shift, but I work in a hospital and I have to rotate 12 hour shifts.......7 days on........7 days off. A mister is something that I want to purchase right up front. I also believe that there is a humidity and temperature gage that comes with the "cage kits" that the Kammers sell. Should I get more than one of each.......??? I also intend to hook everything up to a timer, so that a regular routine gets established right up front.

Winterhawk1960

 

[azgnoinc]

check out the nutritional blogs/postings by sandrachameleon here - she has put a lot of effort into getting the info out here for others to benefit from - including at least 3 different gutload recipes and a phenomenal amount of other VERY useful information to include a list of different feeders and their nutritional values.
Crickets are easy and are not smelly at all, IF they are cared for properly. I use a large rubbermaid tote and order mine 2000 at a time and have NEVER gotten any kind of smell from them, but I am diligent about cleaning the tote out every other day by vacuuming it out with a small shop vac.
Other easy to keep/maintain feeders include mealworms (my colony started as an order of 500 over a year ago and I've never bought them again), pill bugs aka sow bugs aka rollie pollies - I currently keep 2 colonies which cost me virtually nothing as I started with WC and then let those propagate into useable feeders - WC specimens can be high in heavy metals so you don't want to use those, as well as some different species of roaches which I do not currently keep but am working on.
Mantids are great when they are available too.
Get the cage set up first to make sure you can provide an ideal climate/lighting conditions for you new cham too - digital battery operated thermometer/hydrometer combos can be found pretty cheap at Lowes.
And TIMERS, for basically everything - this will make your life MUCH easier too. Best of luck and post some pics when your new arrival gets home.

Here are a couple links for easy to follow instructions:
http://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htm#super - this is for mealworms
http://www.pygmychameleon.co.uk/feeder/348-culturing-pill-bugs-rolly-pollies-sow-bugs.html - this is for pill bugs
http://www.bugsincyberspace.com/mantid_care.html - for the Praying Mantis

 

[Ace]

i personally feel it is cheaper or efficient to get the items you need seperately than get the kit


the only thing ordered form the kammers was the large cage and of course the cham

i got live plants at home depot, or lowes (wash the plants with mild soap and water

i got a temp gun, and a digital humiidty gauge , more accurate not the analog ones, with temps and humdity get DIGITAL

you an buy regular household bulbs about 50-75 watts for heat

buy the light fixtures at a petstore or online both for the heat bulb and uvb bulb

buy the reptisun 5.0 linear tube bulb at a petstore , change every 6 months or so

alot of various branches i found outside and disinfected them or just washed them

I DO AGREE TO GET AN AUTOMATED MISTING SYSTEM, your choice of Aquazamp or Mistking

you can get the supplements from Liddy and Ed (kammers)

thats about it

goodluck

i would get a small cage its easier to feed the cham via freerange or cupfed

then a larger cage later on

 

[wontbme]

That is another question that I have....... I have read and am going to follow the "distance" between the eyes on size of whatever am going to feed. What I don't know is.......how fast do these various sources of nutrition grow.........and how many should I keep on hand for only one little chameleon ???

Liddy, at Kammerflage Kreations told me to go with crickets as the staple food. I do have plans to feed some other items as treats to try to avoid the "hunger strike" issue. Once again..........how many of each should I keep on hand, and how often should I give these special treats ???

I like the idea of keeping the crickets on top of some type of mesh, so the poop and pee falls below and they aren't living in it or eating it.

My wife and I will be gone some part of every day, she works strictly day shift, but I work in a hospital and I have to rotate 12 hour shifts.......7 days on........7 days off. A mister is something that I want to purchase right up front. I also believe that there is a humidity and temperature gage that comes with the "cage kits" that the Kammers sell. Should I get more than one of each.......??? I also intend to hook everything up to a timer, so that a regular routine gets established right up front.

Winterhawk1960

its smart to get two temp and two humidity gauges
one at the top, and one at the bottom.
so that you can regulate the temp appropriately.

 

[camimom]

That is another question that I have....... I have read and am going to follow the "distance" between the eyes on size of whatever am going to feed. What I don't know is.......how fast do these various sources of nutrition grow.........and how many should I keep on hand for only one little chameleon ???

Liddy, at Kammerflage Kreations told me to go with crickets as the staple food. I do have plans to feed some other items as treats to try to avoid the "hunger strike" issue. Once again..........how many of each should I keep on hand, and how often should I give these special treats ???

I like the idea of keeping the crickets on top of some type of mesh, so the poop and pee falls below and they aren't living in it or eating it.

My wife and I will be gone some part of every day, she works strictly day shift, but I work in a hospital and I have to rotate 12 hour shifts.......7 days on........7 days off. A mister is something that I want to purchase right up front. I also believe that there is a humidity and temperature gage that comes with the "cage kits" that the Kammers sell. Should I get more than one of each.......??? I also intend to hook everything up to a timer, so that a regular routine gets established right up front.

Winterhawk1960

From what I hear, roaches can grow fairly quickly. what I did was buy small crickets by a couple dozen the first couple months I had my cham. (then again, my guy was only 2 weeks old when i bought him. yea too young i know) when my guy hit about 4 months, I decided to buy 1000 3 weeks old crickets from mulberryfarms.com
He ate them all in abotu a month and a half. now, the crickets grew fairly fast, but by that time he could handle bigger crickets so I just fed him less crickets cuz they were bigger.
Crickets or roaches can be staple feeders. now, for other stuff, here is what I do.
I dont use hornworms right now- they grow EXTREMELY fast, and I dont have the energy to handle them.
I normally just buy a few waxworms, or silkworms at a time and feed them off in a matter of a few days.
My cham is 7 months old, so he still cant quite eat huge bugs yet. I bought a cup of 250 pheonix worms from mulberryfarms and just giving them some fruit kept them alive long enough I could feed them off quickly.
In general, babies probably wont go on a hunger strike, so you prob wont have to keep a multitude of feeders on hand. Some people breed all kinds of bugs, but with only one cham, thats not really condusive to sanity.
DOnt feed mealworms regularly, they are covered in a hard exoskeleton and can cause impaction, which requires a vet trip. they can be given as a treat, maybe once weekly,
Hornworms are great when you need to get some hydration into your cham, but again grow massively fast. pheonix worms, can be fed daily. I did.
everything else, besides crickets and roaches, maybe once or twice a week, and only one or two at a time.

 

[krknieriem]

If you decide that you want to get Dubia roaches and start a colony you may want to start now, I have had my roaches for a month and it is going to be several more before I am going to be able to start feeding them off.

You may want to do a search in your area for mom/pop pet stores. I found one in my area that I get my crickets from and I find it works out better for me rather than buying in bulk because I am not paying shipping and I am not dealing with dead loss. I only have 1 cham and 1 on the way but it has been working fine for me so far. I will have to see the cost differences on caring for 2 when the time comes

 

[DC cham]

Hey, its great to see that you are quite prepared and ready for your first cham!

if buying crickets in bulk, I think flukers is cheaper, like $14.00 as opposed to mulberry farms $20.00. Ive never used mulberry personally but flukers has always been great for me with next day arrival and I've never had a problem.

Make sure to post pics of the new guy and setup when you get him!

 

[Winterhawk1960]

Thanks everyone........I'll just have to make a "wag" at how many crickets to go for the first time. I am very reluctant to purchase the crickets from local pet shops. They don't take very good care of them and I'm sure that they don't feed them the proper foods.

I will be more than glad to post some pics after he arrives. As I said, that is probably about 3 weeks away.......but it will happen.

Winterhawk1960

 

[camimom]

Thanks everyone........I'll just have to make a "wag" at how many crickets to go for the first time. I am very reluctant to purchase the crickets from local pet shops. They don't take very good care of them and I'm sure that they don't feed them the proper foods.

I will be more than glad to post some pics after he arrives. As I said, that is probably about 3 weeks away.......but it will happen.

Winterhawk1960

Just order crickets in bulk, trust me he will eat them all quickly.

 

[Winterhawk1960]

Just order crickets in bulk, trust me he will eat them all quickly.

How many would you suggest ??? I'm gonna set-up something fairly large to keep them in.........but I'm not gonna order until at least within a week of the little one being shipped to me.

Winterhawk1960

 

[camimom]

How many would you suggest ??? I'm gonna set-up something fairly large to keep them in.........but I'm not gonna order until at least within a week of the little one being shipped to me.

Winterhawk1960

I order mine in bulk of 1000 from mulberryfarms.com

I found that my cham tends to go thru them about this much every month. SInce your guy will be a baby, youll probably go thru them a bit faster. However, I find that it is cheaper to buy in bulk than go to the store every week.