Black ash type skin

Chameleon Info:
Ok so this will be a lot of info.

  • Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? Male Yemen, young - less than a year old. Got him in the middle of March this year
  • Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Daily (mostly)
  • Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? Feeding him 4 medium locusts. fed first thing at breakfast. Are you gutloading your feeders?
  • Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? Dip the locust in ProRep Calci Dust Can you take a picture of your supplement so I can see exactly what your using? They should be given calcium without D3 at all feedings except two times a month when you give calcium with D3 and two times a month when you give a multivitamin without D3. These two should be rotated week over week.
  • Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? We have a water fall in the tank and mist in the morning - all the plants and back wall and again in the afternoon. I have never seen him actually drink The waterfall needs to be removed these are a breeding ground for bacteria. You need taller plants like a dwarf umbrella to spray down for him to drink from the leaves.
  • Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Solid black or white chalky - not tested for parasites.
  • History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:


  • Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? Exo terra Glass with screen top 92 x 45 x 45 cm This will need to be upgraded because it will be too small for an adult male veiled. I suggest switching to a screen enclosure. You need a 2x2x4foot enclosure minimum for an adult male.
  • Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? Zoo Med mini combo deep dome dual lamp. 1 UV bulb and 1 red heat bulb. lights on between 7am and 7pm. Instead of the red bulb (red bulbs can hurt their eyes) you need a regular incandescent house hold bulb. For uvb you need a t5ho fixture with a 6% arcadia bulb or 5.0 zoo med bulb. the fixture should run the width of that enclosure and be placed in the middle.
  • Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? we have a habistat digital thermostat set at 30c for the day and 18c for the night. We have struggled to achieve a high temp with our present set up. is this the ambient temp of the cage 30c? or is this the basking temp (highest point he can get to to bask) if it is the ambient then 30c is too warm. Should be more like 22-22c for an ambient temp. Basking at 30c is good.
  • Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? We were told that the thermostat gave a reading and that covered the humidity. This is very important to know. you need a humidity gauge Veileds do best with daytime humidity of 30-50% max. Night time can be up to 100% when the cage is cool under 20c. If the humidity is high during the day and you add the heat then he will develop a Respiratory infection. When a glass enclosure is not set up correctly including the hydration cycle and misting times this is more likely.
  • Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? Yes I have looked at what plants are safe and used aquarium substrate in the pots. I have spider plants and cheese plants in there. So I have not heard of a cheese plants. At this link it will show you plants the ones that are to be used with Veileds are labeled. This is important because they will eat their plants. https://chameleonacademy.com/plants/
  • Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? Cage is in a large room on an outside wall of the house by a bright window draught free. its a low - medium traffic area and is sat on a coffee table.
  • Location - Where are you geographically located? We are south coast England (Kent) in the countryside.

Links I like.

https://chameleonacademy.com/
https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/


https://www.youtube.com/c/NeptunetheChameleon?sub_confirmation=1
 
I don’t think they need a screen cage. With their climate it would be much easier to maintain heat and humidity with glass or wood or a combo of both. When properly setup there will be plenty of airflow.
 
Hey it could be the rope too some times the core it is cheap plastic to create the base for the braid. Check by sticking your hands between the fibers and seeing if that black stuff comes out. Also it's really stuck to his face, does he rub his head on anything daily? Also see as @MissSkittles said if the background dusts run your knuckles along it.
 
I don’t think they need a screen cage. With their climate it would be much easier to maintain heat and humidity with glass or wood or a combo of both. When properly setup there will be plenty of airflow.
Maybe you can assist them with proper set up on this.
 
Maybe you can assist them with proper set up on this.
I’ll try to explain the best I can.

So the tank you have will work for now but you will want to upgrade to something like the 36x18x36 exoterra or build you own if your handy.

you will want to turn it into a bioactive tank (see link @Beman provided). Basically bioactive is all about layers. Drainage layer, screen layer, substrate layer, and leaf litter layer. The plants will be planted directly into the substrate layer.

You will also need to add a clean up crew. Springtails, isopods, millipedes etc. These will break down any bacteria, fungus and poop. So no need to clean poop anymore. Unless it’s on plant leaves.

As beman said you need to create a network of branches and vines for him to get around on. Lots of horizontal branches near the top at different levels so the can choose how close they want to be to the lights. Also more plant coverage to give them places to hide and feel secure.

For airflow you want to create the chimney effect. You want the basking light in one of the back corners. This will heat up the air under it and draw the warm air up and cool air through the bottom vents. If you need more airflow you could put a small computer fan on top pulling air up and out of the tank.

Feel free to ask questions for more detail.
 
All really great advice. And now that I have started to wrap my head around it I’m going to start setting up the bio layer. I have 2 different pet stores near me. One that advocates bio and one that doesn’t (I got my Cham from the one that doesn’t) but when we were doing our research on getting our Cham the girl at the other store there had a wealth of knowledge.
i think that is what kicks most - we did research - we didn’t buy in a whim and were advised but poorly.
lesson learnt and we shall keep learning.
 
Ok well I hate to tell you this but the enclosure is set up completely wrong. To have dirt like that in the bottom you have to have it done like in this blog. Then it is actually bio active. Right now that is just a bacteria breeding ground and a mud pit. He is playing in the dirt.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/intro-to-bio-activity.2429/

Lighting is incorrect as well. Are you using the red bulb? If so that needs to be removed immediately and replaced with a regular incandescent bulb. Also you need a T5HO fixture with a 5.0 uvb bulb rather then the compact bulb that is in that double dome fixture. The compacts are useless with Chameleons.

What is your humidity level you are getting in the enclosure? I am a bit concerned with him being in this enclosure. For a newbie glass is typically not recommended. Everything with the hydration cycle has to be very carefully done to avoid the chameleon getting a respiratory infection.
I prefer dragon strand enclosures. https://dragonstrand.com/
Morning! So I have sat and read the blog you have suggested. All very interesting and achievable. But I only have the 1 enclosure. Is there a way I can do this without buying another tank?
 
Morning! So I have sat and read the blog you have suggested. All very interesting and achievable. But I only have the 1 enclosure. Is there a way I can do this without buying another tank?
Not my blog. This is @cyberlocc blog on intro to bio activity. He can give you tips on that. I am not the person to answer questions on this because it is not my area. I know when you use things like Great stuff that has to dry and gas off for 24 hours before the Cham can go back in. I have tagged him here though for you. :)
 
Beman hit the nail on the head.

If you great stuff the walls or whatever its going to need a day or 3 airing out.

Do you need another cage, not necessarily. You need another setup for the cham, but that doesn't mean another tank.

Its spring time, so you could give him (or her) some outside time depending on your conditions, with one of those laundry baskets made of mesh. They are cheap, collapsible and good for travel cages.

If you have a large tree indoors, fake or real. You could setup a temporary free range and use that for a few days.

If its a little baby, a large bin may work for a few days. You can set it up with plants and all.


You can also do the GS walls outside of the cage, using some type of rigid board to GS on to, and making them insert able. Look up living walls here lots of folks do that.

If you mean for the soil bin cycle. You could plant the soil bin, and allow it to cycle in another place. A QT bin would be great for this. It will keep good humidity, and will cycle fine just be sure to water it alot.

Hope this helps :).
 
ohhh okay.

You have a glass cage.

So scratch the second half of above.

You need to cycle all inside and build all inside (you can do removable walls but the bicycle has to be done inside).

So my advice is

A. Get a Cheap Reptibreeze for outside time, later and use it for a cage for now. You can find them pretty cheap used alot of the time.

B. Use the laundry basket idea.

C. Free range.

Your looking at likely a week for good cycle time, that he will need this extra cage. So I would lean to the reptibreeze idea.
 
ohhh okay.

You have a glass cage.

So scratch the second half of above.

You need to cycle all inside and build all inside (you can do removable walls but the bicycle has to be done inside).

So my advice is

A. Get a Cheap Reptibreeze for outside time, later and use it for a cage for now. You can find them pretty cheap used alot of the time.

B. Use the laundry basket idea.

C. Free range.

Your looking at likely a week for good cycle time, that he will need this extra cage. So I would lean to the reptibreeze idea.
Brilliant stuff. I will spend time gathering everything I need and I can free range him and also laundry basket as I have a large ficus in my orangery that’s is nice and warm. The summer has finally started here so we have some good temps.
thanks so much everyone ????
 
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