Cage Advice

[OrangeCrush]

Hey everyone I just recently received my new baby veiled chameleon the other day. I have set up his cage and just want to see what everyone thinks. You are more than welcome to provide me with any advice or suggestion you have. Thanks you for looking!

Cage- made out of wood and is 24wx16x36h that is height he has to move not total cage height

Temp Control- i have a Zilla Digital Humidity & Temperature Gauge where i place the Temp probe on the wall next to his basking spot and i place the humidity probe on the back wall. i also have a analog temp and humidity guages in the front left coner. the right side of the cage varies from mids 80s to low 90s mostly in the 80s. the left side is usually in the 70s.


Lights- reptisun-5.0, zoo med 75 watt basking light, is in front of a window and will open blinds on a nice day, also I have an umbrella plant that I have to be able to take him outside on nice days.

Water- has a little big dripper, mist rather often, and has a humidifier right next to his cage to add extra moisture in the air. Also I drilled holes in the bottom of the floor so that there are no puddles forming on the surface. It drips down into two pans. I also put some of the reptile water conditioner in all of the water he gets.

Food- he eats crickets right now he is still pretty small to be able to feed him anything else yet. All of the crickets eat cricket crack and receive the cricket quencher by flukers. i also use the cup feeding method, today i was able to hold the cup and he came to the cup and sniped a cricket while i was holding the cup. thought i was pretty cool.

Supplements- he gets reptical calcium everyday, reptical w/d3 twice a month and reptical multivitamin twice a month.

What’s inside the cage- he currently has a hibiscus plant and some pothos along with some oak dowels, he has a fell fake vines for now but I plan to remove them when the rest of my pothos finish growing roots.

Veiled Chameleon- I purchased him from Chad at TikiTikireptiles.com, he is a few months old and I feel that he looks rather healthy. He made the trip very well and has been cruising his new home ever since he arrived.

Thanks everyone for looking at my pics and reading about T-Rex's new home. i will post more pics of him later on, he does not really like the camera so much.

 

[DavidBuchan]

You've kept Chameleons before haven't you? Looks perfect does that.
Good work, good luck with baby T-Rex

 

[OrangeCrush]

I have had one veiled chameleon along time ago when I was a kid. I was a lil young at the time to own a chameleon because they are def for older and more responsible people hahaha. I had him for a lil less than a year and one of my older sisters friend bought him off me. Now that I am 24 I felt it wa s time to get another one but I still feel alil rusty. But thanks for your reply.

 

[jaredshermanderson]

Is the humidifier a good idea? I was also thinking about using one.

 

[OrangeCrush]

I feel the humidifier is a good idea. I picked ip up at target for $30. It is in the baby department so I figured if it can be used with babies why not chameleon. It just puts out a misty air, and u can changebthe amount of air flow. It's better than those expensive foggers. It does help keep it the humidity up when I am not home. The plant collect a light dusting of water on them so all the extra water can only help with humidity. Also if you can't afford a mistking at the moment this will help, but it's no misking.

 

[DavidBuchan]

I feel the humidifier is a good idea. I picked ip up at target for $30. It is in the baby department so I figured if it can be used with babies why not chameleon. It just puts out a misty air, and u can changebthe amount of air flow. It's better than those expensive foggers. It does help keep it the humidity up when I am not home. The plant collect a light dusting of water on them so all the extra water can only help with humidity. Also if you can't afford a mistking at the moment this will help, but it's no misking.

Yeah it will be more than adequate - the only other important thing to get right after the setup is food and vitamins. You've obviously done your research so may I ask what your plans for variety of feeders are?
I can't recommend fruit flies highly enough - if you keep one box clean of mould and mites and keep a few adult flies back to use as a 'Joy Division' it can last until he's just about outgrown them.......

 

[OrangeCrush]

I have been feeding him mostly crickets at the moment but would def like to start considering other options. I was thinking about order some small silk worms and wax worms. I would love to feed him some flies but I am not sure how to keep them and feed them to him with out them getting all over my house. If you have any recommendations you can give me that would be great. Thanks

 

[DavidBuchan]

They usually come in a box with food in, you just add fruit supplements. As for getting all over the house, they are as easy to keep as crickets........whether that reassures you or not depends on how many crickets get out round yours I guess...

 

[OrangeCrush]

Well I have been doing pretty good with the crickets so far they seem to do well in my garage and I just put a few egg crates in longer medium sized tupperware container an use tweezers an pick them right off into the dusting container. I guess you could grab one of the pieces of fruit and put that into a container then release them into the cage. Thanks for all your help and I think I am going to give that a try. One more question would you prefer the mistking or another type of misting system?

 

[DavidBuchan]

Well, personally mate I just have a hand mister (really good quality one - will do constant fine mist). I call it Sir-Mists-A-Lot, because it's not quite a mistking - I have only 2 chams and I can mist them often enough .......I don't even know of any brand name apart from mistking, which I only know because of this forum