Can you rate my enclosure! I would appreciate feedback

[Wilfred09]

Recently purchased a juvenile veiled chameleon. I am new to the scene and would appreciate feedback on my enclosure. Wilfred is a male. I bought a starter cage but I am thinking of upgrading soon. I run 12hr day with a 60w basking light as well as a 26 W 150UBV light and lights go off at night. I have a mister which mists every hr for 45 seconds. The enclosure is open caged and with a live umbrella plant and a golden pathos. I also have a little driller running throughout the day for drinking purposes , I tend to mist by hand 3 times a day due to my humidity going down during the day roughy around 20-30. Humidity at night varies between 30-50. Temp at day on basking is between 80-95 and cool side is at 70-75. He started eating crickets at first then decided to ignore so I decided to feed him superworms and an occasional hornworm, seems to like worms more than crickets lol I used calcium with D3 and multivitamins. I used calcium everyday and multivitamins 1 time every other week. I live in El Paso, Texas (Desert)
Thank you

 

[skywes13]

Welcome! Handsome little guy you got there!

For now the size of the enclosure is okay, but as he grows he's gonna need something like a 2'x2'x 4', bigger is better.

The live plants are good! However, it seems pretty bare for a cham, so I would recommend adding more live plants so your guy feels nice and safe in his new home.

Your lighting is incorrect, the uvb in the bulb form don't allow your cham to get enough uvb and will lead to Metabolic Bone Disorder (MBD) if not changed. What you need is a long t5 uvb light fixture with either a Reptisun 5.0 (replaced every 6 months) or an Arcadia 6% (replaced closer to once every 8 months to a year).

As for the humidity, it seems pretty low during the day but not too terrible for a veiled, however the nightime humidity needs to be closer to 80-100%. Also, you're misting too often, which may lead to a respiratory infection. Your misting schedule should be something more like 2-3 minutes 2 or 3 times a day, including one time in the morning right before his lights turn on so he can wake up to a nice morning dew. If you're having trouble keeping your humidity levels up more live plants would help, and also you can tape clear vinyl shower curtains to 2 or 3 sides of your enclosure which helps a lot.

The basking temp seems really high and very varied. How do you measure these levels? Are you using an analog thermometer or are you using a heat gun? For a juvie the basking temps should definitely closer to the 80s and nowhere near the 90s yet. Also, how far away is his basking branch from his lighting? Especially since the basking temp can get that high, you should really lower the basking branch to somewhere around 6-9 inches. Veiled have a tendency to get burns on their casque if they get too close especially if the basking temps are too high.

Are you gutloading your feeder? Gutloading feeders with nutritious foods is really important. I can post a good caresheet about what to gutload your feeders with. Also, if your guy likes worms I would recommend offering him some such as black soldier fly larvae or silkworms since those are really high in nutrients. I might also suggest giving him less superworms or at the very least a more varied diet, because chams can get "addicted" to superworms and refuse to eat anything else. Are you dusting your feeders every feeding with the calcium with d3 & multivitamins? You should be lightly dusting your insects 6x a week with a calcium that has no phosphorus and no d3.

I think that's all I can say right now with the information and pictures you've given. If you'd like to learn more about how you can improve your husbandry for your little guy I suggest going onto https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/ and checking out Neptune the Chameleon on youtube. If you'd like more feedback from us so we can cover everything, I can post a chameleon info sheet for you to fill out that covers every detail necessary.

 

[jamest0o0]

Misting doesn't cause RI's, other than that good advice above. I do agree though, you'd be better off misting heavy early morning and at night. Wrap the sides to keep humidity a little higher. I think your plants are fine, but when you upgrade the cage you'll need more to fill in. Superworms and hornworms are a poor diet, they are both variety feeders and not suitable as healthy staples. Chameleons often get addicted to worms, especially superworms for their high fat content(we all love fatty foods, which are healthy in moderation, but can easily lead to a caloric surplus and obesity).