chameleon color

[Allen Whitaker]

Hello, have been a chameleon owner for about 2 months now, and feel as if i have been doing a pretty good job taking care of him. I was just wanting to start a thread about the chameleon's color. My 6 month old male seems to be a brown/brownish green most of the time. He eats, drinks, and sheds well, but i have seen other chameleons that seem to be green most of the time, even a light green. My enclosure is kept at a 70-80 degrees gradient with a 85-90 degree basking point. The humidity is kept at 50%, he eats about 10 crickets a day, gets all of his calcium, and vit d once a month. I water him 3 times per day, (i mist him till he starts drinking and then moisten the top of the terrarium till there are droplets and then keep them replinished till he walks away). So my question: Does the chameleons color need to be worried about, if he seems incredibly healthy, and what colors should i be looking for. Oh, and his cage is a dark brown with screened front, sides, and top.

 

[Rocky]

what type of chameleon?

 

[ChromaChameleons]

Are you using a multivitamin dust ??

At 6 months , you could up the cal with D3 frequency.

I assume you also use a calcium without D3 several times a week??

 

[Allen Whitaker]

yep

i use calcium without vit d about 5 times a week on three to five of the crickets per day. i will give up the vit d twice a month. and it is a veiled chameleon.

 

[Julirs]

Hey Allen-they are only just 4.5 months-DOH 07/08/2008. I still do D3 twice a month with everyone, babies 3-4X until 6 months. As you can see below they came out pretty differently! I am holding on to my brown guy because even though he is a dull brown right now-he has moments where he shows incredible yellows, and also times where I think he is turning green, and then others where I think he is pink!-and I am thinking he will turn out stunning! Sometimes it takes awhile to show their ful potential, and even though large they are still really young! Has your guy "fired up" yet? Show him a mirror and see what he does!

Here is your guy (hope you don't mind me posting your pic )

Here is his brother "Hershey":

And another brother AJ (same mother ):

And another brother:

 

[Julirs]

Hey Allen-here is Leon-the Dad of all these babies at 4 months-he went through a "light-bodied-white-headed stage!"

 

[ChromaChameleons]

Hey Allen, I'm not clear on your supplementation schedule. Please post supplement , brand and frequency and we can get a clearer picture of your present regimen.

 

[Allen Whitaker]

supplement

I use reptivite calc. without d 5/7 days on 3-4 crickets. I am now using reptivite with vit d as an alternative 2 days per month. I also use reptivite multi vitamin once a month.

 

[beeze]

I use reptivite calc. without d 5/7 days on 3-4 crickets. I am now using reptivite with vit d as an alternative 2 days per month. I also use reptivite multi vitamin once a month.

That dusting schedule sounds good.

 

[BocaJan]

Alan, that guy is going to be smashing! Looking at Juliars pics I can see that she had a clutch of fantastic babies - well, her chams of course. I only hope mine turn out good. You can never tell with vieleds. I hecked mine this morning and one of my females had pink and blue on her. Fantastic. Just keep checking.

 

[Allen Whitaker]

thank you

Thank you guys. I see that leo, my chameleon's dad, had a similar color. I am now just concerned with him getting enough water, his eyes are darker than normal and very slightly sunk in. I use icues in one corner, mist the top of the cage were he hangs out (right next to the heat light, were it is in the high 80's low 90's) and today when i cleaned his enitire cage i took him out and put him in the shower for about 30 min. he looked slightly better right after that, so i plan on doing it every other day for a week to see if i can't get him hydrated. I also have three humidifiers running in the house now keeping it in the high to mid 50% range. If anyone has good ways of watering this lovely guy please feel free to give suggestions. Just nothing messy (need it to all stay within the cage).

 

[Julirs]

Hey Allen-ice cubes don't usually work since they are so cold the chams avoid them. Do you see yellows in his urates? His eyes may look a bit sunken if he is getting ready to shed again-and a whole bunch of his siblings started to shed yesterday. The shower thing will work, but I would make sure you are really getting his plants drippy with each misting. Use warm water-I use hot water from the tap and it comes out a warm mist. I literally spray and spray for about a minute and 1/2 each time 2-3 times daily.

 

[BocaJan]

Thanks for answering that question Julirs. Since joining the forum I have heard that and didn't know if it was ok or not. Always good to know what advice is good or bad.

 

[ciafardo 4]

Hey Allen-ice cubes don't usually work since they are so cold the chams avoid them. Do you see yellows in his urates? His eyes may look a bit sunken if he is getting ready to shed again-and a whole bunch of his siblings started to shed yesterday. The shower thing will work, but I would make sure you are really getting his plants drippy with each misting. Use warm water-I use hot water from the tap and it comes out a warm mist. I literally spray and spray for about a minute and 1/2 each time 2-3 times daily.

i do this exact method and it works very well