Do i need to change anything?

Qhugh14

Member
Just want to make sure my husbandry is up to par
  • Your Chameleon - Female veiled, 8mo, had her for 4mo
  • Handling - I almost never handle her, only when I need to take her out to deep clean her enclosure.
  • Feeding - 4-5 Dubais and 5-6 super worms every other day. Gutloaded with carrots, chard, other organic vegetable scraps and a small amount of cricket feed.(its a subpar feed so I keep it to a minimim)
  • Supplements - zoo med repticalcium low D on every feeding, zoomed reptivite once every week or so.
  • Watering - I spray my enclosure down multiple times a day, in process of figuring out drainage system so I can reinstall my drip system. I've never seen her drink.
  • Fecal Description - droppingd are consistent, dark brown with white urates. Never been tested.
  • History - I'm her first owner, got her from petco

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - mesh 16x16x30, planning to make a bigger setup in the very near future.
  • Lighting - 5.0 uvb bulb, regular house daylight red bulb. Turn on at 8 am and turn off at 9pm
  • Temperature - 85f basking, 70 in the rest of the enclosure
  • Humidity - 45-50 durring day, 85+ at night
  • Plants - I have one golden pothos, one schefflera, and one Persian shield.
  • Placement - in my living room by the window, with a ceiling fan. Top of cage is 4-5ft
  • Location- Boise Idaho

Current Problem - no problem, she is active and eating and seems comfortable in her environment, just making sure I'm doing ok.
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You are doing pretty well so far. For the plants, I would hang the pothos up and string the vines all around the sides of the cage because your cage could use a little more foliage and filling. For her supplements, you should use regular calcium every feeding, and calcium with D3 every couple feedings / twice a month if that's easier to keep track of.
For her lighting, what do you mean by a house daylight red bulb? Does it have red light? The ideal heat bulb for a chameleon would probably be an standard incandescent bulb, around 70-75 w. For the UVB, I would upgrade to at least a 10.0 now that she has reached adulthood. If you want to get her the best UVB, you should get a linear UVB, which has a greater range of UVB.
If there is a way you can lower the nightly humidity, she may benefit. I have heard of chams getting respiratory infections due to high nocturnal humidity, and I am not sure how common it is, but there is a risk.

I see that you have a sand bin in there, which is awesome. Others will probably add onto what I have said. But so far, pretty good. My only suggestion for next time is that you don't buy a chameleon from a chain pet store, they are usually mistreated and we do not want to support their business. Breeders are much more reliable and often cheaper than petco/petsmart.
I made that mistake, buying from petco and my cham had health and growth problems throughout her life. It could have been a fluke, or an especially mistreated clutch, or my area is especially bad, but breeder chams will most likely be healthier. Just a suggestion for next time.

One last thing for that Persian Shield, it may not be safe for your cham, unless you have checked something that said it was chameleon safe. Here was an older thread: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/is-this-plant-safe.143677/
 
Hi there! So I would add in some real branches of different sizes for her. This is important for her grip. I would also either expand on what you are gutloading with or buy a commercially available one.

Lighting needs to be a t5HO 10.0 linear fixture and bulb. If you are using a compact bulb it is simply not a sufficient source of uvb no mater which type you buy. No red bulbs. Lights on for 12 hours and total darkness for 12 hours.

For feeding I would cut back on the amount of supers you are giving her. Since she has now reached 8 months I would also switch her over to an every other day feeding. 4-5 dubias and 1 superworm is good. You can help assist her in the amount of eggs she ends up having by reducing her feeding. She will be fine doing this with 5-6 feeders every other day. Start by reducing the amount of feeders every other day until you are down to none. Do this over say a few weeks so she is not just cut off. You may even consider adding in BSFL they are a great source of calcium.

Night time humidity is fine. It is daytime humidity you want lower 30-40% and not over 50% for daytime. If you are running a fogger make sure it is not run during the day when her lights are on. Heat+moisture= RI risk.

Just make sure that her pot of sand is moist enough to hold a tunnel.

Otherwise your doing a great job.

You can get a hot water heater drain pan to put the cage into to help with water run off :)
 
You are doing pretty well so far. For the plants, I would hang the pothos up and string the vines all around the sides of the cage because your cage could use a little more foliage and filling. For her supplements, you should use regular calcium every feeding, and calcium with D3 every couple feedings / twice a month if that's easier to keep track of.
For her lighting, what do you mean by a house daylight red bulb? Does it have red light? The ideal heat bulb for a chameleon would probably be an standard incandescent bulb, around 70-75 w. For the UVB, I would upgrade to at least a 10.0 now that she has reached adulthood. If you want to get her the best UVB, you should get a linear UVB, which has a greater range of UVB.
If there is a way you can lower the nightly humidity, she may benefit. I have heard of chams getting respiratory infections due to high nocturnal humidity, and I am not sure how common it is, but there is a risk.

I see that you have a sand bin in there, which is awesome. Others will probably add onto what I have said. But so far, pretty good. My only suggestion for next time is that you don't buy a chameleon from a chain pet store, they are usually mistreated and we do not want to support their business. Breeders are much more reliable and often cheaper than petco/petsmart.
I made that mistake, buying from petco and my cham had health and growth problems throughout her life. It could have been a fluke, or an especially mistreated clutch, or my area is especially bad, but breeder chams will most likely be healthier. Just a suggestion for next time.

One last thing for that Persian Shield, it may not be safe for your cham, unless you have checked something that said it was chameleon safe. Here was an older thread: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/is-this-plant-safe.143677/
Yeah for the bulb it's an incandescent bulb, that word escaped me for some reason, I can definitely lower the humidity, and I have checked on the Persian shield in another post on here earlier, I was told it's perfectly safe.
Thank you for helping me out, maybe now I can stop worrying so much about my baby
 
Hi there! So I would add in some real branches of different sizes for her. This is important for her grip. I would also either expand on what you are gutloading with or buy a commercially available one.

Lighting needs to be a t5HO 10.0 linear fixture and bulb. If you are using a compact bulb it is simply not a sufficient source of uvb no mater which type you buy. No red bulbs. Lights on for 12 hours and total darkness for 12 hours.

For feeding I would cut back on the amount of supers you are giving her. Since she has now reached 8 months I would also switch her over to an every other day feeding. 4-5 dubias and 1 superworm is good. You can help assist her in the amount of eggs she ends up having by reducing her feeding. She will be fine doing this with 5-6 feeders every other day. Start by reducing the amount of feeders every other day until you are down to none. Do this over say a few weeks so she is not just cut off. You may even consider adding in BSFL they are a great source of calcium.

Night time humidity is fine. It is daytime humidity you want lower 30-40% and not over 50% for daytime. If you are running a fogger make sure it is not run during the day when her lights are on. Heat+moisture= RI risk.

Just make sure that her pot of sand is moist enough to hold a tunnel.

Otherwise your doing a great job.

You can get a hot water heater drain pan to put the cage into to help with water run off :)
Thank you so much, I'll start cutting down on her feeding and watch her daytime humidity, also the bulb is a regular incandescent bulb, just one of the ones that are tinted warmer, compared to blue-er light, I just forgot the word at the time. I'll also get on getting her a better uv setup. Feel like I can sleep easier now
 
Thank you so much, I'll start cutting down on her feeding and watch her daytime humidity, also the bulb is a regular incandescent bulb, just one of the ones that are tinted warmer, compared to blue-er light, I just forgot the word at the time. I'll also get on getting her a better uv setup. Feel like I can sleep easier now
Ok as long as it is not tinted red at all :)
 
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