Doing a paper on chams.

[Sinfulintent]

So chameleon forums I need your guys help. I'm doing a paper on chameleons for my composition 2 class. It's an argumentative class and I'm doing a paper on how far should we go to imitate our chameleons natural habitat. I want to make this clear, this is not a place for fighting or arguing who is doing a better job. I also need points of view from any of the breeders we have here, people who have multiple chams, and people that have only a few.

Points that I'm want to touch on my paper:

1) Lighting; which bulbs do you prefer, or natural sunlight, any documentation for the brand you suggest over others. such as arcadia vs. zilla and why.

2) Foliage; Fake or real, can they tell? Is there a health difference for the 2? How about overall happiness or behaviors.

3) Food: Varied diet VS. Single food, supplements and the differences they cause, and what to feed the feeders and what is the effect on each of these things.

Pictures for why you support the one side is great, or any sort of data that you guys have put together. And again I dont want to start any fighting between you guys.

Thanks for any help.

 

[little leaf]

So chameleon forums I need your guys help. I'm doing a paper on chameleons for my composition 2 class. It's an argumentative class and I'm doing a paper on how far should we go to imitate our chameleons natural habitat. I want to make this clear, this is not a place for fighting or arguing who is doing a better job. I also need points of view from any of the breeders we have here, people who have multiple chams, and people that have only a few.

Points that I'm want to touch on my paper:

1) Lighting; which bulbs do you prefer, or natural sunlight, any documentation for the brand you suggest over others. such as arcadia vs. zilla and why.

2) Foliage; Fake or real, can they tell? Is there a health difference for the 2? How about overall happiness or behaviors.

3) Food: Varied diet VS. Single food, supplements and the differences they cause, and what to feed the feeders and what is the effect on each of these things.

Pictures for why you support the one side is great, or any sort of data that you guys have put together. And again I dont want to start any fighting between you guys.

Thanks for any help.

I can only speak for myself, and this is how I keep my chams, I am in Ohio ~ I have 5 Jackson's X. 3 5 mo old babies, and a adult pair , I also have 2 male Panthers , one about 13 mos, the other about 3 yrs old

1) I, for the summer anyhow- keep ALL my chams outside all day, and most stay out 24/7 ( unless we get a really hot day, or very bad storms that I feel can damage the cages, they stay out in the rain and just "storms" )
I can see them just relax so much in the real sun - I keep mine under trees, so they never have a full blast of sun they can not get out of- its always a broken sun pattern

2) all outside cages have real plants - one even has a TREE in it - lol
my female Jax HATES fake plants , she was a w/c - she will not even step on them , she will go all the way to the bottom of the cage, and up the other side to avoid the fake leaves - so I removed them, the vines she does not seem to mind - as I can afford, I am getting rid of all the fake plants in the cages, to me, they all seem to prefer the real plants, some have about 1/2 and 1/2 - but I never see anyone sitting on the fake plants, and the babies were at first only given fake plants ( they were born in March ) so they only knew "fake" - they also now only sit on the real plants -

3) I feed as many different things as I can - this is what I feed, and offer some of each to all - however not all will eat whats offered -
crix, roaches, grasshoppers, moths, flies, supper,meal,silk, & hornworms , mantis, snails, isopods, cicadas, mayflies and ants just get in w/ them, they eat those too- depending on who is eating it- panthers are dusted w/ cal daily, Jax 3 X a week - no D3 all summer - vit/ once a mo - I also run fecals about every 3 mos- ( but not on the babies yet )
I live in a woods, far from town - I do not collect any bugs other than what is here- we have lived here 18 yrs, and have never treated our property for any type of pest, so I do not fear pesticides

I cant add pic because they are already in my threads, and it wont let me use them twice
I hope I was able to help you

 

[pipinschameleons]

I feed my chameleon both things I have founf such as grass hoppers and things I boughy, such as crickets and she tends to like the grass hoppers

 

[Sinfulintent]

Thanks little leaf thats exactly what I'm looking for. I'll look up your pictures and give credit to you for your input and pictures in my report.

pipins, any more info for me?

 

[little leaf]

Thanks little leaf thats exactly what I'm looking for. I'll look up your pictures and give credit to you for your input and pictures in my report.

pipins, any more info for me?

you are welcome, use any pics of mine you find and are helpful in your paper

oh, I forgot- on the fecal s - only Olive ( the female Jax) had a dirty one- she had a light case of pin worms, and is being treated now - dont know if that helps on the paper

 

[laurie]

Lets see the best I can do.

I had one male Trioceros quadricornis quadricornis, who can in wc (wild caught). He did not take well to a cage so I gave hime a bedroom and designed it for him. Heat lights, UVB lights, mistking automatic mister, dripper, and a 8ft by 8ft by 8 ft frame for light, mister etc. He had small trees, only 4 ft tall, large trees that hit the 9 ft ceilings, lots of real branches, supplemented by ones made from braided electrical wire, rope, heavy vines made for chams, plus anything else that caught my eye.

Lenny had full possession of the whole room, not just the 8 x 8 x 8 where his frame was located. He went all over the room, from floor to ceiling and everyplace in between. He climbed curtains, he climbed furniture, he ever climbed me when he was in the mood. If the weather allowed, one of his windows was open and he climber on the screen.

Lenny was not a wild animal or a tame one. He was not wild as he would come down from where ever he was, to get the food I hand fed him. If he was not hungry, he did not come down and often he could not be found. He was not tame as I was the only one who could really feed him. He would not eat for a week if I was gone.

Much of Lenny's life was as it would be in any cage, his was just bigger. He also had parts that we as close as I could make them to his natural environment, Cameroon. He had trees that were thick and he was able to hide completely. In the beginning I would be afraid I had left one of the doors open and he was out. It might take several hours for 3 of us to locate him.

If he felt sociable he might come down and sit on me or the chair I was sitting in. He loved climbing in my hair, up my pants leg, and crapping on my head if I came near his bathroom spot.

Here are a few links of to pictures:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/my-new-4-x4-58490/

https://www.chameleonforums.com/stage-one-progress-thoughts-62191/

https://www.chameleonforums.com/here-part-two-lennys-home-62209/

https://www.chameleonforums.com/lennys-free-range-revision-3-a-64449/

 

[pigglett79]

I try to do what I can to create a happy and healthy environment.

Lighting - I use Arcadia T5 HO as I read some research on the higher output and deeper penetration of the uv, I also have grow lights for the plants and basking lights. I can't find that article now but here is a good thread, https://www.chameleonforums.com/arcadia-lighting-convince-me-102968/index2.html.
One night while I was studying in their room the lights went off, I realized it was such an abrupt change. So after that I got another timer so that the basking lights come on and go off 30 minutes before/after the rest of the lights . this transition is a bit more natural. I get them outside when I can. We even built sweet outdoor cages for when the weather is nice, if they are outside at least a few hours per week I stop using calcium w D3. . https://www.chameleonforums.com/gonna-make-chameleon-jungle-gym-104367/


Food - as I love bug and breeding them, I feed my chams a wide variety of feeders. They eat silks, horns, roaches, crickets, isopods, mantis, flies, butter worms, moths, soon they will have snails as well. I gut load well and alternate gut load ingredients. This way I don't have to supplement as much. I do look up the contents of the gut load items as to not use too many items w high amounts of the same vitamins such as vitamin A.

Housing and water- we built cages as big as we could w drainage so that we can use long listings. I converted the mist king to a rain dome as my Jackson prefers rain (I never saw him drink until it was rain drops instead of mist), I heat the reservoir as well so they don't have to deal w cold water. .https://www.chameleonforums.com/finally-ultimate-cage-build-complete-sort-97517/ we use both real and fake plants. They don't seem to prefer one over the other, but the real potted plants help retain humidity and are cheaper to cover a large area.

We then got a bunch of fake trees on Craig's list for their free range. They love to free range whenever possible and I believe it is good for their happiness and health. Pics of mine are in this thread. https://www.chameleonforums.com/free-range-ideas-106495/

Overall we try to do our best to give them what they need to be as happy and healthy as possible.