Duncan the Docile

[Beman]

Here’s my questionnaire...

Chameleon Info:

◦ Your Chameleon - Veiled Chameleon, 4 months, male. He arrived last Friday, so, in my care for six days.

◦ Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Never. I set him free into his enclosure and he’s been there since.

◦ Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? Crickets gutloaded with apples and oranges released into the cage every morning around 9am.

◦ Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? I dust them with Rep-Cal calcium each feeding and once a week (When I have him that long lol) dust them with Repto-Cal with D3 for the feeding.

◦ Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? I’ve seen him drinking, yes. I have a misting system set to mist the cage once per hour for 60 seconds.

◦ Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Brown, firm fecal matter. He hasn’t yet been tested.

◦ History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.



Cage Info:

◦ Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? He is in a 24x24x48 screen enclosure.

◦ Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? He has a heat bulb and uvb bulb on for 12 hours, off for 12 hours. Set on a tile to turn off at 8pm and on at 8am.

◦ Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? Top temps range 90-95F at the basking spot, humidity around 70% after misting and drops to about 60% lower parts of the cage are about 75F. I have a digital thermometer/Hydrometer

◦ Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? I have a ficus on the way from lllreptile that I am going to put in with him. Right now he has fake foliage until the plant arrives.

◦ Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? The cage is in a room that only I use and is not high traffic. Set on a cabinet several feet off the ground.

◦ Location - Where are you geographically located? Northeast Ohio.

No problems at all. Just was looking for tips on hand feeding worms for a snack.

Ok do not delete this. I have to get my daughter ready for school and can not go through every detail now but I can when I get home. So if no one goes through it I will later

 

[carbyville]

Ok do not delete this. I have to get my daughter ready for school and can not go through every detail now but I can when I get home. So if no one goes through it I will later

No worries, It’s not going anywhere thank you for the help!

 

[AmandaS]

No worries, It’s not going anywhere thank you for the help!

You must have a reptirain mister?? @Brodybreaux25 told me that 60 seconds every hour is too frequently. This will result in a RI. I changed my reptirain to spray for a duration of 60 seconds every 6 hours! I started at 60 seconds every 3 hours, but found that was still too much. Totally dependant on where you live. You're misting to keep the humidity up, but veileds only need like 30% humidity during the day. I tagged him so if I am misleading you, he can chime in and correct me. Hope all goes well!

 

[carbyville]

You must have a reptirain mister?? @Brodybreaux25 told me that 60 seconds every hour is too frequently. This will result in a RI. I changed my reptirain to spray for a duration of 60 seconds every 6 hours! I started at 60 seconds every 3 hours, but found that was still too much. Totally dependant on where you live. You're misting to keep the humidity up, but veileds only need like 30% humidity during the day. I tagged him so if I am misleading you, he can chime in and correct me. Hope all goes well!

Good to know! I worry so much about the humidity I probably am overdoing it with the misting. I’ll change that setting right now!

 

[Brodybreaux25]

Good to know! I worry so much about the humidity I probably am overdoing it with the misting. I’ll change that setting right now!

Ignore Big E, he’s nobody....

 

[AmandaS]

Good to know! I worry so much about the humidity I probably am overdoing it with the misting. I’ll change that setting right now!

Thats exactly how I was. "But what if she isnt drinking enough? What if her skin dries out? What if she needs MORE humidity?" But I found my cham is plenty hydrated, her plants aren't becoming soggy, and she is overall happier. Sometimes less really is more. Lol. And no, her skin doesnt "dry out". Hahaha. Newbie thinking.

 

[carbyville]

Thats exactly how I was. "But what if she isnt drinking enough? What if her skin dries out? What if she needs MORE humidity?" But I found my cham is plenty hydrated, her plants aren't becoming soggy, and she is overall happier. Sometimes less really is more. Lol. And no, her skin doesnt "dry out". Hahaha. Newbie thinking.

Haha! The drinking thing always, always worries me. I did the same thing with my first Cham. Turned out she was just a shy drinker and she never had any hydration issues lol. Oddly enough, I’m much calmer about this guy drinking but still managed to overdo it

 

[AmandaS]

Haha! The drinking thing always, always worries me. I did the same thing with my first Cham. Turned out she was just a shy drinker and she never had any hydration issues lol. Oddly enough, I’m much calmer about this guy drinking but still managed to overdo it

I am on my first cham. Soo...fingers crossed Im not such a hot mess on the second!!! Because once you pop (the chameleon lid) you just cant stop!! I need more! Lol

 

[carbyville]

I am on my first cham. Soo...fingers crossed Im not such a hot mess on the second!!! Because once you pop (the chameleon lid) you just cant stop!! I need more! Lol

I rushed my first cham to the vet so many times thinking she was dying when she was just fine. I totally totally get it! I was a wreck. Thankfully the folks here were so helpful which is why I came back for guidance on the new guy

 

[Beman]

@carbyville Ok so first off welcome back. I do apologize for your initial run in this morning... Ok so all my feedback will be in red bold. You already got great feedback so I will be repeating stuff as well.


Here’s my questionnaire...

Chameleon Info:

◦ Your Chameleon - Veiled Chameleon, 4 months, male. He arrived last Friday, so, in my care for six days.

◦ Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? Never. I set him free into his enclosure and he’s been there since. I gave you the blog link and that will help for building trust so you can start off with hand feeding.

◦ Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? Crickets gutloaded with apples and oranges released into the cage every morning around 9am. So you will want to improve upon your gutload. Using leafy greens is best. We want as much nutrients as possible to pass to the Cham. So you can do fresh vegi's or you can do a commercial gutload like bug burger. I will post an image below for you for both gutload and feeders.

◦ Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? I dust them with Rep-Cal calcium each feeding and once a week (When I have him that long lol) dust them with Repto-Cal with D3 for the feeding. The schedule you will want to follow when using multiples like this is calcium WITH D3 two times a month and a multivitamin 2 times a month. These two get rotated week to week. Then at every feeding when your not using these you are going to use a calcium Without D3. Lighting powdered on the feeders. Or you can use Repashy calcium plus LoD only and this will cover all supplement needs. Using this one only at every feeding light dusting.

◦ Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? I’ve seen him drinking, yes. I have a misting system set to mist the cage once per hour for 60 seconds. As already stated this is a bit frequent. You will want the cage to dry out and high humidity is not good for them during the day. I will give you a link to naturalistic hydration podcast. It is a good one and how most of us model our misting. You can always have a little dripper running a slow drip on plants all day. This is what I do.

◦ Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? Brown, firm fecal matter. He hasn’t yet been tested. Please go ahead and get a fecal tested. It is better to know that he is totally parasite free then have an unfortunate situation happen.

◦ History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.



Cage Info:

◦ Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? He is in a 24x24x48 screen enclosure. Wonderful.

◦ Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? He has a heat bulb and uvb bulb on for 12 hours, off for 12 hours. Set on a tile to turn off at 8pm and on at 8am. Perfect and are you running a T5HO linear UVB fixture with a 5.0 bulb? how many inches below is the basking branch from the fixture?

◦ Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? Top temps range 90-95F at the basking spot, humidity around 70% after misting and drops to about 60% lower parts of the cage are about 75F. I have a digital thermometer/Hydrometer This is a little too warm for a baby. So your going to need to drop basking temp back to 85 degrees. The care sheet will give you info on when to kick the temp back up. So either go with a lower wattage bulb or depending on your distance from fixture to basking branch that may be where you can adjust it. For Humidity you want it more toward 30% during the day with a max of 50% typically 30-40% is where you want it to sit. The podcast will give you more info on this as a whole too.

◦ Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? I have a ficus on the way from lllreptile that I am going to put in with him. Right now he has fake foliage until the plant arrives. K you can also do Pothos plants as well. They love them. Just make sure to put 1 inch river rock on top of the soil to keep him out of it.

◦ Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? The cage is in a room that only I use and is not high traffic. Set on a cabinet several feet off the ground. good.

◦ Location - Where are you geographically located? Northeast Ohio.

No problems at all. Just was looking for tips on hand feeding worms for a snack. I gave you that link for my blog... It does help. Can be a slow process but it worked for me and has worked for others.


Podcast link https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-89-naturalistic-hydration-for-chameleons/

Caresheet: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

 

[carbyville]

Thank you so much for the thoughtful and thorough answers @Beman! I will work in remedying everything today.

I’ll get the gutload updated and the heat and humidity down right away. The basking branch is about three inches from the UVB bulb and it is a T5 full spectrum bulb. I do have multivitamin to sprinkle on the staple feeders. I have to admit I did forget about that. I’ll start that multivitamin/d3 schedule right away.

I’m glad to hear they love pothos because I have a huge one. I’ll grab some cuttings and get them rooted without pesticides and fertilizers for him. Maybe a cutting on eat side of the cage to go with the ficus.

Thank you again for all of the info! I want to make sure this little dude is as happy and healthy as possible.

 

[Beman]

Thank you so much for the thoughtful and thorough answers @Beman! I will work in remedying everything today.

I’ll get the gutload updated and the heat and humidity down right away. The basking branch is about three inches from the UVB bulb and it is a T5 full spectrum bulb. I do have multivitamin to sprinkle on the staple feeders. I have to admit I did forget about that. I’ll start that multivitamin/d3 schedule right away.

I’m glad to hear they love pothos because I have a huge one. I’ll grab some cuttings and get them rooted without pesticides and fertilizers for him. Maybe a cutting on eat side of the cage to go with the ficus.

Thank you again for all of the info! I want to make sure this little dude is as happy and healthy as possible.

Your welcome! Ok so with the UVB you need to drop that basking branch to 7-8 inches. This is going to be the proper distance from the T5HO fixture to give the correct amount of UVB. Any closer and the levels are going to be too high. So that will help with your temp too getting the basking branch down.

 

[carbyville]

Your welcome! Ok so with the UVB you need to drop that basking branch to 7-8 inches. This is going to be the proper distance from the T5HO fixture to give the correct amount of UVB. Any closer and the levels are going to be too high. So that will help with your temp too getting the basking branch down.

Got it! Will do

 

[carbyville]

I’ve got SUCCESS!

I just spent about twenty minutes sitting with Duncan and finally took out a super worm for him (I don’t have wax worms yet). It took some time but I held my arm up there until finally, finally, he took the worm. We did this twice! We still have a long way to go before he will trust me enough to come out to eat, but I’m happy that we have some results on just the first try!

Special thanks to @Beman for the link to the blog post. I followed the tips and here we have two successful hand feed attempts. I’m so happy!

 

[Beman]

I’ve got SUCCESS!

I just spent about twenty minutes sitting with Duncan and finally took out a super worm for him (I don’t have wax worms yet). It took some time but I held my arm up there until finally, finally, he took the worm. We did this twice! We still have a long way to go before he will trust me enough to come out to eat, but I’m happy that we have some results on just the first try!

Special thanks to @Beman for the link to the blog post. I followed the tips and here we have two successful hand feed attempts. I’m so happy!

Great job! Happy it went so well on the first try!

 

[carbyville]

Duncan has been with me for a week now. Things seem to be going well. He’s very comfortable in his cage and has no interest in coming out, which I am fine with. We are doing better with hand feeding. He was much quicker to come over and grab the work I was offering him.

Also, I’ve adjusted his cage as suggested (moved his basking area down) and added his ficus which arrived yesterday. I bought a premade gutload and Dubia roaches which will be here soon. For now he has crickets with fruit and veggies as a gutload and we have a vet appointment next week to get him checked out and a have a fecal exam done.

Here he is just a few minutes ago. I try to keep picture taking to a minimum while he adjusts to being here and adjusts to me, but I couldn’t resist that face today.