Final Review, Final concerns!

[Mansfield]

Hi All,
I am expecting my new buddy this Thursday and have been getting his enclosure ready with finishing touches. I would like to ask any of the pros that may have a few minutes to review my setup and techniques before he arrives! Here is the info:

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
  • Ambaja panther chameleon (from Kammerflage Kreations), Male, hatched 10/2/19 (just shy of 4 months). Not in my care yet!
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
  • The plan will be not at all in the first week, then after slowly introducing my hand for him to come to, if he does great, if not great....his terms and cleaning
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
  • To start, just received some small BSFL, Dubias and crickets (crickets are primarily what they feed them when I asked).
  • Schedule: Each morning I will put ~5 of each in certain dishes to start
    • I have 2 feeder cups from full throttle feeders, one the pole type, the other the type with the fencing on the back. Placed on opposite ends of the "Middle 1/3rd" of the enclosure.
    • Also have some cups for the bsfl that are designed for them not to escape and slither away when it gets wet!
  • Gut Loading:
    • Main feeder enclosures will be repashy bug burger
    • The day before feeding, I have a quarantine feeder enclosure with fresh vegetables depending on whats available and a small amount of bee pollen
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
  • Final feeder enclosure to dust with repashy plus LoD (Daily)
    • I Have separate Calcium/Calcium with D3/Multivitamin purchased as a backup. All exo terra brand.
      • I dont know if these are great....I know the multivitamin is only Beta Carotene for Vit A which I think isnt really helpful, so I can replace these (Basically I havent determined my best Vit A strategy and could use help here for sure)
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
  • Mistking with 2 nozzles
    • scheduled to coincide with the lights some, but here is the general idea:
      • AM shower of 4 minutes with first light around 7am
      • 1 minute 10am
      • 1 minute 12pm
      • 1 minute 4pm
      • 1 minute 7pm with lights out
      • 1 minute 9pm
  • With each misting of the mistking i have a drip system with 3 nozzles installed near plants that drip about 1 drop every 4 seconds or so, timed for an entire hour after the misting:
    • 7-8am
    • 10-11am
    • 12-1pm
    • 4-5pm
  • The reservoir for this system is heated to 75F and I use only distilled water
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
  • N/A
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
  • Kammerflage Breeding Program

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
  • Clearsides Dragon Strand Medium Tall Atrium (30" W x 23" D x 48" H)
    • Has the top and left side as screen, the rest clearside material
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
  • UV Fixture
    • Quad Tropic Blaze from LYR with 1 x 12% Arcadia, 3 x 6500k
      • Placed ~8 inches from highest branch, measured as ~3.5 UVI on Solarmeter
      • Measured directly under the light just in case he is a screen climber at 9.0 (Concern that I will watch for him staying under it too long)
    • on at 7am off at 7pm always
  • 2 Jungle Dawn LED bulbs
    • suspended at the top over 2 areas (about 2" off screen)
    • One is on from 6:30am to 7:10pm
    • Other timed for sunrise and sunset through an app
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
  • Daytime Min/Max
    • 72-87F
      • Max controlled via thermostat set for 87F
  • Overnight
    • 62-67F
  • Measured using Sensorpush sensors
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
  • Daytime Min/Max
    • 38% at hottest/75% at coolest zones
  • Nighttime Min/Max
    • 80% up to 99%
      • maintained at night by a fogger:
        • 9-10pm
        • 12-1am
        • 6-7am
  • Measured with SensorPush sensors
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
  • All Live
    • 2 pothos
    • 2 prayer plants
    • 3 schefflera
    • 1 rubber plant (this seems to be a hot discussion item i am not sure if i should keep)
• 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?
  • In its own room that I use as a 2nd office a few times a week, no traffic other than me (my wife has her own! lol MY CAVE!)
  • top of cage is ~12" from the ceiling
• Location - Where are you geographically located?
  • San Francisco Bay Area

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.
I have this thing decked out....will my 4 month old panther get lost??

I am happy to provide anything else that I might have forgotten or other pictures! Thanks for all the help and critique .

 

[Goose502]

Looks great, the only thing I’d do differently is bioactive substrate. I will run every setup for any reptile as bioactive from now on. Its really nice to see someone actually ready for their chameleon before it shows up. Good luck!

 

[Mansfield]

Thank you!

 

[Multivitamins]

It looks nice
Ive had the same 2*2*4 since getting my chameleon at 3-4 month old . Put him into it right away I made sure he was eating and eventually got to him used to hand feeding. With time you'll likely discover small tweaks to make (for me I added more variety of branch sizes and diameter as he grew and have overhauled my misting schedule ). One I might point out is mistings in the mid day when it's warmest. People have been moving towards the naturalistic hydration cycle that bill strand outlines very well on the chameleon breeder podcast . I'll point you to https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/ for a wealth of chameleon related knowledge
As for enclosure size...I don't buy into the getting lost or too much space argument I feel they try to sell smaller enclosures to make more money when the animal inevitably outgrows it. These guys have instincts captive bred or not and come from vast landscapes and terrains in Madagascar I think you'll be fine.

Hope to see some photos of your chameleon once they are settled in !

 

[Mansfield]

Thanks so much! I think I listened to about 30 of the podcasts a bit ago on a couple road trips haha! There is definitely a wealth of knowledge there and I’m sure I could revisit a few to dial things in. Thanks again for the encouragement.
On the note of misting time, I have heard what you are referring to, and I could just as easily have the drip system run throughout the entire day and lower misting frequency as long as I knew he was drinking well from it. I’ll have to see what he does and adjust accordingly.

 

[salty dog]

Very good!!! Thank you!! Just remember chams are territorial in nature, it may hide from you, or hiss and sway when you put your hand in there, if he isn't already used to hand feeding, I have gotten my chams tamed from feeding from a cup...although chams are a natural animal with all different personalities and temperaments, you just gotta take 1 step at a time

 

[Mansfield]

Very good points. I will definitely need to take it slow while he and I get to know each other.

 

[Ruthless]

I agree with changing your misting times maybe cut it in half with just longer run times. And move more towards what we have recently be learning with natural hydration also I feel a 75 degree water temperature for for misting is a bit over kill. I feel room temperature is just fine where will you find a constant rain shower at 75 other then that you look to be on the right track and your setup looks awesome!

 

[Mansfield]

I’ll take a closer look at the mist schedule. It’s really easy to adjust. Also, with the tank heat, I typically keep my home cool during the winter, about 64F. I am able to maintain temps inside the enclosure using a Dyson hot+cool, but the reservoir tends to be on the cool side at that 60-64F range since it is in a cabinet. So, since I happened to have an extra inkbird WiFi controller I just decided to keep the reservoir warmer, and I settled on 75F from any random info I’ve seen since it isn’t a real requirement. So, in summary, I just did it because I could and imagined how I hate cold showers personally hahahaha. Based on what you are saying, I just lowered to the target temp to a typical room temp, 70F. I am also positive that during summer months this will be completely unnecessary. Haha ok sorry about the ramble!

 

[Mansfield]

Oh and thank you so much for the feedback!

 

[Mansfield]

Ok, so I went back and listened to the naturalistic hydration podcast and made the following adjustments:
Fogger at night went from 1 hour spurts throughout the night to on from 12am-6:30am (First light turning on).
Adjusted to have a 1 minute misting at 6am (30 minutes before first light).
Adjusted to have a 4 minute mist at noon. This is accompanied with a "warning" with one jungle dawn turning off 5 minutes prior and the 2nd jungle dawn and heat lamp turning off 2 minutes prior and the fogger comes on 2 minutes prior, to simulate cloud cover . Then shortly after the misting everything returns to normal a couple minutes later. The UV Fixture remains on the entire time.
Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

[Mansfield]

He's here! Everyone, meet Percival! He slowly climbed out of his shipping cup and then sauntered off into the canopy! At this point I'm not sure where he went, hopefully exploring haha. I'm sure it will take him a bit to get acclimated, but I'm so excited!

 

[cyberlocc]

Adjusted to have a 4 minute mist at noon. This is accompanied with a "warning" with one jungle dawn turning off 5 minutes prior and the 2nd jungle dawn and heat lamp turning off 2 minutes prior and the fogger comes on 2 minutes prior, to simulate cloud cover . Then shortly after the misting everything returns to normal a couple minutes later. The UV Fixture remains on the entire time.
Thanks again for the suggestions!

I would cut those off, a tad sooner. Maybe 15 mins for the JD, and 10 for the basking light and second JD. Then turn them back on in the same order, in reverse in the same interval. Have to give him time to react to the changes. I do mine over an Hour, 30 mins before the lights start dimming (right now just shut off, dimming soon ) 30 mins prior and take 30 mins to be restored, so cloudy for an hour with a 5 mist in the middle .

Happy to see someone else doing this, I been preaching this idea for a LONG time . Let us know, if yours seems to react to it, and move himself in preparation , it might take awhile, but my panther has seemed to figure it out.

 

[Mansfield]

Thanks! I made your recommended adjustments. Of course, since its his first day in the enclosure, his first storm startled the heck out of him, but he will get used to it. So far he seems to calm down fairly quickly after changes.