First Chameleon - Guidance needed

[rhacknc]

Chameleon Info:
• Your Chameleon - Archie - He's a Graceful. Was told he was around 6 months old. Purchased him at a Repticon show 4 days ago.
• Handling - Only handled a couple of times since purchasing. Took him out of cage while setting things up.
• Feeding - Crickets, first day home he ate 8 small crickets. Second day he ate a couple of large crickets. Have not seen him eat since since 2 days ago. 2nd time we fed him dusted in Calcium. Crickets have Flukers cricket food in tanks.
• Supplements - Repti Calcium
• Watering - 1st day used hand sprayer to mist leaves in cage. Installed a Monsoon RS400, set to spray 10 seconds every hour. Water seems to evaporate pretty quickly. First day in cage seen him drink after hand spraying.
• Fecal Description - Have not seen any sign of him going to bathroom since we brought him home.
• History -

Cage Info:
• Cage Type - Reptibreeze 16x16x30 mesh enclosure.
• Lighting - Hood with a basking lamp and a UVB 5.0 lamp. About 12 hr on/off cycles.
• Temperature - Daytime average around 80 4 inches from heat bulb. Night drops to around 70.
• Humidity - Around 30-40%, per small humidity gauge. Having trouble with humidity levels even though I have a timed spray.
• Plants - No live plants
• Placement - Cage in a small computer type office room. Low traffic, no fans. Kitchen is adjacent to room so he can hear quite a bit of what is going on.
• Location - North Carolina

Current Problem - Not sure there is a problem, but want to see if Archie is acting as one would expect for a newly purchased chameleon or if I may be doing something wrong and he is not entirely happy. Arch is not very active. Seems he likes to pick out a spot and just stay there. I put plenty of variety for climbing and hiding in the cage. I was hoping he would explore the cage and see where he could wander too. Is it possible he is not yet comfortable in his new surroundings? I thought he would like it after being in a small tank with several other Chameleons at the Repticon show. The first day he got a lot of handling as we did not immediately have an enclosure setup for him. He ate well the first day, and he seemed happy to get water. The second day he ate a couple of pretty big crickets. I'm now wondering if they were a bit too big for him and is having trouble digesting. Since he came home 4 days ago I have yet to see any evidence of him pooping. Since I have not seen him eat for a couple of days I have left crickets to wander the cage hoping he will catch one if he feels like it. I have seen crickets close to him but he has not shown any interest. I am also concerned because I cannot get the humidity up. I was wondering if I should go to an aquarium tank so the humidity stays in and does not dissipate so quickly.

Thanks for any advice given, he is a cool little fella and I just want him to be happy and healthy.

 

[DavidBuchan]

Hello, welcome to the forum It sounds like you are doing a good job with him. I never kept Gracefuls but I can give a couple of general tips. Wrapping plastic sheeting around one or three of his cage sides would help keep the humidity in. That would be much better for ventilation than the aquarium Lots of chams do need time to adjust to new homes. Sometimes a healthy cham will not eat for a week but will be fine. Just leave him to it with as little disturbing him as possible and he should settle in fine.
Does your calcium powder have vitamin d3 in it?
Also, for gutloading Flukers stuff has a pretty poor reputation. Here is a great link - https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
If you want commercial gutloads then Repashy Bug Burger or Cricket Crack are very high quality products.
The general rule of thumb for feeders is not bigger than the space between his eyes.

 

[Olimpia]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

After 4 days he may still be just settling in. It's not uncommon for a new chameleon to take as long as a week or a little over to really settle in and feel comfortable. But you should start seeing him walk around more in a couple days.

I will say as well that graceful chameleons that are displayed in groups at shows are most likely wild caught chameleons, so it's possible he's only been in the country a short time. In which case, he needs even more time to settle in, a little more privacy, and patience. This is all very new to him is that's the case! Once you do see a poop I would scoop it up and take it to a vet to get examined (usually runs about $15-20) for parasites, as this is typical in wild chameleons.

As far as the humidity, don't worry too much about it staying at a perfect number all day long. It's normal for it to drop between mistings, as long as you get a nice spike every time the mister goes off. Live plants would definitely keep the humidity up, as well as maybe switching to doing slightly longer mistings.

Plus what David said!

 

[rhacknc]

Thanks for the quick reply David. I appreciate the info. My calcium does have D3 in it. I'll start to mind the gut loading to ensure nutritious crickets are fed to my little fella.

 

[SaintJimmy]

Sounds like you're doing pretty much the same thing I am, even with the same exact stuff (except I don't use fluker's). I think you're doing just fine, even with me being a beginner, too. Good Luck!

Also, even if you know the basics, reading more and more always helps!

 

[DavidBuchan]

Thanks for the quick reply David. I appreciate the info. My calcium does have D3 in it. I'll start to mind the gut loading to ensure nutritious crickets are fed to my little fella.

I'm not totally sure of the usual schedule for Gracefuls, but you will want a plain (no D3) powder for everyday dusting. The D3 one will usually be too high for everyday use.

 

[MCSEB]

Hi!
Well I'm also new to this forum so welcome my friend. By reading what you wrote, it sounds like you have everything under control. Just remember that chameleons need sometime to get used to their new home. From what I've read, it shouldn't take more than a week. Make sure when you give your chameleon the powder, that you only give it to him twice a month. I would prefer for you to get live plants instead of fake plants. I mean you could have a few live plants and maybe a couple fake plants. That's okay. When it comes to handling your chameleon, make sure you don't do it too much. I read something online that the oil on your skin could harm their skin or something like that. Like I said before, just give your chameleon sometime to get adjusted to it's new home. Just try to make him feel like home by adding twigs and plants. Chameleons love to climb remember that. I myself do not have a chameleon but I've literally spent one week reading about them. I just ordered myself an 18x18x36' screen cage and it should arrive by Friday along with the UVB bulb. I'm getting myself a senegal chameleon next week so I'm doing my reading on the forums and I'm trying to learn as much as I can before I get my cham. I have a question though. How much did your mister cost you and where did you buy it? I need to get myself a mister but then again I'm thinking about hand spraying it. Good luck with everything and I hope this helped

 

[rhacknc]

I want to thank everyone for their responses, much appreciated. Glad I found this forum. My initial post may have been a little premature. This morning I found the fella on the opposite side of the cage on the top walking upside down. He must have been doing some cricket hunting. Also, found he finally relieved himself. Guess he is getting settled! I see I have a lot to learn about the nutrition, Calcium w/D3, without D3, etc. Sure helps to learn with the pros that are raising pets they care about. In hindsight, when purchasing my Cham, the dealer did not seem that interested in talking much about it and the care it required. He just seemed happy to get his cash.

MCSEB - Good luck when you get yours. The seller I got mine from had nice looking Senegals. Hand spraying got old after a day for me, also if you are not around to spray you can leave your Chameleon thirsty. I got my Monsoon RS400 at Petsmart $129, Petco it was $149. I seen it a lot cheaper on the internet but I did not want to wait. If I was smart I would have did my setup first like you are doing rather than spend more at the retail stores. Doing a search for Monsoon RS400 brings up prices as low as $87.

 

[MCSEB]

I want to thank everyone for their responses, much appreciated. Glad I found this forum. My initial post may have been a little premature. This morning I found the fella on the opposite side of the cage on the top walking upside down. He must have been doing some cricket hunting. Also, found he finally relieved himself. Guess he is getting settled! I see I have a lot to learn about the nutrition, Calcium w/D3, without D3, etc. Sure helps to learn with the pros that are raising pets they care about. In hindsight, when purchasing my Cham, the dealer did not seem that interested in talking much about it and the care it required. He just seemed happy to get his cash.

MCSEB - Good luck when you get yours. The seller I got mine from had nice looking Senegals. Hand spraying got old after a day for me, also if you are not around to spray you can leave your Chameleon thirsty. I got my Monsoon RS400 at Petsmart $129, Petco it was $149. I seen it a lot cheaper on the internet but I did not want to wait. If I was smart I would have did my setup first like you are doing rather than spend more at the retail stores. Doing a search for Monsoon RS400 brings up prices as low as $87.

Hey no problem! I'm so glad I could help. Thank you for answering my question though. Make sure to post some pictures up of your chameleon and your setup too. That would be nice

 

[Olimpia]

Let me say that it is not true about our skin oils being harmful to chameleons. We don't recommend handling them all the time because they stress out with prolonged, unwanted contact, not necessarily because we physically harm them.

The oil thing seems like it might be true as far as eggs are concerned, and it is better to wear gloves or move eggs with tweezers to avoid clogging the surface of the egg with finger oils. I'm sure it's not life or death but it makes sense to me so I don't handle eggs with a bare hand.