First shed in my care, pictures and QUESTIONS!

[ThisNewCham]

YAY!
My cham (veiled) is shedding his first shed in my care! I'm really excited, but I must say, it's a weird thing to witness! Haha. I already see more colour in him, and he's been acting weird, but from reading the forums I see it's typical for them to act weird during a shed. he just hides when I come in the room and look at him, that's about it. I'll post pictures below!

Onto the questions:

1) I've been trying to handle him, I wear gloves because he always puffs up and hisses at me, but I can't seem to get him on my hand. For the time being, I'm just sticking my finger near him so he gets used to my hand. I know I need to start handling him soon so that he can get used to it. Any help/advice?

2) Should I be misting him with distilled water or is tap water fine?

3) How do you feed a cham meal worms (or other worms)? I've tried to tweezer feed him some crickets but he just hisses at it. I want to add variety to his diet with some worms, so any help with that one?

Thanks guys!

Yesterday:

Today:

His setup:

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Greetings. Nice enclosure. Your little guy is greening up nicely. I noticed a few things, though:

He may be more comfortable with you if he had a better place to hide. You really need to get a nice, bushy, live plant in there, like a Schefflera or Ficus. That will also give him something to drink from.

If at all possible, the cage should be up off the floor. He should be able to bask in a position that is higher than you. That will boost his confidence and self esteem and make him happier and easier to work with.

When you do approach him, always wear bland colors, preferably beige or dull greens. THis makes a HUGE difference.

You asked about distilled or tap water. What do you mist him with now? And how often? I have well water on my property, so I really don't know what people do who have treated water (chlorine, etc.) hopefully one of them will chime in here. I do mist my guys more when they are shedding.

Worms can be fed to him in a cup. Except worms like silkworms or hornworms, which will readily sit/crawl on a vine.

I noticed in one of your earlier threads, someone asked you to answer these questions (below) and you didn't. So, if you could, answer the following questions. They are standard questions almost everyone on this forum has answered at sometime, and are routinely asked when someone asks for help with a health or husbandry issue.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - What kind of cage are you using? What is the size?
Lighting - What kind of lighting are you using? How long do you keep the lights on during the day?
Temperature - What temperature range have you created? Basking spot temp? What is the temperature at night?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Location - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas?

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon.
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What kind of schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What are you dusting your feeders with and what kind of schedule do you use?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings.
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Current Problem - The current problem that you are concerned about.

 

[Tygerr]

That's a nice cham, and a good size setup you've got.

You should get some live plants in there. Not only will it help with humidity (which will in turn help with his sheds), but it will also provide more privacy (=less stress) for him, and Veileds from about that size like to take bites out of their foliage - fake plants can be dangerous if he tries to eat them.

Also, I noticed that you have the Exo-Terra analogue humidity and temp gauges in there. Those are notoriously inconsistent. Try get digital ones if you can.

Anyway, on to your questions:
1) Some chams never enjoy being handled. They never get used to it and always put up quite a fuss if you try to handle them. In my opinion that's not always a bad thing. If a cham is willing to put up a fight when you try to get him out of his cage, it may be a sign that he is content there, and has become territorial over it. If a cham is too eager to jump onto your hand and get out of the cage, it is often a sign that the cham is not happy in the cage and that it just wants to escape.
The only time you really need to handle a cham is to take them to an outside enclosure to get some natural sunlight, to do regular health check-ups (once or twice a month) or to take it to the vet.
One way to coax a cham out to your hand, and to eventually have him allow you to handle him is by hand-feeding him. It takes a lot of patience with some chams, but if you present him with a tasty treat in your hand (waxworms, superworms) he'll probably come out to get it from your hand. Eventually he'll get comfortable with the hand, and might walk out onto it.

2) Provided you don't have any problems with drinking tap water in your area it should be fine to use for your cham. We have good water here (I don't even use bottled water for drinking ever), so my chams get tap water the same as me.

3) You shouldn't need to tweezer feed him anything - his tongue might get hurt if it hits the tweezers. Crickets/roaches can be free-ranged (just let them loose in the cage - provided they can't escape from it), mealworms/superworms can be fed from a bowl (avoid transparent ones, or light ones that can tip over easily) and silkworms/caterpillars can be placed on branches or on the screen.
Or, you could simply try cup-feeding all your insects. I use this design:
Quick Feeder for tough customers

 

[chameleonneeds]

Hey

I put mealworms in a feeding container and hold it in front of them then they hold it eat.
You can try carrots, rince them off first then grate off the skin off so thens its nicer,then just scrape off skins of the carrots but not thick 1ns cus they can choke.

 

[ThisNewCham]

Greetings. Nice enclosure. Your little guy is greening up nicely. I noticed a few things, though:

He may be more comfortable with you if he had a better place to hide. You really need to get a nice, bushy, live plant in there, like a Schefflera or Ficus. That will also give him something to drink from.

If at all possible, the cage should be up off the floor. He should be able to bask in a position that is higher than you. That will boost his confidence and self esteem and make him happier and easier to work with.

When you do approach him, always wear bland colors, preferably beige or dull greens. THis makes a HUGE difference.

You asked about distilled or tap water. What do you mist him with now? And how often? I have well water on my property, so I really don't know what people do who have treated water (chlorine, etc.) hopefully one of them will chime in here. I do mist my guys more when they are shedding.

Worms can be fed to him in a cup. Except worms like silkworms or hornworms, which will readily sit/crawl on a vine.

I noticed in one of your earlier threads, someone asked you to answer these questions (below) and you didn't. So, if you could, answer the following questions. They are standard questions almost everyone on this forum has answered at sometime, and are routinely asked when someone asks for help with a health or husbandry issue.

I mist him with tap water, but I did read about distilled water, so I wasn't sure. The gloves I use are black. I will look into a new hygrometer/thermometers, now that I know they are inconsistant. I've also been hunting for live plants, but the safe ones are difficult to find, which is frustrating. One other question...when chams bite, are they the kind of bitter that bite and hold on for dear life, while you're just stuck there in pain waiting for mercy? Or do they just bite and thats it? haha

Cage Info:
Cage Type - I made it...100 gallon
Lighting - 100W Sun Glo Neodynium Basking Spot Lamp, UV a+b, they are left on for about 12 hours a day (10:30am-10:30pm), night is a 75W Night Glo Neodymium Moonlight Lamp
Temperature - Basking spot is 30C (80f), rest of the cage is 22C (71F), night is just a bit cooler
Humidity - Humidity ranges between 40-50, usually stays 45-50
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Location - My bedroom, not too hightraffic at all

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon -Veiled, male, about a year old
Feeding - Crickets, 4 in the morning, 4 in the evening
Supplements - Crickets get lightly dusted with calcium dust
Watering - Misting 3-4 times daily (until leaves are dripping), drip system (2 times daily for 5 minutes), have not seen him drink
Fecal Description - Solid black, mushy looking white end
History - nope.
Current Problem - t'is being discussed

 

[Tygerr]

Your lighting setup isn't right. Those SunGlo lights do not provide adequate UVB for your cham. You need to get a tube flourescent like the ZooMed Reptisun 5.0.
Also, you should get rid of the night light. Chams prefer total darkness at night to sleep. The moonlight lamp might irritate/stress them.
Read this site for instructions and illustrations of what your lighting set-up should look like: Lighting Arrangements for Reptiles

EDIT: I just re-read your post... perhaps I mis-understood. Are you saying that you have the SunGlo bulb AND a UVA+B bulb, or do you mean that you are using the SunGlo for both UVA+B? If you do have a separate UVB bulb, ignore my comment about that, but still remove that night light.

when chams bite, are they the kind of bitter that bite and hold on for dear life, while you're just stuck there in pain waiting for mercy? Or do they just bite and thats it?

They tend to just bite and let go again. But it's important that you keep your wits about you when you're handling them, because the last thing you want to do is have a reflex reaction and fling them down or pull your hand back too quickly when they bite you, you might seriously injure them.

 

[ThisNewCham]

Your lighting setup isn't right. Those SunGlo lights do not provide adequate UVB for your cham. You need to get a tube flourescent like the ZooMed Reptisun 5.0.
Also, you should get rid of the night light. Chams prefer total darkness at night to sleep. The moonlight lamp might irritate/stress them.

I do have a seperate tube flourescent light for the UV A+B.

The night light is a dark blueish-purple light. From what I've researched chameleons cannot see in this spectrum (along with reds) so to them it's complete darkness. If I do have to remove it, would I just have no heat source for the night?

Edit: I read the link you gave me. The night light it less wattage than the day light, therefor it does decrease the temperature. Should I still remove it?

 

[Kat77]

Unless it drops below 60 degrees or so in your home at night, there should be no night time heat source on at all. Veileds, actually all chameleons, prefer a night time cooling period. This should include the switching off of ALL lights.

 

[ThisNewCham]

Unless it drops below 60 degrees or so in your home at night, there should be no night time heat source on at all. Veileds, actually all chameleons, prefer a night time cooling period. This should include the switching off of ALL lights.

This is fascinating.

No more blue light! Haha, sad, it's fun sleeping when your room is glowing blue.

 

[mczoo]

silkworms

i have foung all three of my chameleons incluging my very jumpy angry wild caugt jackson female and my shy montium will eat silkworms from my finger particularly one they get a taste.

i also feed my chameleons from a cup i hold with an outstretched hand and since i started that they all seem more please to see me. at first it took a while for them to approach the cup and i still leave free range food them put the cup up to them. my captive bred female jacson somtimes tries to get in the cup despite my hand holding it

Good luck

Sean

 

[Kat77]

This is fascinating.

No more blue light! Haha, sad, it's fun sleeping when your room is glowing blue.

Hah, aww. Well, one day, when the crickets start to drive you nuts at night and you HAVE to move him out of your bedroom just so you can sleep, you can get your own blue light!

 

[Miss becky]

ahhh i remember when Amigo started shedding for the 1st time and he does act weird rubbs his whole body everywhere looks quite funny while he does it when hes walkin too lol. i never had a problem with handeling amigo he did and sometimes now he will puff out a bit when i open the glass rather quick but he'l still walk straight on my hand.i have a little bowl that i put his mealworms in and he'l just go down when ever he fancys some.
it is such a interesting thing to watch a chameleon shed though you can see their new markings everytime they shed which is really nice as a owner