First timer, advice please?

[Jamie455]

Hey!
So my friend had to get rid of his new baby veiled chameleon and I took him since I've been wanting one for a really long time.

I have a few concerns

1. Humidity is super difficult for me to keep up, I bought a reptifogger and leave it on for about 5 minutes every once in a while to try to bring up humidity but it doesn't seem to do much. I also mist his cage with a spray bottle and sometimes that spikes the humidity up a bit but it also dramatically lowers the temperature of the cage. Which brings me to my next concern
2. Temperature. Currently I have a heat lamp which was given to me by the previous owner along with a "night lamp" which was also given to me, I was told to use the night lamp during, well, the night. But I looked it up and a lot of people said the light is very distracting for the cham at night and it's better to leave all lights off, so, i use the night lamp along with the day lamp during the day JUST to keep his temperature at 24 C, and misting his cage brings it down to 20 C and sometimes 19 C.

Also, some questions

- I found a glass terrarium by exo terra which has ventilation in the front as well as a mesh top, but I know a lot of cham owners say you should absolutely not put a chameleon in a glass tank. I just feel that, with this, the humidity and temperature would be far easier to keep up. and i've seen some other owners say that the debate between glass and mesh is all hype and to just do what works for me. thoughts?

- I'll post some pictures of my chameleon, I'm not sure how old he is but he's obviously very young. When is an appropriate time to move him to a bigger enclosure?

-I'll also post the picture of my current enclosure in case anything jumps out at you guys that I should change.

-UVB strip on top, night light (red) and day heat lights on the side.
-Little dripper
-Reptifogger

Currently his humidity is on 40 /:

 

[jajeanpierre]

Congratulations on your new chameleon and welcome!

Personally, I hate screen cages. I use cages that have a screen front and top and three solid sides. I've used glass, too. The worry with glass is that it will trap heat in the enclosure and the temps will get dangerously high. Glass enclosures like an Exo-Terra are not usually tall enough to allow enough of a heat gradient. They are a little trickier to get right. Plus they are very heavy and cumbersome.

You want the heat lamp to be up with the UVB light. The skin needs to heat up to utilize the UVB. The infrared rays (the heating part of light) will radiate down and heat up the surface they hit. They won't heat up the air. The ambient temperature might be 25, but it still will heat up the skin. Check the temperatures of the surface under the heat lamp with an infrared thermometer.

He (are you sure it is a he and not a she?) does not need heat at night in most houses. They are native to the moutains of the southwestern Arabian Peninsula where it sometimes goes down to freezing at night. I'm not advocating allowing a veiled to be in temperatures in the low teens (50F to 55F), but it is well within the normal ranges for the species.

To raise the humidity, just cover three sides. You can use Coroplast (white plastic corrigated sign board) or even a shower curtain. Add living plants (my favorite is hibiscus because the veileds will eat it and it is a healthy plant to eat) which will not only add to the humidity but they will hold water on their leaves for longer than a fake plant.

 

[Jamie455]

Thank you so much!

A cage with a screen top and front with 3 solid sides sounds ideal, but where did you possibly find one of those? All I can find is glass terrariums with a mesh top or entire mesh cages.

Thanks much for the advice about the lights, i've moved the heat lamp to be overhead instead. And I'm going to try to get something to cover three sides with.

Also, I think it's male? the past owner who gave it to me said it was male so I just took his word for it, I'd take a closer inspection but my cham gets very very scared if i get too close to look at him or something, i'm trying to give him a few days to just calm down after the move into my house.

i'm the kind of person that gets frantic when i have something new to take care of, i just want to do everything right for him. thanks so much for the message, and if you could possibly let me know where I can grab an enclosure for him with 3 solid sides that would be super awesome.

-One more thing, when should I move him to a new enclosure? I'm too afraid to touch him since he puffs up and turns black if i get too close. I'm hoping he'll have warmed up to me before i have to take him out and put him in something new LOL.

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums and congrats on your new baby veiled. I keep veileds and. They are awesome chameleons to work with. They have allot of personality when interacted with on a regular basis. You can see my veileds here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/my-beautiful-veileds-142194/

Veiled's need allot of ventilation and do not require as high humidity as some species of chameleons so I recommend screen enclosures for veileds and panthers. Do you have live plants in the cage? I can't tell from the pictures on my phone but the pothos plants hold allot of water and helps keep up the humidity between mistings. I recommend at least one of those. Glass is hard to control the temps especially for a beginner and you can cook your little guy quickly.

I'm attaching my blog for new keepers. It's what has worked very successfully for me over the years. I hope it will help you to keep your chameleon healthy and happy for many years to come.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html