for Chelsie...

[kinyonga]

Chelsie said..."ok im new to this site and im new to owning a cham i bought my lovely little gurl a couple days ago but she has me worried she has ben changing to dark collors all day and im woried idk what im doing wrong and i cant figure out if its good or bad i need help....and i bought her from a store so idk how old she or any health stuff about her or stuff about her parents i need help! "....how old is she? What species is she?

Oops...just realized you don't know how old....so maybe you could post a photo.

 

[laurie]

Chelsie said..."ok im new to this site and im new to owning a cham i bought my lovely little gurl a couple days ago but she has me worried she has ben changing to dark collors all day and im woried idk what im doing wrong and i cant figure out if its good or bad i need help....and i bought her from a store so idk how old she or any health stuff about her or stuff about her parents i need help! "....how old is she? What species is she?

I am confused, what do you want or what should we do with this info? Am i missing something?

 

[chelsie]

ok i well hold on and she is veiled

 

[DavidBuchan]

She's very sweet , about 8 weeks old, looks healthy and comfortable enough. If you keep temps right and use the right uv bulb, and feed variety of gutloaded insects, and get the vitamins right, and have enough little branches and leaves so she is comfortable she will thrive.
She will need a laying bin, but not for a while yet. There is a lot to get right, but you have found the right place to learn the easiest ways to keep her healthy and happy.

 

[kinyonga]

Chameleons change colors when they want to warm up and cool off and they change colors/patterns/posture to communicate. For instance, if a female veiled isn't receptive she can change her background color dark to warn the male...in addition to swaying back and forth, hissing, gaping. If the female is sexually mature she will develop goldy/yellowy/mustardy splotches and if she's receptive she will get bright blue dots. A male showing aggression to another male will inflate his body and his gular pouch (under the chin), coil and uncoil his tail, brighten his colors, hold one hand up near his chin...and if the other male comes close enough there will be a fight. If you take a chameleon out of its territory (usually its cage) it will be on guard against predators and will change its color and pattern to indicate that. (And, no...they don't do plaid when put on a plaid background! LOL!)

Here's some information that you might like to read...
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

A wide variety of insects that have been well fed and gutloaded should be fed to it. At that size you only need to feed it every two or three days. Feed it enough that it doesn't get fat (and, of course, doesn't get thin either).

Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium). Not sure how to tell you to dust WC insects if that is what you will be doing.

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.

Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.