Hatching Panther Chameleons!! Exposed faces but no movement in 6 hours since I noticed it.

[coastal_chameleon]

I keep and make 10 fruit fly cultures weekly of 3 types, hydei & melonagaster with and without wings because I keep Dart frogs & day geckos. I already have crickets of different sizes for my various reptiles. Maybe these pictures will give you a little confidence. I have a tub with a DIY screen top made with hot glue I used for breeding crickets I don't do anymore, and an Exo Terra / Zilla's of various sizes. I could toss something together in a minutes notice if needed in addition to what is in the last picture. I am just asking because I want the best and I'm being OCD and I want to know how to assemble the Legos because I already have all the pieces except a screen enclosure. I have a 1ft T5 HO ready to go and will add it into my mistking system but as babies they may need a little extra misting so I may add another pump/ timer into my bucket so I can run another schedule/loop. I have over the last few years read and seen videos that screen enclosures may not be the best in dry cold climates and I just wanted a final word before moving forward to see if the community changed their mind again.

Note I don't have the empty tanks in the pictures and I could use the Zilla in the last picture by just cleaning it adding fresh paper towels. The last picture shows a little dripper that I had drain into a container that just needs a screen over it so they don't down. I have hardware cloth which will serve that purpose if needed. If that tank will work with a small computer fan that would be great. If a screen enclosure would be better I could run to the store fast and buy one that's the only thing I don't have but I definitely have enough to serve the immediate needs of almost any typical reptile outside of large monitors.

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honestly this enclosure is perfect ! if you go bio active , even better ! babies poop a lot so having a clean up crew puts in work !

 

[aapuzzo]

honestly this enclosure is perfect ! if you go bio active , even better ! babies poop a lot so having a clean up crew puts in work !

Cool I can make it bioactive I have all the stuff here now to do it along with ABG and the false bottom.

I'll keep them on paper towels for a few days so I can monitor if they are eating and droppings look normal and switch it over. That sounds like a great idea.

 

[aapuzzo]

So here is my setup as of today. I have plants ready to go bioactive but I do not want to disturb them until I verified they are eating. I replaced my 12" T5 HO 5.0 with an 18" T5 HO 10.0 sideways (The store only had 18" T5 10.0 bulbs so I bought a new fixture). I decided to go with a 10.0 bulb unless anybody objects because for the time being I limited the plant height to contain them to a smaller area for finding food and to keep them closer to the wet paper towel for humidity. I figured through the screen and at 18" distance a 5.0 may not give enough UV. I'll put my 12" T5 HO 5.0 bulb back and repurpose this fixture to replace 2 of my CFLs on my day geckos once I can stop limiting the height. The 18" fixtures are actually 24" long and cover 2 12x12x18 Exo Terra's perfectly. reducing expense and number of plugs. I hate the CFL bulbs anyway.

I also learned something new today that has been driving me crazy. I have had the hardest time adding low powered basking lights to my small Exo Terra's since I thought the zilla 25w mini halogens were the lowest output thing out there next to using a dimmer. They are small but in no way low powered. The zoomed nano fixture I decided to try out gives off way less heat because they are incandescent. The 25w zoomed incandescent (they make a 25 halogen too) gives off almost no heat and would have been perfect for my other tanks. I wish I invested in those. I was shocked to find out those little 25w bulbs like in my hand are = to a 50 watt standard basking light. The zilla bulb also comes in a 50w option too and those are way to hot for small enclosures. The reason I like the small bulbs and fixtures instead of using a dimmer on the larger domes is for overhead clearance since I stack enclosures & these are only 3.5 inches high. The nice thing about zoomed is the bulb uses a standard base so you can go aftermarket if they stop making them and they also have ceramic heaters too. I wouldn't trust the mini UV unless I had to.

Whichever heat bulb and fixture I settle on it is plugged into a thermostat set at 85f. I am just testing now which bulb can get me the closest to not hitting the thermostat since I have one of everything including every wattage. I like thermostats to just be just for safety so if we get freak hot winter day or my mini AC quits in the summer. I don't like to rely on a thermostat so if everything is set up pretty close to on point even if the thermostat fails it won't be dangerous for the animal just uncomfortable. I placed a tiny Pangea cup in the flexible branch with the smallest amount of my crested gecko diet to attract the flies limiting escapes and to make it easier for the chameleons to find. I imagine it would also not be the worst thing for them to gut load on. The entire setup is on a day/night timer.

For the ventilation I just placed a large box fan on the floor in my room on a smart outlet programmed to run 8 times a day for 5 minutes instead of playing with small computer fans. I figured why not just give everything in the room ventilation since I don't have a thing it would hurt.

I'll work on adding the mistking next.


Anything else I should do or did I miss something?

 

[aapuzzo]

Reposted the above question to a new thread for visibility if mods want to delete it since it is not related to the subject anymore.