toosde
New Member
Hi All!
My name is Auraya, most friends & family call me by my nickname: Tuesday.
I am the mother of 2 boys and they received 2 male veiled chameleons for Christmas. Santa broght stocking suffers, but my husband and I receive the guiding credit of the chams
We have 2 screened enclosures, one belonged to a veiled we got in 2006, who has since passed on. It is medium sized and the other is a large custom built corner chameleon home.
Both have mesh for all sides (minus the bottom side, of course), contain real plants, some fake plain and leafy vines, and they both have lighting and watering systems.
Each enclosure has the suggest lighting (USB bulbs) and heating lamps set on a timer with 12/12 day and night cycle. I fashioned a gravity feed dripper using the small container that our babies were shipped in, some tubing, a valve and nozzle (cost less than $1.00). The valve gives us the ability to control the flow rate of the fluid, and i have the reservoir (shipping container) positioned above a live plant in such a way so that the droplets of water fall on the leaves and down to the pot which reduces puddle formation almost completely. To further puddle reduction (so the the genius crickets don't die), the flow rate is controlled to a drop every 2 minutes. I also have a pressurized hand held mister to raise the humidity levels for them twice a day (temp and humidity values displayed on gages within enclosures).
Since these fellas are just tiny guys, I decided, after research and lurking, that the cousins would temporarily be roomies for the next couple of months. The larger enclosure seems much too large for feeding time at the moment because the crickets tend to fall to the bottom and they take much too long to cross the path of the baby's sight.
They seem as if they don't mind the temporary arrangement, however, I'm not a mind reader (although my hubby seems to think I am on occasion) and don't have the experience or intuition to know if it is allowable.
They have been in our care for less than 48 hours, they are active and colorful, they are eating, and they are relieving themselves. Their waste is the expected brownish - black with white. They feed on 3/8 inch crickets, and will be getting some praying mantis hatchlings after the first of the year. The crickets are 'Vita' crickets from an online store and are contained in a large tote in which they and roam and hide (within cut up wrapping paper rolls - also makes it easy to shake out a cricket - filled roll into the enclosure). I feed the critters fresh lime, bean sprouts (the larger Asian kind), and cucumber for now because that is what I have available.
My boys are learning by reading chameleon themed literature watching me closely, and I have been reading, as well. Although we already have some experience from having a chameleon in the past, we benefit from knowledgeable suggestions and advice from those who have kept successfully chameleons long-term.
Anyhow, I typed up a long introduction of our newest family members' living conditions and such. Thank you for reading the entire post, and please give suggestions if you feel inclined. I welcome all suggestions, criticisms, comments, and questions because I learn from it all.
my apologies for any and all grammar goofs. I am typing this post on my cellular phone and it is a pain to scroll and proofread o....O
Regards,
Auraya
My name is Auraya, most friends & family call me by my nickname: Tuesday.
I am the mother of 2 boys and they received 2 male veiled chameleons for Christmas. Santa broght stocking suffers, but my husband and I receive the guiding credit of the chams
We have 2 screened enclosures, one belonged to a veiled we got in 2006, who has since passed on. It is medium sized and the other is a large custom built corner chameleon home.
Both have mesh for all sides (minus the bottom side, of course), contain real plants, some fake plain and leafy vines, and they both have lighting and watering systems.
Each enclosure has the suggest lighting (USB bulbs) and heating lamps set on a timer with 12/12 day and night cycle. I fashioned a gravity feed dripper using the small container that our babies were shipped in, some tubing, a valve and nozzle (cost less than $1.00). The valve gives us the ability to control the flow rate of the fluid, and i have the reservoir (shipping container) positioned above a live plant in such a way so that the droplets of water fall on the leaves and down to the pot which reduces puddle formation almost completely. To further puddle reduction (so the the genius crickets don't die), the flow rate is controlled to a drop every 2 minutes. I also have a pressurized hand held mister to raise the humidity levels for them twice a day (temp and humidity values displayed on gages within enclosures).
Since these fellas are just tiny guys, I decided, after research and lurking,
that the cousins would temporarily be roomies for the next couple of months. The larger enclosure seems much too large for feeding time at the moment because the crickets tend to fall to the bottom and they take much too long to cross the path of the baby's sight.They seem as if they don't mind the temporary arrangement, however, I'm not a mind reader (although my hubby seems to think I am on occasion) and don't have the experience or intuition to know if it is allowable.
They have been in our care for less than 48 hours, they are active and colorful, they are eating, and they are relieving themselves. Their waste is the expected brownish - black with white. They feed on 3/8 inch crickets, and will be getting some praying mantis hatchlings after the first of the year. The crickets are 'Vita' crickets from an online store and are contained in a large tote in which they and roam and hide (within cut up wrapping paper rolls - also makes it easy to shake out a cricket - filled roll into the enclosure). I feed the critters fresh lime, bean sprouts (the larger Asian kind), and cucumber for now because that is what I have available.
My boys are learning by reading chameleon themed literature watching me closely, and I have been reading, as well. Although we already have some experience from having a chameleon in the past, we benefit from knowledgeable suggestions and advice from those who have kept successfully chameleons long-term.
Anyhow, I typed up a long introduction of our newest family members' living conditions and such. Thank you for reading the entire post, and please give suggestions if you feel inclined. I welcome all suggestions, criticisms, comments, and questions because I learn from it all.
my apologies for any and all grammar goofs. I am typing this post on my cellular phone and it is a pain to scroll and proofread o....O
Regards,
Auraya
