Help - 1st time owner

[leafr]

• Your Chameleon - veiled chameleon, male, maybe 5 months? As he is around 2-2.5” without the tail. in my care since Sept 27, 2024
• Handling - Just once, when I got him inside the cage
• Feeding - feeding small crickets from petstore (petsmart), I put 4 daily at 3:30pm, they’re gutloaded by them
• Supplements - I started yesterday with ZooMed Repti Calcium without D3,
• Watering - misting with Moistenland Reptile humidifier and a dripper all day with a drop every 5-7 seconds, but from today started with a deop every second, I haven’t seen him drink nor eat
• Fecal Description - fecal is light brown, seems to have cricket parts in it. Never been tested for parasites
• History - 1st day ate the 4 crickets, normally just find 2 to 3 missing crickets in his plate, but hasn’t eaten any in the last 3 days, I introduced a fly 3 days ago and I believe he ate it

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - ZooMed ReptiBreeze XL Deluxe screen with acrylic front door 24x24x48
• Lighting - UVB 6% (borrowed by the store) from 8am to 8pm; tomorrow will arrive an arcadia lamp Forrest UVB 6% 24”
• Temperature - temp cage floor 69 to basking spot 79. Lowest overnight temp 65, measured with a temperature gun
• Humidity - 41, at 7:58am a mister for 5 mins and again at 7:58pm
• Plants - using live plants golden pothos at the top, marble queen photos on the top back, pearl jade photos and split leaf philodendron at the bottom
• Placement - located inside a bedroom with roof fan on all time, height is 73” at the top of the cage relative to room floor
• Location - El Paso, Tx.

Current Problem - Worried he hasn’t eated, that I haven’t seen him drink and yesterday he spent all day in the top mesh under the light. Today he’s been all day on the top of the side mesh. Before that he was moving around the enclosure. Today I took out the marble queen photos and the pearl jade photos as they were dying.

Photos: 5028-5031 from Sep 27, first day at home — 5045 from Sep28 — 5033 from Sep 29 — 5034-5035 from Oct 03 — 5036-5038 from yesterday —

 

[leafr]

Today photos, he’s been there all day

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi. I’m currently at a vet appointment, but if no one helps you, I’ll try when I get home.

 

[MissSkittles]

Although right away & without reading anything, I see you are lacking uvb. You need asap a linear T5 with a 5.0 or 6% bulb (ReptSun or Arcadia are the only ones I trust). Then you need a distance of 8-9” from lights to basking branch.

 

[MissSkittles]

I’d like to see pics of the back heels of the back feet to confirm gender. Baby is at high risk for burns so basking light needs to be raised a few inches above the screen. I use wire baskets from dollar store for that.

 

[leafr]

Thank you all for your help, it’s greatly appreciated… Not sure if It’s a male

 

[leafr]

Although right away & without reading anything, I see you are lacking uvb. You need asap a linear T5 with a 5.0 or 6% bulb (ReptSun or Arcadia are the only ones I trust). Then you need a distance of 8-9” from lights to basking branch.

 

[leafr]

I’d like to see pics of the back heels of the back feet to confirm gender. Baby is at high risk for burns so basking light needs to be raised a few inches above the screen. I use wire baskets from dollar store for that.

Thank you for your help, I have 7” from the light to the baskin branch, I already ordered a

Arcadia Reptile Pro T5 UVB D3+ Forest 6%UV-B 24 inch​

And should arrive tomorrow

 

[leafr]

Thank you for your help, I have 7” from the light to the baskin branch, I already ordered a

Arcadia Reptile Pro T5 UVB D3+ Forest 6%UV-B 24 inch​

And should arrive tomorrow

Si I’ll look to raise the lamp 2”

 

[leafr]

I ordered an arcadia 6%

 

[leafr]

This is my son chamelleon but we’re toghether in this Adventure, he wants to become the “youngest breeder” one day (when he/we learn to Keep them alive )

 

[leafr]

Hi. I’m currently at a vet appointment, but if no one helps you, I’ll try when I get home.

Thx a lot, all guidance is well appreciated

 

[MissSkittles]

Am home now. Give me a bit and I’ll go thru your husbandry.

 

[leafr]

Thx

 

[MissSkittles]

I’ll be putting my feedback in bold and also for ease, breaking this into two parts.

• Your Chameleon - veiled chameleon, male, maybe 5 months? As he is around 2-2.5” without the tail. in my care since Sept 27, 2024She looks much younger and I’d guess maybe around 3 months old or so. Yes, she. I believe you have a little girl. Boy veileds have what are called tarsal spurs, which are prominent nubs on their back heels. Some girls may have tiny nubs. Boys also have vertical bands of patterns and colors, unlike immature girls who are a solid green (at rest). 1st pic is young male. 2nd is young female.
• 
  
• Handling - Just once, when I got him inside the cage Ok, very good. You will want to work on building and then maintaining trust. This is a great blog on that. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/building-trust-with-your-chameleon.2396/
• Feeding - feeding small crickets from petstore (petsmart), I put 4 daily at 3:30pm, they’re gutloaded by them Little one needs to eat more than that to grow. She should be getting around 20+ feeders once daily in the morning, which gives her time to bask and digest her food. Crickets are ok, but you want much more variety of feeders. You do want to make sure that the feeders are small enough for her. Anything larger than the space between her eyes is too big. I would be giving maybe 1/4” sized feeders. Usually it’s best to order on line. Not only do most pet stores not stock the feeders we need and in the right sizes, but there’s always a risk for contamination. Escaped cricket wanders the store, walking in poo of various (possibly sick) animals in the trash and where ever, employee catches cricket and puts it back in the feeder bin. There are several vendors who sponsor the forum and are excellent. https://www.chameleonforums.com/sponsors/?tag=food Some even sell variety packs for specific animals, which are awesome if you only have 1-2 insectivores. Now about gutloading. I’m not sure how many of us actually truly gutload, but we all keep our feeder bugs as healthy and well fed as we can with a variety of fresh produce and some add commercial diets. It’s pretty much impossible to buy gut loaded crickets because their food passes thru them so quickly. I’m attaching some graphics to help guide you. Do avoid the orange cubes, jelly pots and things like that. They will hydrate the bugs, but lack anything of nutritional value.
• Supplements - I started yesterday with ZooMed Repti Calcium without D3, Excellent! Now you’ll want to buy Repashy Calcium Plus LoD (or ReptiVite with D3). These are multivitamin and D3 combos that you’ll use for one feeding every other week. Usually these aren’t sold by the chain pet stores and you’ll need to order on line. When using a supplement, dust lightly. You don’t want them to look like powdered donuts. I put a tiny pinch in a tall deli cup and then add my feeders. As they move around, they dust themselves.
• Watering - misting with Moistenland Reptile humidifier and a dripper all day with a drop every 5-7 seconds, but from today started with a deop every second, I haven’t seen him drink nor eat You only want to use a humidifier or fogger at night and only if your temp is below at least 68. Drippers are ok, but misting/spraying is the preferred primary hydration method. You want to mist/spray the leaves of the plants for a good 2 minutes twice a day - right before lights go on and then off. The dripper can be used in the afternoon for maybe about 15-29 minutes. You want the enclosure to have time to dry out. Don’t worry if you don’t see her drinking. Many chameleons are secretive when they drink. We look at the urate part of the poos to check hydration.
• Fecal Description - fecal is light brown, seems to have cricket parts in it. Never been tested for parasites Coming from a chain pet store and having some undigested bug parts in her poo, I strongly suggest getting a fecal parasite check. Afraid there’s no way to do that without a vet visit. I’ll have to find our vet list for you. The urate is, or should be the white or cream colored part of the poo. It’s ok if one end is yellow or even a touch orange. If it’s all dark or orange, that means your chameleon is most likely dehydrated.
• History - 1st day ate the 4 crickets, normally just find 2 to 3 missing crickets in his plate, but hasn’t eaten any in the last 3 days, I introduced a fly 3 days ago and I believe he ate it I suggest getting a feeding station. There’s several types available to buy, or you can make your own. I like the Shooting Gallery https://tkchameleons.com/products/shooting-gallery (also sold by Rainbow Mealworms), some like the Full Throttle https://www.fullthrottlefeeders.com/ and others like the Lunch Log https://sunsetchameleons.com/product-category/chameleons/chameleon-feeders/ Anything which will keep the feeders contained until your girl eats them will work.

To be continued….

 

[leafr]

Tux a lot, we’ll follow your advice and order the feeder and the food packs, also, I understand I should get her to a Vet?

 

[MissSkittles]

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - ZooMed ReptiBreeze XL Deluxe screen with acrylic front door 24x24x48 Excellent! This is the minimum size for an adult. I do like to encourage people to go bigger if they can. If you’ve the space, 2 XL ReptiBreezes are easily joined together side by side.
• Lighting - UVB 6% (borrowed by the store) from 8am to 8pm; tomorrow will arrive an arcadia lamp Forrest UVB 6% 24” Not having the correct uvb is what I believe is your little one’s problem. The coil or screw in uvb lights have a very short and narrow range, which is why she’s been crawling upside down directly below the light. Any further away than about 2-3” and there’s no uvb output. The lights that I previously suggested, and the Arcadia ProT5 that you are waiting to be delivered is the correct uvb and then has a much larger range. At about 8-9” below it, the uvb output is 3.0, which is the ideal. For schedule, you want pretty much a 12 hour schedule and no lights at night.
• Temperature - temp cage floor 69 to basking spot 79. Lowest overnight temp 65, measured with a temperature gun Your temps are perfect. For little ones and our girls, we don’t want their basking areas to go above 80. Having a cool night is just perfect for them. I do want to suggest that you get a digital thermometer with a wired probe end that you can place at basking branch. The guns can only measure surfaces and you wouldn’t believe what a difference an inch or two can make.
• Humidity - 41, at 7:58am a mister for 5 mins and again at 7:58pm Ok. Daytime ideal range is between 30-50%. Provided your night temps are consistently below at least 68, run your humidifier/fogger and boost night humidity as high as you can. That simulates the natural hydration cycle they get thru fog in the wild.
• Plants - using live plants golden pothos at the top, marble queen photos on the top back, pearl jade photos and split leaf philodendron at the bottom Excellent, and I advise you start some fresh plants from clippings as soon as you can and try to keep several spares. While all veileds can nibble on their plants, it seems the girls especially can devour their plants.
• Placement - located inside a bedroom with roof fan on all time, height is 73” at the top of the cage relative to room floor Excellent! They like being higher up and able to look down at the world…makes them feel safer.
• Location - El Paso, Tx.

Current Problem - Worried he hasn’t eated, that I haven’t seen him drink and yesterday he spent all day in the top mesh under the light. Today he’s been all day on the top of the side mesh. I believe she’s trying to get some much needed uvb. Little ones have zero resources to fall back upon, so if they don’t have everything they need, they can quickly fail. I’m so very glad that you found your way here in time. Once your little sweetheart has proper uvb and all, her appetite should improve along with the rest of her. Before that he was moving around the enclosure. Today I took out the marble queen photos and the pearl jade photos as they were dying. Yet another reason to have plenty of extra plants. I’m awful and have a brown thumb with houseplants, so always keep extras to swap in.
Now, even though she’s still a baby, your cutie is going to grow up fast and will one day lay eggs, even if she never sees a boy. Since laying eggs takes so much out of them and shortens their lives, we do what we can to reduce egg production and laying. Here’s my blog about it. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/veiled-chameleon-laying-101.2488/ As sweetie gets older, you’ll start decreasing her food.
If you and your son would like to know more about husbandry and all, https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/ is the place for chameleon education. The link is for the husbandry program, but do check out the whole site. There’s podcasts, videos (check YouTube), an e zine and so much more. Keep asking questions and learning all you can. The forum is an awesome community and I do hope you’ll stick around and share pics and whatever about your cutie.
Attaching the vet list.
Sorry it took me a bit to finish this. Had to supervise my cat eating so the dog wouldn’t steal her food.

 

[leafr]

You’re really Kind, thx again for the support! We’ll be looking to share and Keep learning from this forum

 

[leafr]

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - ZooMed ReptiBreeze XL Deluxe screen with acrylic front door 24x24x48 Excellent! This is the minimum size for an adult. I do like to encourage people to go bigger if they can. If you’ve the space, 2 XL ReptiBreezes are easily joined together side by side.
• Lighting - UVB 6% (borrowed by the store) from 8am to 8pm; tomorrow will arrive an arcadia lamp Forrest UVB 6% 24” Not having the correct uvb is what I believe is your little one’s problem. The coil or screw in uvb lights have a very short and narrow range, which is why she’s been crawling upside down directly below the light. Any further away than about 2-3” and there’s no uvb output. The lights that I previously suggested, and the Arcadia ProT5 that you are waiting to be delivered is the correct uvb and then has a much larger range. At about 8-9” below it, the uvb output is 3.0, which is the ideal. For schedule, you want pretty much a 12 hour schedule and no lights at night.
• Temperature - temp cage floor 69 to basking spot 79. Lowest overnight temp 65, measured with a temperature gun Your temps are perfect. For little ones and our girls, we don’t want their basking areas to go above 80. Having a cool night is just perfect for them. I do want to suggest that you get a digital thermometer with a wired probe end that you can place at basking branch. The guns can only measure surfaces and you wouldn’t believe what a difference an inch or two can make.
• Humidity - 41, at 7:58am a mister for 5 mins and again at 7:58pm Ok. Daytime ideal range is between 30-50%. Provided your night temps are consistently below at least 68, run your humidifier/fogger and boost night humidity as high as you can. That simulates the natural hydration cycle they get thru fog in the wild.
• Plants - using live plants golden pothos at the top, marble queen photos on the top back, pearl jade photos and split leaf philodendron at the bottom Excellent, and I advise you start some fresh plants from clippings as soon as you can and try to keep several spares. While all veileds can nibble on their plants, it seems the girls especially can devour their plants.
• Placement - located inside a bedroom with roof fan on all time, height is 73” at the top of the cage relative to room floor Excellent! They like being higher up and able to look down at the world…makes them feel safer.
• Location - El Paso, Tx.

Current Problem - Worried he hasn’t eated, that I haven’t seen him drink and yesterday he spent all day in the top mesh under the light. Today he’s been all day on the top of the side mesh. I believe she’s trying to get some much needed uvb. Little ones have zero resources to fall back upon, so if they don’t have everything they need, they can quickly fail. I’m so very glad that you found your way here in time. Once your little sweetheart has proper uvb and all, her appetite should improve along with the rest of her. Before that he was moving around the enclosure. Today I took out the marble queen photos and the pearl jade photos as they were dying. Yet another reason to have plenty of extra plants. I’m awful and have a brown thumb with houseplants, so always keep extras to swap in.
Now, even though she’s still a baby, your cutie is going to grow up fast and will one day lay eggs, even if she never sees a boy. Since laying eggs takes so much out of them and shortens their lives, we do what we can to reduce egg production and laying. Here’s my blog about it. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/veiled-chameleon-laying-101.2488/ As sweetie gets older, you’ll start decreasing her food.
If you and your son would like to know more about husbandry and all, https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/ is the place for chameleon education. The link is for the husbandry program, but do check out the whole site. There’s podcasts, videos (check YouTube), an e zine and so much more. Keep asking questions and learning all you can. The forum is an awesome community and I do hope you’ll stick around and share pics and whatever about your cutie.
Attaching the vet list.
Sorry it took me a bit to finish this. Had to supervise my cat eating so the dog wouldn’t steal her food.

This is great, thx… Sorry to ask more, but want to leverage on your knowledge … should I add a baskin (heat) lamp?
Also, there is a vet in the list at El Paso, do you think I should make an appointment for a Health check up? Not sure if you can tell with the photos I shared

 

[MissSkittles]

This is great, thx… Sorry to ask more, but want to leverage on your knowledge … should I add a baskin (heat) lamp?
Also, there is a vet in the list at El Paso, do you think I should make an appointment for a Health check up? Not sure if you can tell with the photos I shared

Never to be sorry to ask anything. It’s the very best way to clarify and learn. We spout off and give loads of info and understand it can make your head spin.
Yes, do add a basking light to ensure a basking temp of 80. She’s cold blooded (aka ectothermic if you like big words) and needs heat to warm up her body and get all of her systems working. If you have large fluctuations in the ambient temps of your home, there are devices available to automatically maintain a set basking temperature. Herpstat is one that is often used. https://spyderrobotics.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1 Just don’t ask me to explain how they work as I’m technically challenged.
I’ve attached the Tx portion of the vet list. The last 2 boxes are for if they are open 24 hours and the date they were verified by a forum member. Since I encourage your cutie be checked for parasites, you will need to take her to a vet along with a fresh poo (done within 24 hrs and kept in fridge). Now with this, I need to give a word of caution/wisdom. Many vets who see exotics do not have much experience or in depth knowledge about chameleons and their husbandry. They are only human and no one can possibly know all of the finer details of so very many species of different animals. Things that most vets will say/do that are wrong - you need to put your chameleon in a shower or bath to hydrate her, your basking temps should be in the 90’s or 100, your uvb isn’t strong enough and should be a 10.0/12% and want to give vitamin injections. Most vets are also familiar with the forum, though they might roll their eyes. lol We know husbandry and they know the medical stuff.