I was trying to add my responses to your feedback and questions and it said there were too many characters, so I will try this to see if it works. I'll put a brief description of the topic and then attach my responses. I hope that clarifies things and gives more information so Miss Hyde can have the very best.
Food - The mealworms and wax worms are now only offered sparingly (I learned on the forums that those are treat bugs and shouldn't be given too often, so in the past month they've been cut down significantly. Currently am out of wax worms but have only offered the treats maybe once or twice a week, been shifting to focusing more on crickets, soldier fly larvae and hornworms. Right now for fruits we've done apples and carrots, I was using lettuce but then realized that that wasn't a great gut load as it does not offer any nutritional value. Thank you so much! Sounds good! I’d add more leafy greens and stuff into the gutload, too!
Vitamins - She just got her D3 and vitamins today for her biweekly dose. Perfect!
Watering - I usually only run the humidifier for about an hour or 2 in the morning and turn it off before I put in her food, and then if the ambient air (our room typically stays at about 60% humidity due to locale and lots of live plants) seems like it has been a bit drier I will leave the humidifier on low in her cage while I'm at work (and sometimes also run a humidifier in my room as well). I work during the day so I am not able to do a second thorough misting session in the afternoon, and wasn't sure if it was too late do do so right before the lights come out. The mister that we have currently only has a 1 minute maximum setting, so in the morning I have been putting it on and off so it runs for a total of 4 minutes to get everything nice and wet. Her cage does have drainage, the bottom of the cage has a plant cover with a hole at the bottom and then that connects to a rock and string to help with the excess water to go into a cup. 60% humidity is perfect for the day! Anywhere from 50-60/70% is what’s recommended for panthers. I’d only use the humidifier at night. I will start running it at night, just wasn't sure if that would be too much water for the plants. Thank you again for the advice.
Fecal - A vet visit is definitely next on my list and I put in a nice juicy hornworm for her today to help her out with hydration. Awesome!
Cage Type - Bioactive, we have springtails and other isopods inside (I believe cow isopods and orange powders). Love it! You can also add fly larvae (among other things), too! Once the flies pupate and hatch out, your chameleon gets a nice snack!
Lighting - Thank you! I will take out one of the basking bulbs and make adjustments with the linear UVB fixtures. The basking bulb in the back (75 watt) is about 3 inches from the branch, the screen is cool to the touch, the other basking bulb is about 8.5 inches from her branch. I will add a UVI Solarmeter 6.5 to my list, where would you recommend buying one of those? Does your UVB linear fixture hold one bulb or more? If it has more, how many separate reflectors are there? On average, a single bulb T5 HO linear fixture with reflector needs to be around 9” away from the top basking branch when using a 5.0 or 6% UVB bulb, as well as the heat bulb so there are not severe temperatures from the heat bulb being so close to the branch that she could burn herself if she’s too close. We have the one fixture that holds one T5 HO bulb and also has the red LED lights (I apologize if I'm not using the correct term), it's the fixture to the far left in the photo and those are not hot to touch (are those the ones that should have a larger distance as she does not bask under them?). She does not sit close under the heat bulb she maintains the about 8.5 to about 9 inches from the bulb (she sits a bit lower on the branch). I just want to ensure I am understanding you clearly.
Temperature - Ceramic infrared heat emitter and I believe it was a 40watt. We have two combo hygrometer-thermometers and one that's just a thermometer and one that's just an analog hygrometer. As long as her nighttime temps don’t go below 60*F, a ceramic heat emitter isn’t really needed. Some keepers don’t like their cages to go below 65*F and use a very small wattage ceramic heat emitter in a top corner of the cage if needed to raise the temp up a few degrees in that one area. Hers is located in the back middle of the cage and only comes on pretty sparingly, for about a couple hours throughout the night, but I'm not opposed to omitting it. I was checking her ambient temps right when the lights go on and have checked them at night and it does not seem like the ceramic heat emitter has been making any drastic changes just maintaining the ambient temp.
Humidity - Nighttime levels are typically in the low 60% to high 50%. I have not yet cleaned out the humidifier tubes, how often do you recommend cleaning out the humidifier and the tubes and what method would you recommend to do so? Nighttime levels can go up to 100% humidity (which is where the humidifier comes in). The humidifier unit itself, along with any and all tubes and accessories that you use, need to be deep-cleaned at least once to twice a week at the bare minimum, if not more. There are many ways to clean them, and lots of keepers use different methods. Use the search bar on here, look at The Chameleon Academy’s module info and podcasts on it, Google it, etc. Thank you I will look into that and add it to my Sunday cleaning chores (I already clean out fish tanks that day so it would be a perfect add to the list)
Plants - I will go ahead and remove the Spanish moss, the ground moss is only in a couple small spots so there is still plenty of room for her to lay, one patch of ground moss is 4 inches wide at the widest part and about 10 inches long, the other small patch is in the corner and is about 3 inches by 3 inches. Do you think that would be okay? It should be fine as long as she doesn’t eat it or drink water off of it or wants to lay in that area when the time comes. I’d just keep an eye on it. Will do.
Current Problem - Thank you, we will work on getting more branches, vines and plants for her as well. My boyfriend is the one who set up the cage and built everything up, I'm sure he'll be excited to add more things for Miss Hyde to climb on! Haha, I‘m sure he will! Even though I enjoy it, not everyone does! Also, great job by the way, again! Miss Hyde is lucky to have you! I'm not definitely not the one who is into that, I like buying plants though and usually am on Miss Hyde duty while her cage gets worked on, she gets outside time when it's time to work on her cage.
