help! new b!!

[zoedefelice]

im new at all of this and this site has helped me out more than you know . But there are still a few things i am still shakey about.

1. i am making my own cage from somthing I salvaged off of craigslist and i need help on finding a non-toxic sealer for the wood. I also would apreciate some recomendations on what size and type of screen to use. I heard that insects can chew through plactic kind so i will stay away from that.

2.the lights, I know the temp and the two types I need but would you recomend a compact uvb or a tube? The compact for me would be much more convenient but if it isnt as good for the cham then i wont use it. I have a dripsystem and a sprayer for misting.

3. Plants, what kind is the best? I've seen about a million differnt types of plants used and I cant decide. It would help if i was able to pick it up at wal-mart while grocery shopingto save me a trip to the store (I bought most of the supplies online) and I know that I must wash the plant and re-pot it on fertilizer free topsoil before I put it in the cage.

4. Feeders, i have two giant tubs for crickets because i plan on buying them in bulk and i have two diferent types of calcium powder, one plain etra fine ,one with d3, and no phoserous in either. I also have the multi-vitamins. But how should I apply each one and how often? This is about the biggest road block for me right now because I am compleatly lost with this right now. I plan on getting a 5 month old or younger, male, panther cham and I would appreciate some detailed info on gut-loading. I want my cham to be as healthy as possible. I've also heard that crickets are living garbage disposals and would like to know the limitations to their diet. I've read to stay away from green vegies like broccoli because it could stunt the calcium production in the cham and was wondering if this is true.

5. I live in Florida so if I have another plant growing outside can I put the cham on it for an hour or two when its warm? (Which is almost all the time) I have a screened in porch that if flooded with sun at aroud 3 that would be perfect for him. I would consider placing his entire setup outside but it is only for a few hours that he would gt sun and when it rains here he would attacked by the water and i dont think it would be very clean.

6. I am making a rather overized cage for a cham at this age and i am worried that he will have trouble finding his food, is there anyway to help him out? Also do the crickets hang out on the floor of the cage or are they up in the plants, i was wondering if the cham would have to climb to the bottem to get food.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, i get my cham in a few days and i want to make sure everything is ready. I will add any more questions i can think of.
~Zoe

 

[camimom]

im new at all of this and this site has helped me out more than you know . But there are still a few things i am still shakey about.

1. i am making my own cage from somthing I salvaged off of craigslist and i need help on finding a non-toxic sealer for the wood. I also would apreciate some recomendations on what size and type of screen to use. I heard that insects can chew through plactic kind so i will stay away from that.

2.the lights, I know the temp and the two types I need but would you recomend a compact uvb or a tube? The compact for me would be much more convenient but if it isnt as good for the cham then i wont use it. I have a dripsystem and a sprayer for misting.

3. Plants, what kind is the best? I've seen about a million differnt types of plants used and I cant decide. It would help if i was able to pick it up at wal-mart while grocery shopingto save me a trip to the store (I bought most of the supplies online) and I know that I must wash the plant and re-pot it on fertilizer free topsoil before I put it in the cage.

4. Feeders, i have two giant tubs for crickets because i plan on buying them in bulk and i have two diferent types of calcium powder, one plain etra fine ,one with d3, and no phoserous in either. I also have the multi-vitamins. But how should I apply each one and how often? This is about the biggest road block for me right now because I am compleatly lost with this right now. I plan on getting a 5 month old or younger, male, panther cham and I would appreciate some detailed info on gut-loading. I want my cham to be as healthy as possible. I've also heard that crickets are living garbage disposals and would like to know the limitations to their diet. I've read to stay away from green vegies like broccoli because it could stunt the calcium production in the cham and was wondering if this is true.

5. I live in Florida so if I have another plant growing outside can I put the cham on it for an hour or two when its warm? (Which is almost all the time) I have a screened in porch that if flooded with sun at aroud 3 that would be perfect for him. I would consider placing his entire setup outside but it is only for a few hours that he would gt sun and when it rains here he would attacked by the water and i dont think it would be very clean.

6. I am making a rather overized cage for a cham at this age and i am worried that he will have trouble finding his food, is there anyway to help him out? Also do the crickets hang out on the floor of the cage or are they up in the plants, i was wondering if the cham would have to climb to the bottem to get food.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, i get my cham in a few days and i want to make sure everything is ready. I will add any more questions i can think of.
~Zoe

HI! and welcome! I can answer 3 and 6 for you!
3- I use pothos and schefflera. They are cham safe, esp since some chams like to munch down on them. and you can get both at walmart (i did). You will of course needs sticks, or dowel rods or similar things for walking and climbing.
6-If the crickets are small, you can hand feed, cup feed, or tweezer feed.

good luck!

 

[Hoj]

ok i can help with a few question here.
1. i will attach a link here to my cage build it shows the products i used https://www.chameleonforums.com/enclosure-how-pics-pt1-55241/

2.use the linear tube type zoomed reptisun 5.0 is prob, the best

3.for plants i use pothos, umbrella trees, hibiscus, fiscus

4. to dust your crickets shake the ammount you want into a deli cup add a small amount of the supplement and shake. you dont want them to look like ghost just a nice lite coating. most member tend to use calcium wo d3 at most feedings, and a calcium w d3 twicw a month and a multivitamin twice a month.
as far a gutloading your feeders there is a ton of info if you search it but i use carrots, collard, kale, dandelion, apples, squash, oranges for a wet gut load and a recipe i got from sandrachameleons blog for dry. i also keep them supplied with calcium fortified water cubes.

5. outside fresh air and real sun are great for your cham just be sure he has lots of hiding places from the florida sun and always be aware of predators that can and will hurt or eat your cham.

6. with a real large cage and a small cham finding the food could be a challenge, alot of member cup feed whitch entails hanging a feeder cup or bowl of some type in the cage where your cham can go and shoot into to get food, i use a opaque green bowl, you can use the site search to find more on this as well. the crickets will often head up to the warm lights.

hope this helps a bit

hoj
any body disagrees feel free to shout

 

[Justin Ward]

im new at all of this and this site has helped me out more than you know . But there are still a few things i am still shakey about.

1. i am making my own cage from somthing I salvaged off of craigslist and i need help on finding a non-toxic sealer for the wood. I also would apreciate some recomendations on what size and type of screen to use. I heard that insects can chew through plactic kind so i will stay away from that.

2.the lights, I know the temp and the two types I need but would you recomend a compact uvb or a tube? The compact for me would be much more convenient but if it isnt as good for the cham then i wont use it. I have a dripsystem and a sprayer for misting.

3. Plants, what kind is the best? I've seen about a million differnt types of plants used and I cant decide. It would help if i was able to pick it up at wal-mart while grocery shopingto save me a trip to the store (I bought most of the supplies online) and I know that I must wash the plant and re-pot it on fertilizer free topsoil before I put it in the cage.

4. Feeders, i have two giant tubs for crickets because i plan on buying them in bulk and i have two diferent types of calcium powder, one plain etra fine ,one with d3, and no phoserous in either. I also have the multi-vitamins. But how should I apply each one and how often? This is about the biggest road block for me right now because I am compleatly lost with this right now. I plan on getting a 5 month old or younger, male, panther cham and I would appreciate some detailed info on gut-loading. I want my cham to be as healthy as possible. I've also heard that crickets are living garbage disposals and would like to know the limitations to their diet. I've read to stay away from green vegies like broccoli because it could stunt the calcium production in the cham and was wondering if this is true.

5. I live in Florida so if I have another plant growing outside can I put the cham on it for an hour or two when its warm? (Which is almost all the time) I have a screened in porch that if flooded with sun at aroud 3 that would be perfect for him. I would consider placing his entire setup outside but it is only for a few hours that he would gt sun and when it rains here he would attacked by the water and i dont think it would be very clean.

6. I am making a rather overized cage for a cham at this age and i am worried that he will have trouble finding his food, is there anyway to help him out? Also do the crickets hang out on the floor of the cage or are they up in the plants, i was wondering if the cham would have to climb to the bottem to get food.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, i get my cham in a few days and i want to make sure everything is ready. I will add any more questions i can think of.
~Zoe

ok, im gonna try and answer as much as i can...1) as for a sealer, any kind of marine or boat sealer will work, i just finished building my cage and just used the same pet mesh that i used to screen in my porch

2)go with the 5.0 tube...some people have had problems with the coil bulbs causing blindness in their chams

3)as for plants, you can do a search for a non-toxic plant list...i want to say that most people either use ficus, potos, umbrella plants, or hibiscus...but you might also want to keep a few on had and rotate them out so they can get some natural sunlight

4)as for dusting, it depends of what type of cham, and its size...as for a 5 month male panther i wanna say calcium w/o d3 almost every feeding (5 days a week) and with d3 and multivitamin twice a month...again, you can search the forums to get a better idea of this...as for gutloads, most any fruits or veggies (carrot, apple, sweet potato, kale, collards etc.) again, you can do a quick search on here to see what others use

5)as for hangin out outside...as long as its a "chameleon safe" plant it should be fine...i take my chams outside to get natural sunlight as much as possible...if you are in a screened in porch you should be fine, if not covered i would keep an eye out for predators (mainly birds)

6) as for feeding in a big cage, you could try cup feeding...with my little veiled i just put her feeders in a small tupperware, the little crickets cant jump high enough to get out...but usually the crickets climb to the top to be near the heat of the lights...as long as there isnt a lot of foliage clutter they shouldnt really hide out too much


hope this helps, and good luck

 

[zoedefelice]

Thank all of you fo helping me out! i hope to have a happy healthy cham in the next few days!

 

[Hoj]

Thank all of you fo helping me out! i hope to have a happy healthy cham in the next few days!

no problem, be sure to post pics on the guy and your setup!!

 

[zoedefelice]

will do!