How old and what gender is my guy???

[MissSkittles]

You’ve been given some solid advice. I can’t achieve night temps below the mid 70’s, so to prevent risk of respiratory infection, I don’t fog at all and barely give a very subtle bump to humidity at night via a couple of 15 second mistings. I do occasionally struggle with maintaining a decent daytime humidity in the room where I have 3 of my chams, so have a dehumidifier to help out.
I keep my discoid colony in the garage where it gets hot enough for them. They breed best when kept at around 90F. I’ve also found that they breed best when I keep them bioactively with an inch or two of organic soil mix with springtails, isopods and leaf litter. I also make them little hides from cork bark as they are shy and like to hide.
How much to feed your cutie can be a challenge to figure out at her age. We need to give enough food for our girls to grow properly, but not overfeed them where they reach maturity too fast and produce a huge clutch of eggs. I wouldn’t cut her so quickly down from 10 to 5 feeders. From my blog: Starting at around 5 months old, you’ll want to slowly start reducing her diet so that by the time she’s reached 6-7 months, she’s getting 5-8 smaller sized feeders daily. By 7-8 months, she should be getting 3-4 feeders, every other day and by 9-10 months old, further reduce her to 3-4 feeders three days a week (plus treats). If she happens to mature and lay eggs before any of this, the schedule will jump ahead.
I use primarily natural branches that I’ve scavenged. I take them to the back yard where I give them a little scrub with Dawn dish soapy water, blast well with the hose and let dry in the sun. It’s mainly dirt, bugs and wild animal poop that we want to remove. I don’t bake, bleach or remove the bark.
I have all of my chams in double sized enclosures (something I encourage all who can) which are bioactive and use heavy duty shelving to hold them. I use Dragon Ledges https://dragonstrand.com/dragon-ledges/ in some of my enclosures and garden trellis in others to hold plants and branches.
Do continue to ask as many questions as you need and share your progress and cutie’s beauty.

 

[Reyrots8]

@Reyrots8
My responses will be in bold.

my chameleon was guessed to be around 3 months at purchase gender is most likely female from what I’ve figured here. I was told they were male at purchase. I’ve had her for around 3 months so 6 months is assumed though I got her from a pet store.
If she is indeed around six months, please do carefully read the contents of this link: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/veiled-chameleon-laying-101.2488/ Female veiled chameleons will lay eggs even without a male. It's best to get a lay box in her home sooner so she's familiar with it.

Currently med to large crickets I’ve switched it from 10 to 5 this week because I’ve been getting concerned on feeding. I also feed her meal worms and wax worms (wax worms are barley fed to her) discoid roaches are also on the list but I’ve been trying to breed them so I don’t feed her them often. I use zoo med calcium and vitamins with D3, calcium’s everyday. Vitamins with D3 are only twice a month.
I am not keen on when feeding is cut back for girlies so I'll @MissSkittles for this. Here's a helpful couple images for feeders. You don't mention gutloading at all, but it is very important to gutload your feeders prior to feeding. Attached is a list for the best gutloading options. As a bonus, this video goes over gutload icecubes, which you can freeze and store for up to 6 months. What I do is, the night before, I grab my feeder roaches, put them in a cup with some of the shaved off gutload ice cube, and cover that cup until it's time to feed them off the next day (remove the gutload before adding it to your chameleon's enclosure.)
View attachment 366716View attachment 366717

Feces is normal though her urine has always had a bit of yellow on it I’ve been trying to up the water but she barely drinks from her dripper and i use the fogger at night an mist 2-3 times a day. Shes never been tested for parasites.
A little bit of yellow is usually fine, but to say "always" concerns me. What's the ratio of yellow to white? Is it mostly yellow? Or is it just yellow near where it connects to the feces?
The trust is, you will hardly see a chameleon drink. At least, I've yet to witness this myself. I hear it's super rare! It is good to offer a dripper on a daily basis. You want to make sure the dripper is landing on a branch or leaf, as this is what's natural for them.
When do you mist? And for how long? It's the standard to mist in the morning, and then in the evening. The morning misting session would be best to start 30-40 minutes after the lights have turned on, and the night sessions, 30 minutes before the lights go off. These misting sessions should last 3 to 4 minutes. This is long enough to trigger the drinking response in chameleons.
Most here will encourage you to not use a fogger if your temps exceed 67 fahrenheit.

My cage is a zoo med XL screen cage it’s dimensions are 24 L 24 W 48 H
Perfect size.

I use a zoo med 5.0 for lighting I give her 12 hours night 12 hours day.
So, the coil UVB bulbs are unfortunately inadequate. Without proper UVB, your chameleon is going to develop MBD.
You need a linear UVB, and the chameleon tested and approved bulbs are the Reptisun t5HO 5.0 and the arcadia 6%
Without a solarmeter, it is recommended for you to replace reptisun bulbs every 6 months, with arcadia bulbs being said to last a full year.

I measure temps day temps are 84 to 86 night temps are 74 to 80 basking spot is 86 to 90. Humidity is normally 50-60% during the day and at night 70 to 100%.
How are you measuring your temps?
Unfortunately, this temperature is very inappropriate. You want the enclosure's ambient temps to sit comfortably in the mid 70s, with the basking (for female) not exceeding 80. You likely need a lower wattage for your basking lamp bulb.
The humidity is also too high in the day. You want 40-50%, as a golden rule. Now, it's also possible that your humidity is reading higher if the hygrometer is tucked in or really close by to a plant. Something to consider!

I use live plants 2 pothos a hibiscus three wandering Jews one nerve plant and a maidens hair.
The enclosure in your photos looks very bare. More plants is important, buuuut I'd really recommend going outside, grabbing a ton of sticks, and processing them, for free! This is the fun part of having a chameleon. You get stick-vision. "Oh that's a nice branch!"
Here's a list of reptile safe branches, and reptile no-no branches:
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You can bake the shorter branches in the oven for two hours at 250 degrees fahrenheit to sterilize them. Admittedly, I just rinsed mine in the tub with the shower on over head, scrubbing them hard with dawn dish soap and washing them thoroughly. I let them dry a bit before adding them to the enclosure. But how do you affix sticks to a screen cage? Great question. This video goes over a few strategies, though I'm linking directly to the method I used:
I used zip ties on the inside of the cage, with thin, strong fishing line to affix the support branches in each of the four corners to the screen at several places. It is a big DIY project, but climbing branches is what chameleons do. They need those highways. They need their appointed basking branch (8 inches below the linear UVB). It's important!
This is what the foundation of my enclosure looked like in its early stages, but that might help to give you an idea of how to structure things:
View attachment 366720
Here's also a video on how to attach plants to the enclosure: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG8iVn8tT9w

My cage is in my bedroom on the floor (looking for a table to elevate it on Facebook marketplace) I can’t measure the cage of current I’m on vacation chameleon did come with and is in a temp cage.
It's important to have the cage high for the chameleon to feel secure. I hope you find something on facebook marketplace soon.
If you bought the chameleon kit, it's probably the 18x18x36 sized cage. Not terrible temporarily but the chameleon would appreciate the larger enclosure.
Also, the hammock isn't a good idea in general. I know for species like leopard geckos and bearded dragons, these have been known to rip claws out.

at night I put a fan next to the cage to lower temps I live in America in FL.
Not a bad idea as long as it's not pointed directly at the enclosure. @MissSkittles is also a floridian who may be able to offer wisdoms in how she beats, or at least mitigates, the heat.

Currently I was here for age an gender and general care for females I don’t really have any concerns now tho.
I know I wrote a lot of words, but following this advice will ensure there is no problems in the future.

Yo read your thing I do apperciate it the light is liner sorry I probably should have put that and I do gut load with fluckers cricket feeder. I’ve tried veggies but it attracts flies an maggots too fast and my crickets start getting eaten-I’m trying to phase out crickets with isopods I have a friend who breeds isopods so once I get some isopods I should be fine. I apperciate the thing about the fishing line I don’t think I’ve heard that one but it sounds like it’ll work well-I do want more plants for little man just gotta figure out how to suspend them without risking them falling. The net was always temporary, so far Shes been fine with it gets her claws stuck in the mesh of the sides of her cage more then on her pad though all her nails are currently in check. Once I find a good stick the nets going away but until then I think a proper basking spot is important. I’m measuring temps with the little mountable temp measures one measure temp an humidity the other measures just temp I don’t check the just temp one often though I probably should since it’s on the opposite side of her cage. The humidity is the general humidity of her cage I keep the sensor mostly away from the plants. My bedroom is pretty hot. I’m getting a portable AC in their to make sure temps are perfect but also not make everyone freeze to death that isn’t in my room (I run three fans at night in there it’s seriously so hot) the fan is pointing away from my chameleon and at night I keep a blanket over her cage to hide light an trap humidity since I tend to be a night owl. I believe the zoomed is a repti sun sorry I should have phrased that better I wrote my message out kinda fast.

 

[MissSkittles]

Just want to give a little additional feedback and suggestions.
Yo read your thing I do apperciate it the light is liner sorry I probably should have put that and I do gut load with fluckers cricket feeder. I think most of us started using this in one form or another. Unfortunately, while it will keep your feeders alive, it does little to make them healthy and nutritious. Offering fresh produce or a better formulation (like Repashy Bug Burger) is much better. I have similar issues, but with ants. Although just this morning I found soil gnats/fruit flies in my bug bins. Thru use of bait products, I’ve been able to eliminate the larger ants, but the teeny tiny ones are resistant to it. So I use diatomaceous earth placed on larger bin lids which I then place my bug bins on. The diatomaceous earth then acts like a moat and works pretty well. For the gnats, I try to be careful to give just enough food to last less than a day for them and keep things clean and dry. While I do have gutload ice cubes, I only use those when in a rush, out of fresh or feeling lazy. Another technique I’ve used is to use ventilation screening with much finer holes, lids with gaskets and even placing thin cotton fabric over the ventilation screening. Because I don’t want to risk accidentally poisoning my chameleons and other animals, I’ve had to get creative in preventative pest management. I’ve tried veggies but it attracts flies an maggots too fast and my crickets start getting eaten-I’m trying to phase out crickets with isopods I have a friend who breeds isopods so once I get some isopods I should be fine. I’m not sure if isopods would be a good staple feeder. @jamest0o0 should know more about that. I have bioactive enclosures and my chameleons are often hunting their isopods and I’m sure eating them and are fine. That isn’t their main diet though. I give a pretty wide variety of feeders and breed many of my own. Several on line bug vendors offer variety packs, which are fantastic for those who have only 1-2 insectivores. Try https://www.lindasgonebuggie.com/page/397479218 for a great somewhat local source for all feeders. Going back to the isopods, I believe you may have a similar pest problem with them. They require some moisture/high humidity in order to breathe, which is a good breeding substrate for gnats and flies. I apperciate the thing about the fishing line I don’t think I’ve heard that one but it sounds like it’ll work well-I do want more plants for little man just gotta figure out how to suspend them without risking them falling. The net was always temporary, so far Shes been fine with it gets her claws stuck in the mesh of the sides of her cage more then on her pad though all her nails are currently in check. Once I find a good stick the nets going away but until then I think a proper basking spot is important. I have zero trees and have had to risk looking like a weirdo to accumulate my branches. Many of my neighbors regularly trim their oak trees and don’t care that I take branches from their pile. I’ve even caught some of the professional tree trimmers in the neighborhood and enlisted their help in dragging the limbs across the street to my back yard. I’m measuring temps with the little mountable temp measures one measure temp an humidity the other measures just temp I don’t check the just temp one often though I probably should since it’s on the opposite side of her cage. The humidity is the general humidity of her cage I keep the sensor mostly away from the plants. My bedroom is pretty hot. I’m getting a portable AC in their to make sure temps are perfect but also not make everyone freeze to death that isn’t in my room (I run three fans at night in there it’s seriously so hot) the fan is pointing away from my chameleon and at night I keep a blanket over her cage to hide light an trap humidity since I tend to be a night owl. I do have to urge you not to put a blanket over the enclosure as it will block off needed ventilation and can increase the risk for respiratory infection. Instead, try to find a way to block off just the front and sides affected and leave some of the bottom screening uncovered. When my girl was still laying eggs, I had set up some thin wires as hoops that I could then quickly and easily clip a cover sheet to when needed. While I use it to block my chams views of each other, something like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XTYY5HH?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1 is also a good option. I believe the zoomed is a repti sun sorry I should have phrased that better I wrote my message out kinda fast.

 

[jamest0o0]

Isopods can hold heavy metals and a lot of calcium, in moderate amounts shouldn’t be an issue, but with a ton of them I’d be a bit hesitant.