Husbandry Review? Non-Urgent

gracie88

Member
Hey guys! I am super paranoid and I'm always open to learn more and improve on my chameleon care so if anyone has a couple extra minutes I would greatly appreciate a husbandry review. This totally isn't urgent, my cham is in great health but like I mentioned before I am always looking for ways to improve to make sure Cosmo is leaving his best life. Thanks so much!

Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Male veiled chameleon around three months old, have had him for almost a month, got him 5/1/20.
  • Handling - I try not to handle him too often, I have only taken him out three times and two out of those three were for a reason (1. He was trying to walk into his light during free range so I needed to pick him up, after this he didn't want to go back so I put him on a plant, 2. My cleaners were coming and I didn't want him to get stressed so I took him into the other room with a plant). The third time I took him out was so he could enjoy the new 5 foot tall money tree I bought him, he loves to chill on the live plants I have for him. I will admit though, when he does come out he is out for a long period of time, but 75% of this time he is enjoying his live plants or outside time. I closely look for any kind of stress and when he is out he is always green and active.
  • Feeding - I feed Cosmo a balanced diet of cricket, BSFL, and superworms. If I had to make an estimate of how many of each, I would say 6-9 BSFL, 4-6 cricket, 2-4 superworms, but max 16 feeders total. I feed him once a day in the morning/early afternoon. I gutload my feeders with turnip greens, collard greens, and carrots.
  • Supplements - I use ZooMed's ReptiCalcium without D3 everyday, ZooMed's with D3 once every other week, and ExoTerra's Multivitamin once every other week.
  • Watering - I use a misting system that goes off once every hour for 60 seconds. This may seem like a lot but I am from a desert area with NO humidity so this is what his works best for me. Twice a week a mist for 7 minutes straight to give him a chance to really drink/wash his eyes out. I am also adding a homemade dripper system on top of his enclosure once I finish the milk left in my gallon ? On occasion I do also put him on a plant and bring him in the shower with me to make sure he is getting a lot of chances for water. I do occasionally see him drink but he is shy about it.
  • Fecal Description - Cosmo has consistent, dark brown poops with almost completely white urates. The other day I did see a urate with a little piece orange but I quickly looked it up and Gingero says this can happen through a crystal structure type thing, I haven't seen any orange urate since. Cosmo has never been tested for parasites but I hope to get him tested once we are out of this Coronavirus craziness.
  • History - Nothing special in particular, got him from LLLReptile on 5/1/20.
Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Cosmo has a 24x24x48 screened enclosure with clear saran wrap on the outsides. This may sound a little weird but it is completely safe and is only to make sure his humidity stays up considering my dry climate.
  • Lighting - I am using the ReptiSun T5HO 5.0 UVB light and a 75 watt incandescent light bulb for heating. Cosmos lights are on from 11:30 AM to 11:30pm but I am slowly working on getting this time closer to sundown because I am finally fixing my sleep schedule.
  • Temperature - Basking spot temps are around 85-90 but I do not know the exact floor temperature. His overnight temps are about 70 degrees. I measure this with a duel thermometer.
  • Humidity - Humidity levels are about 40% but I am doing everything I can to get these higher. I will also be adding a humidifier to my room to raise the levels in my room in general. Unfortunately this lack of humidity just comes with my living enviroment so that is why I give him so many oppurtunities to have water/high humidity like I mentioned in the water section.
  • Plants - I am not using live plants but I am hoping to add Pothos to my enclosure soon. When I give Cosmo free range time he has a 5 foot tall money tree and a 2 foot tall bamboo tree he enjoys.
  • Placement - My cage is located in the corner of my room away from an fans, airvents, or traffic areas. I am working on getting a table to put the enclosure on but until then it just goes on my floor. Besides me, I only have a cat that has access to my room and she is barely in here so his cage being on the floor doesn't seem to stress Cosmo out at all.
  • Location - I am from Nevada.
Current Problem - No problem, just checking my husbandry! Thank you for the help!
 
Hey guys! I am super paranoid and I'm always open to learn more and improve on my chameleon care so if anyone has a couple extra minutes I would greatly appreciate a husbandry review. This totally isn't urgent, my cham is in great health but like I mentioned before I am always looking for ways to improve to make sure Cosmo is leaving his best life. Thanks so much!

Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Male veiled chameleon around three months old, have had him for almost a month, got him 5/1/20.
  • Handling - I try not to handle him too often, I have only taken him out three times and two out of those three were for a reason (1. He was trying to walk into his light during free range so I needed to pick him up, after this he didn't want to go back so I put him on a plant, 2. My cleaners were coming and I didn't want him to get stressed so I took him into the other room with a plant). The third time I took him out was so he could enjoy the new 5 foot tall money tree I bought him, he loves to chill on the live plants I have for him. I will admit though, when he does come out he is out for a long period of time, but 75% of this time he is enjoying his live plants or outside time. I closely look for any kind of stress and when he is out he is always green and active.
  • Feeding - I feed Cosmo a balanced diet of cricket, BSFL, and superworms. If I had to make an estimate of how many of each, I would say 6-9 BSFL, 4-6 cricket, 2-4 superworms, but max 16 feeders total. I feed him once a day in the morning/early afternoon. I gutload my feeders with turnip greens, collard greens, and carrots.
  • Supplements - I use ZooMed's ReptiCalcium without D3 everyday, ZooMed's with D3 once every other week, and ExoTerra's Multivitamin once every other week.
  • Watering - I use a misting system that goes off once every hour for 60 seconds. This may seem like a lot but I am from a desert area with NO humidity so this is what his works best for me. Twice a week a mist for 7 minutes straight to give him a chance to really drink/wash his eyes out. I am also adding a homemade dripper system on top of his enclosure once I finish the milk left in my gallon ? On occasion I do also put him on a plant and bring him in the shower with me to make sure he is getting a lot of chances for water. I do occasionally see him drink but he is shy about it.
  • Fecal Description - Cosmo has consistent, dark brown poops with almost completely white urates. The other day I did see a urate with a little piece orange but I quickly looked it up and Gingero says this can happen through a crystal structure type thing, I haven't seen any orange urate since. Cosmo has never been tested for parasites but I hope to get him tested once we are out of this Coronavirus craziness.
  • History - Nothing special in particular, got him from LLLReptile on 5/1/20.
Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Cosmo has a 24x24x48 screened enclosure with clear saran wrap on the outsides. This may sound a little weird but it is completely safe and is only to make sure his humidity stays up considering my dry climate.
  • Lighting - I am using the ReptiSun T5HO 5.0 UVB light and a 75 watt incandescent light bulb for heating. Cosmos lights are on from 11:30 AM to 11:30pm but I am slowly working on getting this time closer to sundown because I am finally fixing my sleep schedule.
  • Temperature - Basking spot temps are around 85-90 but I do not know the exact floor temperature. His overnight temps are about 70 degrees. I measure this with a duel thermometer.
  • Humidity - Humidity levels are about 40% but I am doing everything I can to get these higher. I will also be adding a humidifier to my room to raise the levels in my room in general. Unfortunately this lack of humidity just comes with my living enviroment so that is why I give him so many oppurtunities to have water/high humidity like I mentioned in the water section.
  • Plants - I am not using live plants but I am hoping to add Pothos to my enclosure soon. When I give Cosmo free range time he has a 5 foot tall money tree and a 2 foot tall bamboo tree he enjoys.
  • Placement - My cage is located in the corner of my room away from an fans, airvents, or traffic areas. I am working on getting a table to put the enclosure on but until then it just goes on my floor. Besides me, I only have a cat that has access to my room and she is barely in here so his cage being on the floor doesn't seem to stress Cosmo out at all.
  • Location - I am from Nevada.
Current Problem - No problem, just checking my husbandry! Thank you for the help!
Everything looks okay to me except a couple of things.
Your humidity...you really don’t want daytime humidity to be any higher than 40%. Night time is ok if it goes as high as 80-100%. Live plants will increase and help maintain your humidity levels. Instead of misting every hour for a minute, try longer misting sessions of 2-3 minutes a few times a day. You want his enclosure to be able to dry out in between. Having it constantly wet combined with the heat can breed bacteria, mold and cause problems.
Also about fake plants...which I assume you are using. Veileds tend to nibble on their plants and have been known to eat a fake leaf and get impacted.
Your heat...85-90* is a bit too high for a little one. Basking temps should be around 82*. You can either raise your basking light or lower his branches.
You’ll want to raise his enclosure. They feel safest when they are looking down at the world.
Hope this helps. :)
 
Everything looks okay to me except a couple of things.
Your humidity...you really don’t want daytime humidity to be any higher than 40%. Night time is ok if it goes as high as 80-100%. Live plants will increase and help maintain your humidity levels. Instead of misting every hour for a minute, try longer misting sessions of 2-3 minutes a few times a day. You want his enclosure to be able to dry out in between. Having it constantly wet combined with the heat can breed bacteria, mold and cause problems.
Also about fake plants...which I assume you are using. Veileds tend to nibble on their plants and have been known to eat a fake leaf and get impacted.
Your heat...85-90* is a bit too high for a little one. Basking temps should be around 82*. You can either raise your basking light or lower his branches.
You’ll want to raise his enclosure. They feel safest when they are looking down at the world.
Hope this helps. :)

Thank you so much for the help! I just set my misting system to once every 4 hours for two minutes. I do struggle with keeping my humidity at a consistent 40-45 so I will definetly just have to monitor it. I am hoping to add live plants to my enclosure but that would require drainage right? I am not super educated on that ordeal but I am working really hard to try and learn more. I also do offer him the occasional collard greens to try and keep him away for the fake plants ? I will move his light up a bit but I just realized that his thermometer is actually a bit above his basking spot so I think the temperature might be a degree or two colder than I said, either way I will definetly be moving his light up. Thank you so much for your help!!
 
Thank you so much for the help! I just set my misting system to once every 4 hours for two minutes. I do struggle with keeping my humidity at a consistent 40-45 so I will definetly just have to monitor it. I am hoping to add live plants to my enclosure but that would require drainage right? I am not super educated on that ordeal but I am working really hard to try and learn more. I also do offer him the occasional collard greens to try and keep him away for the fake plants ? I will move his light up a bit but I just realized that his thermometer is actually a bit above his basking spot so I think the temperature might be a degree or two colder than I said, either way I will definetly be moving his light up. Thank you so much for your help!!
Yes, with or without plants drainage will be needed. I have my Repti breeze on the Repti breeze stand, which has allowed me to drill holes in the bottom and put a bucket below. Some use Dragon Strand drainage trays. There’s endless ways to create drainage to suit your needs.
 
Yes, with or without plants drainage will be needed. I have my Repti breeze on the Repti breeze stand, which has allowed me to drill holes in the bottom and put a bucket below. Some use Dragon Strand drainage trays. There’s endless ways to create drainage to suit your needs.

I think I'm going to do the same and get the ReptiBreeze stand and then drill holes just like you. Can you order the ReptiBreeze stand online? How much did yours cost? Thank you so much for the help!
 
I think I'm going to do the same and get the ReptiBreeze stand and then drill holes just like you. Can you order the ReptiBreeze stand online? How much did yours cost? Thank you so much for the help!
I order most of my bigger stuff from Reptile Supply Co...is $50 there plus shipping. The shipping can be significant so maybe you can find or order for pick up near you.
 
I order most of my bigger stuff from Reptile Supply Co...is $50 there plus shipping. The shipping can be significant so maybe you can find or order for pick up near you.

I just ordered mine from the same place, I am so excited! Thank you so much for the help. I do have one more question though, how tall are the stands/how high will my enclosure be off the ground? I have a 4 foot tall enclosure and I am only 5'5" so I hope I can still reach Cosmo for free range time ?
 
I’m only 5’ and have little T Rex arms so I use a little stool to reach up high. The stand raises it about 27” so the top of my enclosure is about 75” high. My chams enjoy being able to look down upon their world and feel very safe from the cats and dog.
 
I’m only 5’ and have little T Rex arms so I use a little stool to reach up high. The stand raises it about 27” so the top of my enclosure is about 75” high. My chams enjoy being able to look down upon their world and feel very safe from the cats and dog.

Definetly going to have to work a little harder to take him out but well worth it! I am so happy to be able to give him the sense of security, but now I can also add live plants!! Big things to come ? Once again, thank you so much for the help!
 
Back
Top Bottom