Husbandry Review

[Lucas00-]

I am the new recent owner of a male veiled Chameleon, Mr. Chameleonaire. He was purchased from Petco/petsmart 100 miles away by two people with substance abuse issues, and was in their possession for about a week before I came across him. They had no lights, bugs, or enclosure for the poor guy and were feeding him cucumber so I took him from them and decided to start my journey on April 15. I travelled to the the same town with pet stores (we live in the middle of nowhere Oregon) for lights, bugs and plants. The only enclosure I could buy was then 16x16x30. Since then I have upgraded him to a 24x24x38 Dragon Strand Hybrid Enclosure. Also added some cool backdrops to make it feel more natural for him.

Temps- Basking temp 83-85. Ambient temperature fluctuates around 70°-76° throughout the day. Nighttime temperature I can get down to 68° ish consistently but not until later into the night.

Humidity- I have a mist king automatic system that goes off for three minutes before and after lights turn on. My daytime humidity is 45-50, and a little bit higher in the morning before water dries out. In the afternoons sometimes i put a dripper on but it seems like he doesn’t pay attention to it a lot of times. At night I have a fogger that goes off every 30 minutes after the first half of the night when my temperatures are able to drop a bit. I am still experimenting with this.

Lights- Deep dome fixture for a 50w white heat bulb. Arcadia Pro T5 6% uvb, I bought a solar meter so I could measure out his basking branches at the correct index of 3. I also have an Arcadia Jungle Dawn LED to help my plants out.

Handling- I have handled him about 5 times single getting him and it has always been when I was trying to hold a food dish out for him to come and eat out of and he ended up crawling onto me. The maximum amount of time I held him for was three or four minutes because he seemed not sure about the whole thing lol. I haven’t handled him since putting him into his new enclosure four days ago.

Diet- I have him on Crickets and Black Soldier Fly Larvae. I dust the crickets every day with Repti-Calcium without D3, and twice a month with relativity multivitamin with D3.

I’m not sure if I’m missing anything, please ask me questions. Thank you for having me in this community, I’ve learned so much in a little under two months but plan to keep on learning as much as I can.

 

[LizardLurkin]

Incredible journey for him, and you're really putting in the work too. He's gone from 0 to living quite lavishly.
I can see his back in pic 4. I bet he's a pretty guy!

My only suggestion is to up the variety of feeders, and make sure they're gutloaded. Here's a fun idea, too. Gutload icecubes. You can make a large batch and store them in the freezer for six months. Very fun and very useful! I assume "relativity multivitamin with d3" is an autocorrection of "reptivite" because google shows no results.
I will also attach a couple pics of feeder and gutload information.

(also if he's not too camera shy i'd love to better see him!)

 

[Lucas00-]

I am the new recent owner of a male veiled Chameleon, Mr. Chameleonaire. He was purchased from Petco/petsmart 100 miles away by two people with substance abuse issues, and was in their possession for about a week before I came across him. They had no lights, bugs, or enclosure for the poor guy and were feeding him cucumber so I took him from them and decided to start my journey on April 15. I travelled to the the same town with pet stores (we live in the middle of nowhere Oregon) for lights, bugs and plants. The only enclosure I could buy was then 16x16x30. Since then I have upgraded him to a 24x24x38 Dragon Strand Hybrid Enclosure. Also added some cool backdrops to make it feel more natural for him.

Temps- Basking temp 83-85. Ambient temperature fluctuates around 70°-76° throughout the day. Nighttime temperature I can get down to 68° ish consistently but not until later into the night.

Humidity- I have a mist king automatic system that goes off for three minutes before and after lights turn on. My daytime humidity is 45-50, and a little bit higher in the morning before water dries out. In the afternoons sometimes i put a dripper on but it seems like he doesn’t pay attention to it a lot of times. At night I have a fogger that goes off every 30 minutes after the first half of the night when my temperatures are able to drop a bit. I am still experimenting with this.

Lights- Deep dome fixture for a 50w white heat bulb. Arcadia Pro T5 6% uvb, I bought a solar meter so I could measure out his basking branches at the correct index of 3. I also have an

Incredible journey for him, and you're really putting in the work too. He's gone from 0 to living quite lavishly.
I can see his back in pic 4. I bet he's a pretty guy!

My only suggestion is to up the variety of feeders, and make sure they're gutloaded. Here's a fun idea, too. Gutload icecubes. You can make a large batch and store them in the freezer for six months. Very fun and very useful! I assume "relativity multivitamin with d3" is an autocorrection of "reptivite" because google shows no results.
I will also attach a couple pics of feeder and gutload information.
View attachment 364237View attachment 364238
(also if he's not too camera shy i'd love to better see him!)

I did forget to add the gutload portion, I have blended up a mix of stuff and had frozen them into cubes. Along with these cubes I have a dry gut load that I also offer them. My sister was rolling her eyes at me hearing me explain my plans for him but I know in my heart that he deserves it.

 

[Lucas00-]

Incredible journey for him, and you're really putting in the work too. He's gone from 0 to living quite lavishly.
I can see his back in pic 4. I bet he's a pretty guy!

My only suggestion is to up the variety of feeders, and make sure they're gutloaded. Here's a fun idea, too. Gutload icecubes. You can make a large batch and store them in the freezer for six months. Very fun and very useful! I assume "relativity multivitamin with d3" is an autocorrection of "reptivite" because google shows no results.
I will also attach a couple pics of feeder and gutload information.
View attachment 364237View attachment 364238
(also if he's not too camera shy i'd love to better see him!)

Also you were correct, it was an auto correction for reptivite, thank you for your reply.

 

[LizardLurkin]

I see! That sounds great then! Gutload icecubes are a gamechanger.
He's so beautiful! He's built like a football Your sister is just jealous she can't live in a dragon strand enclosure with an automister.

 

[Lucas00-]

I see! That sounds great then! Gutload icecubes are a gamechanger.
He's so beautiful! He's built like a football Your sister is just jealous she can't live in a dragon strand enclosure with an automister.

I’m jelly for sure lol. He was super mad when I first put him in this new one but I think he’s relaxing a little bit now hopefully. Still hasn’t ate anything yet either. I’m going to include the picture on April 15 when I got him, I think he might be like 4-6 months old now but I really don’t know.

 

[ehdee6]

feeding him cucumber

Yikes! ... It's great to hear he's in much better home! For the bsfl, I'd recommend leaving some to turn into flies. My chams love chasing them around the cage! Just leave the darker ones in a warm place and they'll change in 3-6 weeks.

 

[Lucas00-]

Yikes! ... It's great to hear he's in much better home! For the bsfl, I'd recommend leaving some to turn into flies. My chams love chasing them around the cage! Just leave the darker ones in a warm place and they'll change in 3-6 weeks.

Awesome, I was wondering how long it would take them to turn. I was noticing some dark ones the last time I ordered them. At least he was getting hydrated from the cucumber though that’s the best I got from the whole thing lol. I think I’m going to get some roaches since they’re readily available but I thought about getting some moths? I haven’t seen videos of people feeding those but I think that they would enjoy the hunt.

 

[LizardLurkin]

You can get waxworms as a treat bug, and they'll turn into moths which you can also feed to him. If he can find them, I'm sure it'll make him feel like a hunter. wax moths are pretty still once they find a hiding spot though (usually under a branch immediately after you put them in)

 

[Beman]

He is looking good overall body looks to be muscular with no sign of MBD.

Only think I see is that I would not fog at all if your temps are not low enough when you have it running. You mentioned it gets down to about 68 but that it is late in the night. Keep in mind fogging for chams is safest only when it is cool enough (closer to 65 is better) and there needs to be airflow. Otherwise they run the risk of developing a respiratory infection. If your temps do not support fogging then you just remove it and make sure your running a dripper so he can drink when he wants to.

Based on his size when you got him he would be roughly 6-7 months old now.

 

[Lucas00-]

BSFL seems to be the best option

He is looking good overall body looks to be muscular with no sign of MBD.

Only think I see is that I would not fog at all if your temps are not low enough when you have it running. You mentioned it gets down to about 68 but that it is late in the night. Keep in mind fogging for chams is safest only when it is cool enough (closer to 65 is better) and there needs to be airflow. Otherwise they run the risk of developing a respiratory infection. If your temps do not support fogging then you just remove it and make sure your running a dripper so he can drink when he wants to.

Based on his size when you got him he would be roughly 6-7 months old now.

I have now made a few little adjustments after getting some different feedback from people, thank you for the reply. Maybe when the colder season comes here I’ll be able to spoil him in the night like that but I don’t want to over do it for him.