Husbandry Review

[CosmoTheChameleon25]

Hello All,

Below is the enclosure for my 5 month old veiled chameleon (Cosmo). I've had for just over a month. Wanted to see if anyone had thoughts or comments on the enclosure or what I may need to add/change. Thank you!

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

I think you could add more branches for your Chamaeleo calypatratus. You could add more branches especially at the top of your chameleons enclosure. That would give your chameleon much more room to move about.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

 

[nightanole]

Personal opinion, way too young to have a basking bulb. And it might be light enough to still be a filthy screen crawler, so could get right up underneath.

And it may just be the angle, but it looks like the top branch is way too far from the bulb, if the bulb is a T5HO 5.0/6%.

Also us folks tend to put feeder bin on the door, so the evil hand is not going into the cage.

 

[MissSkittles]

I have to agree with everything, except I’m not able to judge how old your guy is to determine if he needs a basking light or not. Usually under 3 months old, they don’t need temps above about 78. Then we give youngsters temps of 80. When the boys reach close to full size, we up their basking temp to 85. We still keep the girls at 80.
Little ones do love to walk upside down on the screen top, like @nightanole said, so you do need to elevate your lights above the screen by a few inches. I use dollar store wire baskets to raise my lights. Do make sure though that there is still the correct distance between basking area and uvb. Assuming you have the standard T5 with a 6% or 5.0, the distance should be 8-9”.
It is a challenge to hang enough branches and vines, but there are solutions. Dragon Ledges are awesome! https://dragonstrand.com/dragon-ledges/ I’ve been using plastic garden trellis which I attach to the frame with thin wire and a few screws to better secure to. Both of these are strong enough to even hang plants with. Another option is making a scaffold type frame, having sturdy branches attached to the enclosure frame and then building off that.
But, I think you’ve got a great start so far.

 

[ehdee6]

Just want to add that when building your reptibreeze (edit to say: XL!) that the top knob on the door is exactly 8". If you keep this in mind when hanging your basking branches for UVB it helps. The UVB in the picture is an Arcadia t5 6%, the bulb that is new; so will burn out to about 3.00 on the solormeter. That's the recommended UVB level for your cham to bask... (Note the branches in the picture are at 10", I raised them to 8" after testing.)