I'm new, am I doing this right?

Kaseabra

Kaseabra

Member
Hello! I'm new to keeping a Chameleon and genuinely haven't had a pet to spoil in a few years. I have been reading lots of threads on this forum for advice and binge watching how to care for Chameleon videos as well as researching on a couple other sites. I really want to make sure I am doing right by my little Calypso. So here's a peak into our set up/routine.

Chameleon Info:
  • My Chameleon Calypso -
Species: Chamaeleo Calyptratus (Veiled)
Sex: Female
Age: About 6 months old.
How long has it been in my care: One week today.
  • Handling -
How often do I handle my Chameleon: I handled her the day after she came from the pet store because she had approached me and climbed onto me while I was checking her habitat for hiding crickets under the carpet on the base. We also handled her once two days ago because I had my fiancé hang out with her while I cleaned up her poop. She was rather grumpy that day when we first got her out because she had climbed onto my hand to catch a cricket but got upset and puffed up when I brought my hand out of the cage (after she had caught the cricket) she chilled out though climbing all over my finances sweater though.

Free ranging her: On Thursdays I am normally home all day so I will put a vine up from her habitat to the couch and let her do her own thing, I'm not sure how often I will do this. I will be in the living room doing my own thing during these times but keeping a side eye on her.
  • Feeding -
What am I feeding my cham: Crickets, mealworms, superworms. She eats her ficus tree too and on Saturdays I give her one organic spinach leaf, still looking into other vegetables because she seems to really like eating plants. I will be getting organic Kale soon.
What amount: Still working out how much she wants/how much I should feed her.
What is the schedule: 03:45 AM, five crickets, two meal worms, and one super worm are added to her enclosure (worms in a feeding dish, crickets free to roam) before I leave for work. Usually she eats everything before I finish my first cup of coffee at 04:00am.
When I get home around 4:45pm the first thing I do is feed her at least 4 crickets and one super worm. She seems so hungry when we get home, and always eats everything as quickly as she can.
I am following this schedule as best I can on my off days too.
How I am gut-loading my feeders: I am gut-leading crickets, with organic spinach, apples, and a fluke's high-calcium cricket diet. I am giving the super worms organic carrots and apples at this time and keep them in organic rice cereal.
  • Supplements -
Brand/type of calcium and vitamin products: Repti Calcium without D3, ReptiVite with D3.
Schedule of Vitamins: So far I have been dusting all the crickets with the calcium without D3 every time i feed them to her, and using the ReptiVite with D3 on the morning feeding on Thursdays.
  • Watering -
Watering technique: Currently I am misting with a mister bottle, I also keep a humidifier on when I'm at work, the humidifier mists onto leaves in the enclosure causing a drip, and I have a a biobubble water fountain. Which I'm still trying to figure out how to convince her to drink from.
How often do I mist: Once in the morning after she eats around 3:50am, once after she eats in the evening around 5:00 pm.
Do I see my cham drinking: Yes
  • Fecal Description -
Colors and consistency from recent droppings:
View media item 46320
Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites: Not yet.
  • History -
I purchased my cham from a Petco pet store, she had lived there for at least a few months with at least one other female. The other female was much more aggressive than Calypso.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - ZooMed ReptiBreeze screen cage 16”L x 16” W x 30” L The habitat is inside a glass display case which I ended up opting for because I've had trouble maintaining heat/humidity I took the glass out of the back and keep the front glass door open during the daytime when I'm home (thursday, friday, saturday) because I can monitor her habitat more closely. I haven'y figured out the perfect system for while I'm at work but I am leaning towards a large warm humidifier and leaving the door open so she'd have two glass sides and two mesh sides.
  • Lighting -ZooMed combo dome, ZooMed 5.0 Reptisun UVB watt, ZooMed 60w daylight blue reptile bulb. My daily lighting schedule is: Lights on at 3:45 am before I depart for work and off at 5:45pm an hour after I return home.
View media item 46367View media item 46368View media item 46369
  • Temperature -
What temp range a have I created: 70-80 F in the upper middle of the habitat, lowest overnight temp is 55 F.
I am measuring the temps with: a digital thermometer, one mounted in the mid upper part of the habitat, and one that I use to measure the top and bottom before leaving for work, and after returning home.
  • Humidity -
What are your humidity levels: Between 50-80 (only reaches 80 right after misting, it usually is settled between 60-70)
How are you creating and maintaining these levels: Misting and a humidifier
What do you use to measure humidity: A humidity gauge places near the middle top of the cage a little below her favorite basking spot.
  • Plants -
Are you using live plants: Yes
If so, what kind? One Umbrella tree, one ficus, and one spider plant. Ficus and Umbrella tree purchased from LLLReptile and I covered the top of the pot with a fine mesh and large rocks so Calypso won't reach the soil. Spider plant isn't in soil yet, just a pot with water.
  • Placement -
Where is your cage located: About 6 inches from the largest window in my living room, at night I close the blinds and hang a towel to keep her habitat from getting cold from the window.
Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas: Near the heater but we have not ran the heater yet.
At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor: 5 feet.
  • Location -
We live in an apartment In the middle of downtown Seattle, WA

Current Problem - Checking to see what I'm missing or could be doing wrong, or how I could improve what I have going on to make Calypso happier. Any tips are appreciated! I want to do the best I can for Calypso.

 
Great job filling out the care form! I also have a female veiled she is about 13 months old - I've had her since she was 4 months old. So just going from top to bottom on your comments, here are my thoughts:

IMO, carpet on the bottom of the cage is going to cause you some trouble - difficult to keep clean, you are already hunting for hidden crickets, etc. The bottom of my enclosure is bare - no substrate, carpet, paper towels, etc. Substrate is a definite no - but if you want to use carpet or paper towels that is your choice, just be sure to keep it clean.

Free-ranging can be awesome - will there be proper lighting in her free-range area? how much time will she be out? Proper lighting and UVB should be provided "most" of the day. Getting her out in the sun is very beneficial.

Quit using the mealworms - they do not provide a good meal for her. Crickets, occasional super worms are fine. Dubia roaches and BSFL's are my staple with blue horned worms, butter worms, pupated BSFL in the fly form, super worms and crickets as variety. I hate crickets.

A typical schedule for lights is 12 hours on and 12 hours off. You can easily set them on a timer - get one from Amazon or Home Depot.

My girl is a glutton. Would probably put herself into a food coma if I let her. When I first got her, I over fed her - everyday - because she acted like she was starving and honestly, I loved watching her eat. Too much food on a daily basis will turn her into a tree cow and could increase the size of her clutches. Try to feed her every other, or every third, day - somewhere between 5-10 items at each feeding. And go for quality, not quantity. She will stay leaner, live longer and have less eggs in her clutch.

Your feeder gut-load seems okay - give them a variety, too. I sometimes think my feeders eat better than I do lol

You don't need the humidifier running all day. veileds do not need a high moisture environment. I know it creates water droplets, but the downside could be a respiratory infection. Try an inexpensive dripper. you can make your own or buy one from Amazon (Little Dripper style). The fountain could be fine, the trouble with these is the bacteria that can grow, so clean it often.

The zoomed combo sounds like the typical kit most new cham owners go home with from the pet store (I'm one of them). Search the forums for better alternatives. You don't need a blue light. Just a regular house bulb for heat. The most important bulb is the UVB - there are much better and more effective options than the one you are using. It will lose its efficacy within 4-6 months, so you'll have to replace it more often.

Her basking temp could be a bit higher. I keep Ophelia's around 85.

The thing that is missing - and you need to get it in there ASAP - is a laybin. Do you have pictures of her and her enclosure?

Welcome to the forums! Have you read the caresheets for veileds? they will hep fine-tune your husbandry :)
 
You should try mustard greens, dandelion leaves, and arugula as your staple leafy greens. Spinach is high in oxalic acid. You can use spinach sparingly though, I'm not saying to avoid it completely. Just use it sparingly. But again, variety is the most important thing in your gutload and the feeders.
 
@opheliaeatsbugs thank you so much for your reply!

I have seen a lot of comments on other posts about the carpet being a hassle. I may end up going with bare.

With the free ranging, it's mostly just letting her roam around my apartment (which she only really seems to like going from one end of our large couch to the other and back to her habitat) I don't have additional lighting set up when free roaming her in the apartment. How long of her being out of her habitat (which has the lighting) would be ok 3 days a week if I didn't set up additional lighting? I mean she gets room light from my lights and my windows but I know that doesn't provide UVB.

I definitely will stop using the mealworms and work on expanding my feeders. TBH I don't think I'm ready for roaches yet... I'm still getting used to intentionally keeping bugs in my home. lol

I've been gut loading with whatever organic veggies I happen to have in the home already. @Longhorn1234 do grocery stores sell dandelion leaves? Thank you for the link to tips on gut loading!

I saw a timer at petco today when I was picking up crickets, I will go get it tomorrow so she'll be set for the work week.

I've read several different places for the level of humidity for veiled chams, what works for you? I'm always so worried about her getting dry when I'm at work. :(

I'm glad to know my Calypso isn't the only pig, haha. She seems so grumpy when we get home until after we feed her, it's like she's hangry or something.

When people say "house bulbs" what do they mean specifically?
I would really like a bar light set up instead of the domes, (anyone have any suggestions for specific products?) then I could raise up her habitat and have a shelf below with the setup I have now.


As far as a laybin goes.... DragonStrand has an amazing "laying box" it essentially is a base for their mesh enclosure that you can just set the habitat on to. But it doesn't fit my ZooMed enclosure. I want to make a laybin that "looks good" and is functional. (My fiance is very particular about how our home looks and nothing can look too "tacky" or he won't like it. Please don't tease.)
Another thing that confused me about this all though is, (from what I've read) you're supposed to keep a lay bin available at all times to a female chameleon once she reaches that age, but you're not supposed to have a substrate in her enclosure, isn't the laybin essentially a substrate? What makes it different? I mean aside from the removability, but shouldn't it always be in her enclosure?

I don't have any of her in her new setup (I got the plants in yesterday and put them in this morning) except the ones from my original post above and her lights are already out for the day but I can post some tomorrow!

She's sleeping on the side of her cage which she has started to do the last couple days like a weirdo. This was her first thing in the AM two days ago. Is that an indicator of anything?

View media item 46371
(Her colors were so pretty the morning I took this, I haven't seen her show this pattern before or since.)

Thank you for the help!

PS: Sorry for the novels but I'm a over worrier of a pet mom. lol
 
I'm not sure about grocery stores selling dandelion leaves. There might be some that could carry them but it would probably be hard to find. My solution was to try to grow some out haha. I just went to a state park (they said no pesticides are used in there), picked some up, pot them and hope they grow in my balcony. They're weeds after all haha.

I don't have a female and am no expert, but I believe that what most owners are worried about when it comes to substrates is big pieces of bark that could cause impaction if ingested. Again, I'm no expert so I would wait until someone with more experience chimes in
 
Just a few comments....
Free ranging is OK for a while but unless your room is the right temperature or she has a basking
bulb to warm up under she will get cool which might lead to problems....slower digestion for example. Also she needs the UVB.

You could set up a dripper for her both in the cage and in the free range area so she has more chance to drink.

By household incandescent bulb we mean ones like those in the first row of this site....
http://www.homedepot.com/b/Lighting...nt-Light-Bulbs/Household/N-5yc1vZbmglZ1z0xeui

You said....."Another thing that confused me about this all though is, (from what I've read) you're supposed to keep a lay bin available at all times to a female chameleon once she reaches that age, but you're not supposed to have a substrate in her enclosure, isn't the laybin essentially a substrate? What makes it different? I mean aside from the removability, but shouldn't it always be in her enclosure?"...the bin should always be in the cage. The difference between substrate on the cage floor and in the lay bin is that she needs substrate to lay the eggs in but doesn't need it in the floor of the cage. We use washed playsand for the laybin that won't cause impaction if she ingests some but some of the floor substrates can cause impaction.

If you're feeding and watering her close to the time the lights go off she won't have time to digest the food before the cage cools and the cage won't dry out enough.

Did you wash the plants...both sides of the leaves... before putting them in the cage?

Hope this helps!
 
@kinyonga

I keep the room at least 75 degrees when she roams. She really only roams about for 30 minutes to an hour.

So when people say household light they literally mean just a regular lightbulb, haha, I was worried it was lingo I didn't know. Is it warmer than the ones they sell for pets?

So if I were to set up a "laying bin" that was playsand, and at least 6 inches deep and everything described in laying bin set ups and was also the base of her habitat, that would be ok as long as I was sure to keep it clean, proper drainage, and keep things out of it that could cause impaction?

I did not think about the feeding her right before bed thing, I'm not sure what's the best routine to do for her. We are gone for work from around 4am until 5pm. (10 hr shifts and a long commute 4 days a week) I just don't know how to best work a feeding/misting/lighting schedule. How long do you think she needs to digest before bedtime? Any suggestions for a better schedule around our work schedule? (We can't get an automatic mister yet, maybe next month.)

Yes I first showered the plants for 30 minutes in my shower, then misted them with distilled water making sure to get every section for 5 minutes each plant to be sure they were clean and I flooded the soil in standing water for the 5 minutes. (There were ants in the soil of one of the plants so I wanted to be sure they were gone.)

Thank you for these tips!!!
 
You said..."So when people say household light they literally mean just a regular lightbulb, haha, I was worried it was lingo I didn't know. Is it warmer than the ones they sell for pets?"...its not warmer just cheaper. Use the wattage that produces the right temperature in the basking area.

You said..."So if I were to set up a "laying bin" that was playsand, and at least 6 inches deep and everything described in laying bin set ups and was also the base of her habitat, that would be ok as long as I was sure to keep it clean, proper drainage, and keep things out of it that could cause impaction?"...it needs to be 12" deep. You need it to be a container so you can remove it to dig up the eggs without disturbing the chameleon while you do it. The sand I use is produced by Kings and comes in a white bag that has red, blue, yellow sand box toys on it.

You said..."How long do you think she needs to digest before bedtime? Any suggestions for a better schedule around our work schedule? (We can't get an automatic mister yet, maybe next month.)" ...two or three hours should be enough. You only need to feed her once a day at that age.
 
It is so great you are asking all these questions, you are already a great cham mommy!!
I would definitely get a light timer they are life savers, most big box stores have them and they are much cheaper then the pet stores also the light bulb will be cheaper too.
I would put a feeder bowl in before you go to work and when the lights turn on she can eat and bask/digest while you are at work. I have my timer on from 8 to 8.
Dandelion greens are sold in the store, my local grocery store sells them next to the mustard greens, collard and endive, also all good choices!!
 
@kinyonga Thank you for the tips!
That's a deeper nesting bin than I expected. I will start looking around and see what I can do.

Two hours should be totally doable.

@hopps31 Thank you!
I think I could make that work, I'll definitely look for an outlet timer somewhere other than the pet store. Always great to save money. :)

I will have to check out the grocery stores for dandelion greens, I didn't even know that was a thing people eat! I wonder what they taste like.

I appreciate all the advice and support from everyone!
 
Kaseabra said:
@kinyonga Thank you for the tips!
That's a deeper nesting bin than I expected. I will start looking around and see what I can do.

Two hours should be totally doable.

@hopps31 Thank you!
I think I could make that work, I'll definitely look for an outlet timer somewhere other than the pet store. Always great to save money. :)

I will have to check out the grocery stores for dandelion greens, I didn't even know that was a thing people eat! I wonder what they taste like.

I appreciate all the advice and support from everyone!
Click to expand...

Personally I think dandelion greens taste like grass, not that I eat a lot of grass, maybe I should use the word earthy..they are different haha!
 
I can get dandelion greens at my grocery store, so check around.

House bulb or regular bulbs are for heat only, so you'll need an accurate temp gauge... or a heat gun (inexpensive and fun!).

Feed her in the morning. She'll be fine on the days you work :) she would be asleep when u get home, if she is on a timer, so u won't have to deal with her hungry face haha

I was confused about laybin vs. substrate. Longhorn1234 has it right about pieces big enough to worry about compaction. My laybin is mostly organic potting soil with play sand mixed together in a black plastic wastebasket that i cut down to fit in her cage. Its about 12x10, 12 inches deep. The wastebasket has dime-sized holes drilled along the bottom and sides so that it drains from water collected from the auto mister and/or dropper. When I clean the cage, I will turn the dirt or mix it up to keep it fresher.

I made a custom stand for the cage. Totally basic table, with a grill-type table top. Cage sits on top and I drilled holes in the base of the cage for drainage.
 
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