introduction thread

[aki]

Hello I'm Aki from England. Wanted to get myself a chameleon for some time so after a bit of research and a trip to a few pet stores I came home with Cheech a Nosey Be Panther chameleon. Sadly the yound lad serving at the shop didnt seem to know much about anything so couldnt tell me how old or the sex. Apprantly the reptile "expert" wasnt working that day.

I just got a medium sized EkoTerra tank with a mesh roof. A few plastic plants and a few live ones in there aswel (checked for non toxic etc)


From reading online I'm guessing he's a he due to the colours??? I could be wrong and still rather small body around 4/5" so must still be young.


Anyway heres a few pics, sadly he was nervous so he's displaying some defensive positions and colours, usually a pale green colour

Any pointers towards upkeep would be helpful, just feeding medium crickets at the moment and using the pinhole cup trick to keep the humidity around 80/90%

 

[Robyrango]

Hello and welcome!
He's a boy and he's beatiful!
I believe you have your UV light and a white bulb to use as basking light.
Did you get vitamis and calcium to dust your feeders?
You'll see.. Owning a chameleon is an axing experience!
Good luck
Any doubt or question you have do no hesitate to post!

 

[aki]

yes I have a UV strip at the top, and I put a basking lamp in the back corner with a perch beneith it and some plastic plants for him to hide in. 60w basking bulb. got some calcium+D3 90g tub for £3.29 which the other half says is cheap for england (she has bearded dragons).

Still waiting for my cricket storing tub to be delievered so havnt had chance to dust them yet.

Any idea how many I should feed him and how often. Ive just been putting 4/5 in a day and seems to be happy at that. but dont want to put too many in as been told they could start eating him. And been told maybe not to feed everyday.


I havnt handled him too much yet as its only been a few days and want him to settle, but he seemed happy enough to be handled when I was putting him in the viv.

 

[Robyrango]

Suonds like a good start.. Do you have a thermometer and hygrometer too?
I do believe that in captivity chameleons are over fed, but at his age give his as much as he can eat.
Make sure not to leave the crickets in the enclosure at night, you heard right, they can eat him in his sleep!
You can try hand feeding of cup feeding.

 

[carol5208]

you definitely have a boy and I would say about 6 months old. Therefore you want to feed everyday, not every other and up the amount of crickets to about 12 plus a day. Just remove any uneaten crickets at night. Also you need to get a plain calcium(without d3) to dust your feeders with at every feeding. use the one with the d3 a couple of times a month and get a multivitamin to dust with twice a month as well. you don't need to keep the humidity at 80-90 all day. it can drop. A happy medium is at about 50% and when you mist it can spike and drop.

 

[Solid Snake]

Oy there!
Welcome to CF!
We are super glad that you are here

As stated, its a boy!

Like Carol said, you cant use the cal w/ D3 everyday, just a couple of times a month.

I recommend finding some "repashy calcium plus".
Its an all in one that you just use everyday. Its got lots of good things in it.

Also as stated, ask any and all questions you may have!

Again, welcome to CF!

 

[aki]

well thanks for the welcome

thanks for the advise, ill get some different calcium at the weekend then.

Yep got a thermometer and hyrdometer.


any idea how big he'll grow? I've been told around 16-20inches nose to tail?


He looks so cute when he sleeps, he curls up and goes pale

 

[Red7ny1]

 

[Hoj]

welcome to the forums and the addiction that is chameleons LoL