Is my enclosure okay? First time Cham owner

[Ares05]

Of course it is safe. Shipping is overnight. They have a live arrival guarantee, along with a 7 day health guarantee.

I personally didn't have the top experience with them but overall they are a pretty good breeder, lots of others love them. Aside from parasites my boy was very healthy and is around 9 1/2 months old now.

 

[Gingero]

The compact uvb won’t give off the correct uvb levels. I can link a video that @Gingero has, it helped me understand a lot! It feels like I’ve been advertising her video recently ?

Means it's a good video

 

[CasqueAbove]

I mean, i can always take the substrate out and drill holes at the bottom for more airflow.....

In all honesty see if you can return it. I am sorry I know this part sucks. I f you want a healthy cham do more research. Screen or glass will depend on region and individual home, but either way the ventilation is not good for chams in these, also You can likely get more for less.

Edit, see you already got this.

 

[Gingero]

Gonna drop in some other helpful videos. You can find lots more on my chameleon YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/NeptunetheChameleon?sub_confirmation=1

 

[AmandaS]

After you have your enclosure set up nicely, @jannb has some beautiful and healthy babies for sale with a famliy tree and fecal check(I believe). It is the best line of veileds I have seen.

 

[emilhayek]

Of course it is safe. Shipping is overnight. They have a live arrival guarantee, along with a 7 day health guarantee.

I personally didn't have the top experience with them but overall they are a pretty good breeder, lots of others love them. Aside from parasites my boy was very healthy and is around 9 1/2 months old now.

Sounds good!

 

[emilhayek]

In all honesty see if you can return it. I am sorry I know this part sucks. I f you want a healthy cham do more research. Screen or glass will depend on region and individual home, but either way the ventilation is not good for chams in these, also You can likely get more for less.

Edit, see you already got this.

yeah petsmart isn't doing returns due to covid so going to have to sell on offerup or facebook. hopefully get it sold this week and pick up my lights and new cage this upcoming weekend.

 

[cyberlocc]

IKR, I still don't understand why they did that. Makes zero sense.

Sucks because thas a good amount of vent, would be great for Carpets, Minors ect, with it on the bottom of the door. Not very smart design choice.

 

[emilhayek]

IKR, I still don't understand why they did that. Makes zero sense.

Sucks because thas a good amount of vent, would be great for Carpets, Minors ect, with it on the bottom of the door. Not very smart design choice.

Yeah, gotta love false advertising! But honestly selling this cage and getting the reptibreeze large extra tall will be better in the long run. When Flex (chams name) gets bigger i can just put two of those cages together and cut the mesh right?

 

[argulor]

hey so i work at petsmart and the thrive kit is not the greatest for chams,,, its marketed towards them but just aint all that lol

id pick up a reptisun t5 ho and a 75 watt basking bulb, since u shop at petsmart we have both of those things. also if i were u id pick up a bigger cage, the zoo med reptibreeze is great and is available on petsmarts site and ships to your home for free! we also have some shitty gutload for crickets and roaches, id pick up rephashy bug burger or the bio dudes bug grub, also give ur feeders some fresh greens n fruit too !! the thrive kit can house him for a bit but he will grow out of it FAST

 

[emilhayek]

hey so i work at petsmart and the thrive kit is not the greatest for chams,,, its marketed towards them but just aint all that lol

id pick up a reptisun t5 ho and a 75 watt basking bulb, since u shop at petsmart we have both of those things. also if i were u id pick up a bigger cage, the zoo med reptibreeze is great and is available on petsmarts site and ships to your home for free! we also have some shitty gutload for crickets and roaches, id pick up rephashy bug burger or the bio dudes bug grub, also give ur feeders some fresh greens n fruit too !! the thrive kit can house him for a bit but he will grow out of it FAST

What cage would you recommend after he gets a lot bigger? After the reptibreeze large extra tall

 

[RyanBRZ]

A repti-breeze XL should be fine for the life of a panther or veiled. If you need or prefer larger, I'd go with one of the larger dragon strands (clear side?) if you can get one, or a custom build.

 

[emilhayek]

A repti-breeze XL should be fine for the life of a panther or veiled. If you need or prefer larger, I'd go with one of the larger dragon strands (clear side?) if you can get one, or a custom build.

I think I’m gunna stick with the XL reptibreeze. I just have to sell this janky terrarium now ?

 

[argulor]

good luck getting a baby !! i got two of my chams from the west coast chameleon brothers and i am very happy !! rn they have veileds on sale too

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi there. I’m late to the party. Before you get any chameleon from anywhere, you should really learn and get husbandry basics down and then set up your enclosure. @Gingero has a video for just about everything. The forum has a great deal of info in the resources tab and then there’s chameleonacademy.com with even more great info and podcasts too. The more you know about keeping your chameleon, the more it ensures you enjoy many happy and healthy years together.

 

[Ares05]

Yes, you are going to need a calcium without d3, a multivitamin without d3, and calcium with d3. You schedule will be calcium without d3 every day, your multivitamin without d3 once every other week, and your calcium with d3 once every other week. Alternate.

You will also want some sort of bushy live plant in there, ( I see you do have small pothos already) in my opinion. What kind of chameleon are you getting?

I would remove the substrate, too.

You will need more horizontal Branches and perches.

For your lights, you will want a 5.0 t5ho reptisun bulb (or the Arcadia 6% t5ho). The highest branches in the cage should be around 6 inches away. Then, you will want to raise your uvb about 4-6 inches off the top of the screen, so you'll get a total of 10-12 inches distance from your uvb, to the highest branch.. Raise the heat light a few inches off the screen as well, to prevent burns.
This will give the required distance from branch to uvb, and prevent burns from the heat light. Normally we would set the uvb on the screen and raise the basking bulb up off the screen just a tad (to prevent burns if they screen climb), but since you cage is small we want as much room for branches as possible.

I dont have much experience on drainage, for a glass cage ( I use screen). Perhaps someone else can chime in. Since you wont have the substrate in there, maybe you'll be able to wipe out extra water.

You'll want to mist for 2-3 minutes, in the morning, and then in the evening, for a glass cage. For a screen cage you would want to mist for 2-3 minutes a couple times a day. And then run a dripper throughout the day (poke a teeny tiny hole in the bottom of a water bottle or container, so you have a drip rate of 1-2 drips per second, and set on the top of the cage). Make sure you have a little container to catch the drips, or put a plant underneath so you water the plant while dripping. Make sure the drips are falling onto leaves or branches so then the chameleon can drink off of those surfaces.

For feeding you will want to give your baby pretty much as many small feeders as it will eat per day, normally around 15-20. Cricket and roaches are good options, but you can also include silkworms, hornworms, BSFL, etc. I will post a food sheet at the bottom of my post. Dust your feeders lightly with that days supplements, they shouldn't look like powder donuts.

I would also contain your feeders in a feeding cup instead of just throwing them in. This way the baby can find its food easily. I just secure a deli cup to the branch slightly below the basking spot, so then the chameleon can look down inside of the cup and eat its food.

For gut loading your feeders, you will want to use lots of leafy greens, veggies, and fruits. Its also recommended to include some sort of commercial gutload, such as cricket crack or Bug Burger. I will post a gutloading sheet at the bottom.

Make sure you are buying your chameleon from a reputable breeder, not a petstore. If you need help finding a good breeder let me know.

The two most common chameleons are vields and panther chameleons. For panther chameleons humidity should be around 50-70 during the day, and 90-100 at night.
For veiled's humidity should be 30-40 during the day, and 80-100 at night. Nighttime humidity can be achieved by using the fogger throughout the night. Make sure not to use it during the day, though.

Temps should be around 75 for the ambient, and around 82-84 at the basking spot (for both panther and veiled babies.. as they age the basking spot temperatures will go up). Temps should be around 65 at night, but shouldn't drop below 55.

Fecal matter should be brown with a small white urate attached. No mucus or runny fecal matter should be present in a normal poop.



I thin I covered everything you need to know.. If I didn't I will add it on.View attachment 265485View attachment 265486

This was just some basic info I could think of off the top of my head.. watch @Gingero 's videos, they are very very helpful. You can also go to resources and click care sheets, and go to veiled and there is some good info there too.

Also.. I posted this is mind that you may try to make this one work for a while and then get your larger one later. It doesn't sound like you want to do that so I wanted to clarify some of the things i said.

For the light distances, I tried to make it so you'd have room for climbing but make a good branch to UVB distance. With a large screen cage the uvb can just rest on the top, and have your highest branch 9-10 inches from the top. Just raise the basking off the screen a few inches to prevent burns.

Also my paragraph on misting was pretty unclear, lol I dont even know why I said mist for 2-3 minutes several times a day.. I think I was thinking about panthers but I didn't say that I was talking about panthers? I don't know lol.

Anyways so since you are getting screen cage, mist for 2-4 minutes in the morning, 2-4 minutes in the evening, and you can run a dripper throughout the day. Personally I put in a midday misting of about 30 seconds.

That misting is for veiled's. ^^ ( I think thats what you said you were getting)