Ive got the Cham bug :)

[ashrules]

hey im new here..and seems to be the polace to be for Chams

my friend has a 7 inch female yemen..and with the first hour i decided that i wanted one..they are awsome creatures..so after a few phone calls 7 days and about £250 later im schedualed to pick up my new newborn male yemen in a couple of hours..i cant wait...he is sooooo tini tiny!! about an inchand a half long....i have been preparing the tank over that last week and is finally ready. here is some pics of the tank. this shud house my lil baby for aorund 5 months...then i have a bigger tank for him.

now i have a little bit of knowledge of these over the last 2-3 weeks i have been researching.

like they have to be watered twice a day

fed 3 times roughly a day. with a few treats here and there

kept at around 80's for tempreture..with no more than a 20 degree drop at night.


of course correct me if im wrong..and give us a few pointers to anything else i need to think about as its a new born.

thanks guys...wish i would have got one of these years ago...

 

[Fearaffect]

WOW, people in Europe/England pay huge sums of money for their Reptiles!! Veileds here go for as little as $30.00 on average!!
Good luck with your new Cham........

 

[ashrules]

yeh i have noticed they well cheap over there...really expensive here..but hey spend now and worry bout that later ay

are there many others from the uk on this site?

 

[Jakedn]

WOW, people in Europe/England pay huge sums of money for their Reptiles!! Veileds here go for as little as $30.00 on average!!
Good luck with your new Cham........

He probably means including his set up

 

[Linda]

Lol enjoy.... The Cham bug bites hard.... and will empty your pockets ..... but the joy and rewards make it all very much worth the while.

 

[Jakedn]

yeh i have noticed they well cheap over there...really expensive here..but hey spend now and worry bout that later ay

are there many others from the uk on this site?

Oh maybe they do cost that much over there then

And to answer your question, yes I have seen a good amount of people from the UK on here.

 

[ashrules]

kewl thats wicked!!!

only about an hour now before i get him...gonna get some piccys soon as


oh and hes called "Saphia"

 

[jojackson]

Ash, I suppose ill be the first to say the bark/substrate and waterbowl wont be needed.
Rather than watering twice a day, watering all day via a slow dripper will be recommended.
You will need to devise a water catchment since your babys cage has a solid bottom.
This can be as simple as a tub with lid, most of the lid inside the rim cut out and flyscreen over the tub , under the lid, placed beneath the dripper and emptied as needed.
80f is said to fine for basking temp (hatchlings/young)(beneath the heat light) with ambient temp in the 70's.
no light or heat needed at night provided the ambient temp dosent fall below 60f/15c.
Small bugs a few times a day is fine.
enjoy your chameleon

 

[ashrules]

ahh thanks JJ thats awsome

cheers for the pointers

and i shal enjoy..very much i spend most of my time in my room as i work from home so i will be misting him alot then


what about over watering??? is this possible? is ther a limit to how much u can water them? or the wetter the better?

 

[jojackson]

You dont want him swimming no, a cheap humidity gauge will be handy. 50% humidity if you can get it there will be good, this go up to 70% or so after misting.
A few mistings a day is good, may encourage the little guy to drink, in this way you cant
water too much.
When you mist, get those plastic leaves covered in nice fine water droplets, the little guy may drink from them too.
Otherwise allow the cage to dry out between mistings.

Checking the little guys #2's will tell you if hes getting enough water in him, lizard/reptile poo is of two parts. brown (food waste) and white (solid pee called urates) This white part should be almost white. If you notice it starts to be yellow/orange, thats a sign hes not getting enough moisture in him.

They also get moisture From food, so gutload/feed his insects ith lots of fresh greens/fruit will ensure better moisture content in the insects and in turn, in your little lizard.

 

[CleaTheChameleon]

as jojackson said substrate needs to go. Im not going to lie but i had that when i first got my chameleon, then cam on here and found out i needed to get rid of it. Now i just have paper towels and they work fine.

 

[nick barta]

Jojackson has given you excellent instructions. The water retainer bowl for the dripper is screened so the Cham won't drown, but also so there are no pools for the Cham to drink out of. This is also why a water bowl/waterfall is not recommended. The Cham defecates in the bowl and then drinks his own.....you get the idea.

Veileds don't need high humidity, so if you miss misting occaisionally, it won't hurt him. I only feed once a day, you can do it more often, but it isn't necessary to feed them 3 times a day, unless you just like the interaction. You might want to use a feeding bowl, so you can put more feeders in to last for the day, this works well when you can't be home.

Use the search feature at the top of the home page on the Forum, and READ, READ, READ. When you are bored, READ some more! Lots of information here, "Raising Kitty" is a must read as it pertains to Veileds, and covers all the basics.

Nick

 

[Miss Lily]

Hi, I'm in the UK too. One thing no-one else has mentioned, is that you could do with a live plant in there to help with humidity. Live plants hold water on the leaves for longer and will give your little man plenty of places to drink drips from.

Schefflera (Umbrella plants), Ficus (Weeping Fig), Pothos (Devil's Ivy) are all safe and readily available in a few sizes from B&Q. Hibiscus are also a fave with chams - my baby loves to eat hers! Never seen any Hibiscus in B&Q though, so try a local garden centre for one of those. All the plants I've listed are available in the houseplants section rather than outside. Whichever platn you buy, be sure to wash the leaves first with soapy water and rinse well. Then either cover the soil with stones or repot the plant in organic soil. It is preferable to cover the soil though, so that your cham can't eat any, either accidentally while feeding or intentionally.

Your baby will be very nervous and shy when you get him home, new surroundings and people, etc, so having a live plant in there will give him a good hiding place! He will probably hide behind the plastic plants on the back of the cage. Mine did - we hardly saw her for the first few days, and only then a few glimpses at feeding time!

I would also agree with the substrate - not needed and it'll be a pain to keep clean, and will probably stink with all the water soaking into it! It may also cause impaction if your cham accidentally eats some while feeding. Also, misting and a dripper is preferred, rather than a bowl. Bowls of water will get feeders drown in them and the cham will probably poop in it too - not a good place to drink from - bacteria multiplies very quickly in dirty water!

Good luck with your new baby - I was so excited when I went to choose mine! She was between 12 and 14 weeks old when I got her and she was sooo tiny!

 

[ashrules]

just a quickie one then...the guy from the place i bought it from said that if he goes brown when u put him in the tank that i need to change the tank around...cus its unhappy.??? or in distress.???

he was kinda a light green when he left the place..and hes gone a kinda sandy light brown colour since puttin ghim the tank....

is he just trying to blend with the sandy colour background??? is it cus hes a newborn and the journey from one place to another was alot for him..

im worried about this as i was expecting the bright green u see on the typical cham picture..

is this anything to worry about..? hes only been in the tank for a couple of hours..he moves about nicely and hes drinking water off the leaves and eating the crickets iv put in there for him...

cheers ;-S

 

[Syn]

It's just stress.. if you change the tank around more it won't help the matters.

Eating and drinking is very very good.

I'm sure at least someone has said this already.. you will need a bigger cage as he gets bigger, and you will need to remove the substrate as well as that water dish.

 

[ashrules]

so just keep doing what im doing and making sure the temp is right and that hes eating and drinking and everything should be fine.???

i will see how he is in the morning and keep yourselfs updated

thanks

 

[ashrules]

jst another quick question....im finding it really hard in feeding him...

the crickets are so hard to catch and when i put them in the tank cus they are so small they just go straight the bottom and disapear..iv placed 15 in today and hes only had 4 of them..and i have seen any of them since...

its so frustrating trying to get the bugs to STAY! lol or even try and get them on the leaves cus they just fall off and again stay at the bottom...

is this ok to just leave or shud i consider alternate feeding methods?

thanks

 

[Miss Lily]

jst another quick question....im finding it really hard in feeding him...

the crickets are so hard to catch and when i put them in the tank cus they are so small they just go straight the bottom and disapear..iv placed 15 in today and hes only had 4 of them..and i have seen any of them since...

its so frustrating trying to get the bugs to STAY! lol or even try and get them on the leaves cus they just fall off and again stay at the bottom...

is this ok to just leave or shud i consider alternate feeding methods?

thanks

Cup feed them. Something as simple as an empty, clean butter tub or the like, and attach it somewhere in the cage that he can easily reach. Don't use anything that's see through though cos he'll try and shoot the food throught the tub instead of in the tub! Also you can put the crix in the fridge for a few minutes to slow them down - they are easier to catch then too!

I did this for Amy when I got her and she found the food straight away. Next morning she was sat on the vine above where I put the tub waiting for her brekkie, lol!

 

[ashrules]

Cup feed them. Something as simple as an empty, clean butter tub or the like, and attach it somewhere in the cage that he can easily reach.

Thank you sooooooo much..just tried it with a little white tub..and it worked a dream!! Saphia came straight down and gobbled 3 bugs one after another!!

he didnt seem bothered with the white tub at all...

problem sorted this shall be the way i feed her from now on and i can monitor her daily intake

appriciate your help. its made me feel ALOT better!!!!

 

[Miss Lily]

Thank you sooooooo much..just tried it with a little white tub..and it worked a dream!! Saphia came straight down and gobbled 3 bugs one after another!!

he didnt seem bothered with the white tub at all...

problem sorted this shall be the way i feed her from now on and i can monitor her daily intake

appriciate your help. its made me feel ALOT better!!!!

That's great! Sounds like your baby will take to cup feeding just fine! It's best to remove any uneaten feeders from the cage at night - crix especially may bite your cham while she's asleep. But now you cup feed you won't have any feeders roaming the cage to bother your cham. Cup feeding also makes it so much easier to keep track of how much they are eating.

I have always cup fed crix and hand fed locusts as they can climb out of anything. My first cham, Lily, used to hate it when a locust climbed on her. You could see her tense up and try to get away from it.