Just ordered my Oustalet's!

[Elijah]

Finally ordered the Oustalet's I've been patiently waiting for! Well, to clarify, I ordered most of the main enclosure materials. I also purchased a 2.5 month old male CB Oustalet's from FLChams and am waiting to have it shipped until I finish the enclosure, which I am ridiculously excited for. I'll be heading out later today to get some live plants and more vines.

So, any advice? I'm a first time owner, but I've owned plenty of reptiles in the past. I made sure to do a few months worth of research before deciding to dive into this, so I'm certainly not going in blind but am by no means an expert. Any mistakes that first time owners tend to make that I should avoid?

Here's what I have so far:

• 18x18x36" cage as part of the Ultimate Chamelon Package from LLLReptile. I'll be upgrading to a 30x30"x6' cage as he gets bigger.
• Zoo Med Mini Deep Dome Lamp & 100wt Zoo Med Powersun Bulb
• A good amount of bendable vines, both large and small
• Calcium
• MistKing Starter System.

What I believe I'm missing so far:

• A UVB bulb/fixture... any recommendations?
• Live plants, buying later today
• Reservoir buckets, buying later today
• Food, gutload, calcium with D3, and a multi-vitamin supplement
• Possibly more vines, if need be.
• Some sort of stand for the cage - any recommendations? I plan on building something like this when I get the larger cage, but that won't be for a little while.

If I missed anything, let me know! I would prefer to buy missing things locally, I have both a PetSmart and PetCo nearby. Obviously they aren't the best places to buy chams from (glass enclosures... really?!), but for other supplies, I would think they would be fine. Also, what's the best way to keep/gutload crickets? Should other feeders be gutloaded as well?

Also, any name suggestions for this future giant would be much appreciated.

 

[Djturna4thakidz]

For your lighting needs I would go to lightyourreptiles.com. Its a site sponsor. If you have questions just email the site, Todd is more than happy to answer any questions you may have. As a beginner I went with the reptisun, like is recommended but after a couple years I switched over to the Arcadia 6% T5 hood with grow light. I now have 3 48" setups like this. The lights are amazing and the service is great. They are a bit more pricey but they are amazing and the bulbs last longer than the T8's.

 

[chameleonowner32]

If you have any questions, ask me. I sucessfully raised my male from 2 months. He was 6gs and is now 400gs.
This is Rex

 

[Elijah]

If you have any questions, ask me. I sucessfully raised my male from 2 months. He was 6gs and is now 400gs.
This is Rex

Man, now that's a beast!

As far as handling goes, what do you recommend? I've heard from pretty much everybody that Oustalet's are known to be "gentle giants" for the most part, but they of course are still chameleons and aren't able to be constantly handled. What's the best way to get a new Oustalet's used to you?

 

[chameleonowner32]

I handled daily and offered lots of food out of the hand

 

[nightanole]

Man, now that's a beast!

As far as handling goes, what do you recommend? I've heard from pretty much everybody that Oustalet's are known to be "gentle giants" for the most part, but they of course are still chameleons and aren't able to be constantly handled. What's the best way to get a new Oustalet's used to you?

Eh i hand mine out to 5 year olds all the time, it could care less. I got the 5 year old holding while the 4 year old has the bug.

They need a BIG tank. By 6 months my boy was shoe horned into a xl repitbreeze (2x2x4) and ended up just removing the door and having tree limbs coming 2ft out of the cage.

He is doing really well in a cage that has a base of 2.5ft by 4ft. I went over board on the height but i think you could get away with a 5ft tall tank thats planted, or even 4ft tall if you didnt have any pots.

Id say my min for a oust is 3ftx3ftx5ft cage. Thats only 50% longer than the cham!!!

Harry at about 7 months. Now imagine him shoe horned into just the reptibreeze.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/att...-2-post-your-pics-2002-12-08-12.00.00-2-1.jpg

 

[Elijah]

Bad news...

Unfortunately, the Oustalet's that was going to be shipped isn't in the best of health, so it seems I'll either be waiting another 6 months for more CB Oustalet's or going for another species. Got to commend FLChams for their honesty when it comes to their chameleons' health, though!