Looking into my first chameleon

[NerveDamage]

Hello everyone,

I have kept many reptiles as a kid/teenager mostly easier ones, such as bearded dragons, ball pythons, corn snakes ect. But always wanted a chameleon, just never had the time and/or money. These two things are now coming together so I figured i'd start doing my research. However I am now left with a few questions both regarding chameleons themselves (more specifically panthers) and some questions about their care.

1. I noticed "The little/big dripper" is probably the most common dripper I have seen aside from DIY's. My question though is how much water should I use per day? And should it be constant or for an hour or two a day?

2. Second, The set-up will be relatively close to window that gets sunlight throughout the day between the sunlight and a UVB bulb can it damage the chameleon? or should I be thinking of a new location or not buying a UVB bulb?

3. When it comes to misting the most common answers I have seen are just until the plants and branches are "glistening" with water. But could anyone out there possibly give me a number for the volume of liquid (The starting cage would be 16x16x30)

4. Lastly After reading up on some of the locales both on this forum and breeder sites, some seem to be more rare than others. Is this because of lack of availability or are some locales just harder to keep? and if so which ones?

Thank you and sorry for the wall of text.

 

[littlefoot3]

Hello everyone,

I have kept many reptiles as a kid/teenager mostly easier ones, such as bearded dragons, ball pythons, corn snakes ect. But always wanted a chameleon, just never had the time and/or money. These two things are now coming together so I figured i'd start doing my research. However I am now left with a few questions both regarding chameleons themselves (more specifically panthers) and some questions about their care.

1. I noticed "The little/big dripper" is probably the most common dripper I have seen aside from DIY's. My question though is how much water should I use per day? And should it be constant or for an hour or two a day?

2. Second, The set-up will be relatively close to window that gets sunlight throughout the day between the sunlight and a UVB bulb can it damage the chameleon? or should I be thinking of a new location or not buying a UVB bulb?

3. When it comes to misting the most common answers I have seen are just until the plants and branches are "glistening" with water. But could anyone out there possibly give me a number for the volume of liquid (The starting cage would be 16x16x30)

4. Lastly After reading up on some of the locales both on this forum and breeder sites, some seem to be more rare than others. Is this because of lack of availability or are some locales just harder to keep? and if so which ones?

Thank you and sorry for the wall of text.

Welcome! This is the best place to research!

Being new to chameleons myself, I can't help you too much with your questions (My first one will be here within a few days). I can tell you though that unless you plan to have that window open all day, you shouldn't rely on UVB from it. The glass in the window will filter it out, so you'll get light and heat, but no UVB. In any case, I don't think you would have a problem with too much UVB? Just make sure it's not heating up the cage too much with the basking bulb and your little guy has a place to hide in the shade if he gets a little warm.

 

[bradley]

Hello everyone,

I have kept many reptiles as a kid/teenager mostly easier ones, such as bearded dragons, ball pythons, corn snakes ect. But always wanted a chameleon, just never had the time and/or money. These two things are now coming together so I figured i'd start doing my research. However I am now left with a few questions both regarding chameleons themselves (more specifically panthers) and some questions about their care.

1. I noticed "The little/big dripper" is probably the most common dripper I have seen aside from DIY's. My question though is how much water should I use per day? And should it be constant or for an hour or two a day?
I use an automatic misting system to mist three times a day for 2 minutes and then fill a big dripper once a day and let it run. It runs for a good hour depending on the speed you set it at,

2. Second, The set-up will be relatively close to window that gets sunlight throughout the day between the sunlight and a UVB bulb can it damage the chameleon? or should I be thinking of a new location or not buying a UVB bulb?
As mentioned the glass will filter out the uv so a uv bulb is still needed.
3. When it comes to misting the most common answers I have seen are just until the plants and branches are "glistening" with water. But could anyone out there possibly give me a number for the volume of liquid (The starting cage would be 16x16x30)
There is no specific volume of water you just want to wet the enclosure down so there is droplets on the leaves. A good drainage system will take any excess water away. If the cage dries out between mistings you know you hev used a good amount and not too much.
4. Lastly After reading up on some of the locales both on this forum and breeder sites, some seem to be more rare than others. Is this because of lack of availability or are some locales just harder to keep? and if so which ones?
none are harder to keep than others but some are rarer because they have only been imported in the last few years. The most common are ambilobe and nosy be but ambanja, sambava and a few others are quite common depending where you look. I know what I can get here in the Uk but in the US it is different as the US seems to have stuff we do not have and we have locales and species you do not.
Thank you and sorry for the wall of text.

Answers in red

 

[Video Master]

Welcome to the forums!

Here is one of the best places to read up on some things. These are the care sheets which are the standard guidelines for chameleons. Once you get a chameleon and you ask for help, these are always going to be the first thing referred to in order to see if something is wrong.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/

Just click on the type that you are looking into and it will load that page.

 

[Brandonmh]

Hello everyone,

I have kept many reptiles as a kid/teenager mostly easier ones, such as bearded dragons, ball pythons, corn snakes ect. But always wanted a chameleon, just never had the time and/or money. These two things are now coming together so I figured i'd start doing my research. However I am now left with a few questions both regarding chameleons themselves (more specifically panthers) and some questions about their care.

1. I noticed "The little/big dripper" is probably the most common dripper I have seen aside from DIY's. My question though is how much water should I use per day? And should it be constant or for an hour or two a day?

2. Second, The set-up will be relatively close to window that gets sunlight throughout the day between the sunlight and a UVB bulb can it damage the chameleon? or should I be thinking of a new location or not buying a UVB bulb?

3. When it comes to misting the most common answers I have seen are just until the plants and branches are "glistening" with water. But could anyone out there possibly give me a number for the volume of liquid (The starting cage would be 16x16x30)

4. Lastly After reading up on some of the locales both on this forum and breeder sites, some seem to be more rare than others. Is this because of lack of availability or are some locales just harder to keep? and if so which ones?

Thank you and sorry for the wall of text.

Welcome to the forums!
1. I have seen it said to let the dripper run for only like 20 mins or so or else you will run the risk of flooding things out. I made some and let them go at a fairly slow rate and thank god the one potted plant has a catch bin, it was full and I had to empty that plant the other day. I have stopped running them so long and all day since I found that the other week.

2. I do believe too much UVB can be bad, just like too much vitamin a and d3 as well can be bad. Like Littlefoot3 said, the glass will filter out the UVB so a bulb will be needed.

3. You don't want to drown the cage, also, check your humidity levels, sometimes it might need more or less depending on the ambient humidity. I have scaled my misting systems back or increased them depending on humidity levels in the house/room and cage.

4. This one I am not quite sure on, I know some are rare, for panthers, Ambanja, Ambilobes, Nosy Be seem to be most previlant. More have been catching on it seems. The shows I have been to have been mostly Ambanjas and Ambilobes, (I have an Ambilobe myself from Chameleons by Design).

There are also great care sheets here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/chameleons/

 

[Brandonmh]

Absorb info like a sponge. I read three books and found this site after I got my veiled. You can start picking things up slowly for the cham like I did and make sure you have the cage set before you bring it home/get it in the mail...unlike I did the other week at the reptile show. I kinda wasn't intending on getting a panther quite then, talked myself out of it and didn't have the other cage furnished. It still could use a bigger plant in it, the spare I have is now outside and was in the veiled cage and lost a lot of lower leaves. It also needed to be cleaned up a bit and is huge now, I have yet to prune it back.

 

[NerveDamage]

Thank you for all the speedy answers, I definitely looked through the care sheet I just couldn't find the answers to these questions from it.