Lots of pics for you fine folks

[ballz]

Hello all,

Meet Bubbles, my first ever chameleon. She's a female veiled, and I've had her for less than 2 months now. Not sure how old she is, but she was bought pretty small from a pet store and has grown quite a bit since.

Seeing as how I'm new to it all, I thought I'd throw up an excess of pictures from different angles along with my questions, since there could be something else that I'm totally missing. Everything seems to be alright though, from my eyes anyway.

The questions I have are simple. First, is she possibly gravid? Seems to be developing a little lump just in front of the hind legs. But she's usually a nice bright green and only even gets those dark stripes when I first take her out of her cage. She has been a little more grouchy since I took her on a 5-day trek across the country though. Ever since she hasn't been as happy to come out of her cage.

And secondly is to do with overfeeding. How can I tell if I'm overfeeding her? I mean, shes eating a lot more then the pet store told me she would, but she seems like she's starving when I give her the food. She is definately growing at a quick pace, but thats to be expected no?

 

[ballz]

and a few more pics...

in the last one she is stretched out to eat... its bad quality (like the rest of them) but you can see the little bulge by her hind legs a lot better.

And yes, that is an infared light. My basking light broke (well... just stopped working actually...) and I just happened to have a infared on hand for temporary use until the pet store opens up tomorrow.


Oh and ps, shes a little puffed up in some of these cause I just took her out of hte cage, which actually makes it harder to see the bulge, hence the last picture...

 

[ballz]

42 views and no one is reeming me out for slowly killing my chameleon yet.... so i take it everything is normal and fine and dandy?

 

[BocaJan]

Nice cham...keep reading information on raising chams and you will be sure to keep her healthy. There is a lot of folks here that know a lot about the subject.

 

[kenya]

42 views and no one is reeming me out for slowly killing my chameleon yet.... so i take it everything is normal and fine and dandy?

Hahaha, possibly best thing I read today. Pretty girl!

 

[keecoi]

I don't think she's gravid. As far as I know,bulge is not the most obvious sign.she would turn completely dark with some yellow to orange dot or spots.search gallery for gravid veiled.oh and she has to go through reception.(I think that's the term)look it up,there's a lot better answer than this out there.my veiled and I got through our first clutch just by researching here.good looking female though.I got my female her soon to be mate at the Anaheim show at tiki.

 

[kinyonga]

Does she have a place to dig in the cage in case she needs to lay eggs?

 

[Julirs]

42 views and no one is reeming me out for slowly killing my chameleon yet.... so i take it everything is normal and fine and dandy?

LOL! Since you asked-we an do a total husbandry review here:

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage construction (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and type of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Location - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Current Problem - The current problem that you are concerned about.

 

[dodolah]

LOL! Since you asked-we an do a total husbandry review here:

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage construction (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and type of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Location - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
Current Problem - The current problem that you are concerned about.

dun dun dun!!!

 

[ballz]

Cage Info:

Cage Type - The cage is entirely screen. It's about 18" x 18" at the base and 36" high. I plan on buying a bigger one when she's nearly full grown but I read I should buy one small enough for her to find food easily when she's smaller.

Lighting - I think the brand is Reptisun... I bought what was at the petstore. I know I need to get a new UVA and UVB light because right now I have the ones that spiral, found out that I should buy the straight tube ones last night. What is the difference anyway? How can the chameleon get these "burns" from the curly light?

As for lighting scheduale, 12.5 hrs a day.

Temperature - The hottest spot is about 35 degrees celcius, the coolest is 20degrees celcius. Overnight it gets to about 20 degrees celcius. I measure the temps with two thermometers...One up near the basking area and one as far away from that as possible.

Humidity - This is one thing that I sort of had problems with..... The humidity at its lowest is about 45-50%... I can get it up to about 80% when I mist the cage down but it drops in an hour or so back down to 50%. I mist it to keep the humidity up, plus have a live plant in there, a large dish full of water, plus the waterfall. I need to buy another live plant but its hard to find hisbiscus and ficus or whatever the baj*s*s its called in Corner Brook.

Plants - Right now theres only one live plant. It's bamboo... I've had it in there since I bought her two months ago, and although I recently read on here thats its toxic, she seems to like using it to hunt the crickets down and doesn't eat it or anything so I really did not see any immediate harm.

Location - The top of the cage is about 5 feet off the ground.... It's not really near any fans, it's in my bedroom so I'm the only traffic it gets.

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Veiled, female, I dunno how old it is.. I've had it for about 2 months and I figure it was born about 2-3 months before that.
Handling - Every couple days or so... During the move it was 2 or 3 times a day but other then that I leave her alone except for when I have to clean the cage and stuff.
Feeding - Crickets are definately the main diet. I gutload them with oats, apples, and oranges. She likes superworms as well so I gutload them with apples. She seriously eats like 10 of the 5-weeks-old crickets a day which seems like a lot. Honestly if I keep putting food in there she won't stop eating. It's like shes always hungry. I'm trying to get her to eat a pinkie now, not sure if she's big enough. Guy at the pet store said she was but...... That's the pet store....

There is no feeding scheduale... I throw a bunch of crickets in there in the morning and then another bunch when I get home from school....

Supplements - I just dust all the crickets, nothing else gets dusted. Repti-Calcium by "Zoo Med." Ultrafine precipitated calcum carbonate supplement with vitamen D3. It is phosphorus free.

Watering - I have a waterfall in there that I catch her drinking from every now and then (I don't sit there and watch until she does...) I mist two or three times a day with a misting bottle, long enough to soak the whole cage down and everything in it.

Fecal Description - no, never tested for parasites... was bred in captivity, didnt see the need. the poop looks just like that, pook. the other thinger, whatever its called, is always pretty white, and the poop is always pretty shitty.

History - She's only 4 or 5 months old so theres not much history. She's taken 2 decent falls, less than 3 feet, and seems OK. Neither were because of a weak grip or anything. One I'm not sure wtf she was trying to do, the other was because she snapped at me when I was reaching for her and my arm hit the cage and shook her out of her plant.

Current Problem - Not really a problem at the moment... Was checking to see if she was gravid. If anything I'm worried I feed her too much, and I want to know how I can tell if I am and stuff.

 

[THECHAMMAN]

get rid of the coil, get rid of the water bowl as it can harbour bacteria. get rid of the water bowl. get calcium w/o d3 because too much d3 will harm organs. get some rep-cal vitamins and dust once a week to once every 2 weeks. i prob forgot some things so all the more exp. keepers should chime in.

 

[ballz]

Do you mean of all seven days of the week I should only dust one day's worth of crickets?!

I realise I need to get rid of the coil light, I learned that last night while searching around on here. I just want to know out of curiosity what the difference is.

As for the water bowl, I change the water (bottled water) twice a week and wash it every week. I think I've taken the right precautions to avoid bacterial growth.

 

[THECHAMMAN]

coil bulbs emit uvc which is very deadly. with calcium w/o d3 u dust every feeding except on the days that u use vits. d3 is just a precaution to use so calcium get synthesized. as for the bowl, its useless. chams naturally drink from the mist basically. if she drinks out of the bowl and she takes in some bacteria, she could possibly hurt herself and possibly die if not taken care of.

 

[skeeta]

To answer your question go to http://www.uvguide.co.uk/lightingsurveyintro.htm

They can lead to anything from blindness (makes it hard to hunt that way) to burns, because the intensity of radiation produced in the coil/wrap is to high in a concentrated area.

Shut it off! You can get a tube in a day or two (but don't leave it too long) without harm.

Waterfall goes bye-bye too. (same reasons as the bowl, only more problems)

They are pretty, but make good graveyards for crickets (and are good toilets too) Dirty-dirty.

Have fun, it's a steep learning curve! Glad you filled out the questionnaire, you just saved your cham a world of hurtin!

David

 

[THECHAMMAN]

Have fun, it's a steep learning curve! Glad you filled out the questionnaire, you just saved your cham a world of hurtin!

David

how true. i almost shot myself fixing all my probs

JUST JOKING... *snicker*snicker*

 

[skeeta]

For all your other questions (and some you haven't asked yet) check out http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/ by Brad.

It's chock full of good info!