my veiled cham died

[dodolah]

when you said not to add subrate what would you put on the bottom of the exo terra and after you mist or drip system do you wipe it off the bottom .and the pet shop is reptile shop they sell everything snakes ,lizards and they had a waterfall in there tank so that's why i got one and they told me to put bark so i mix 50/50 bark and mud in with him . and his temp was 25c and they told me it had to be 30c so thats why i bought a 100w to take it up to the 30c and it stayed at the 30c and hum 50/60 .what light would you recommened for the night time and what flooring and heat lamp wattage for a glass exo terra 45cm/45cm/45cm with a mesh top many thaks for your help ben

First of all, so sorry to hear your loss.
The next time you decided that you are ready for another one, here is a list that in my humble opinion, should be provided for chameleon (i'm talking about the most common species -veiled and panther)

1. ALL screen cage. for baby chameleon 24X12X24 inches is sufficient.
Exo terra should not be used for your chameleon. The reflection from the
glass stressed the chameleon, air easily become stagnant that can cause
URI disease. Plus, the chance to overheat the aquarium is big (I believe
this might be the cause of your cham's death.)

2. get reptisun tube 5.0 24 inches. Get a basking lamp about 60 watt or 75
watt. 100 watt, IMHO is too hot. and get the lamp clamp.
put the UVB and basking lamp on for 12 hours and off for 12 hours.
Automatic Digital timer is perfect to help you out with this.
Chameleon need 10 degree drop during the night. turning basking lamp on
24/7 is hazardous for his health. Also, during the 12 hours off session,
the room where you keep the chameleon should be dark. or else he won't
be able to go to sleep.

3. Get 2 small ficus benjamina (real plants for real chameleon, plastic plants
if you have a plastic chameleon). Prepare the plants first by dunking the
plants upside down into a tub with antibacterial soaps. Let dry for 5
minute rinse it all off. repeat 3 times.
you can buy golden pothos or hibiscus, if you hate ficus.
provide some cups or plastic tray to catch the water that falls from your
plants during misting session.

4. No Substrate at all. leave the floor cage as it is. It's cheaper, cleaner, and
healthier for your chameleon.

5. Temp should be in the high 70s or lower 80s F, while basking spot should
be around 87 to 90F. Personally, i think 100F is too hot.. but i've seen
some people give that range to their chameleon here. With that being said, you need
2 sets of thermometer and hygrometer. Put 1 set near the basking spot and put
another set as far as possible from the spot. so you'll get 2 readings.
the temp in the hottest area and the temp in the coolest area.

6. Buy a dripper bottle. water should drip about at least once per second.

7. buy a misting system (with digital timer is the best). If you don't want to
spend your money to this.. then by all means, don't.
just manually mist the enclosure 3 times a day 5 minutes permisting or
more. allow everything to dry be4 another misting.
no water bowl and no water fall. they are breeding ground for bacteria.
Alway pick your chameleon poop when you see 1. Don't let it sit there for
too long. Chameleon is a clean animal. They don't like dirty places and
they can get sick from it.

I covered about all of the basic enclosure requirement.
I think a lot of experienced people here will add or correct me if there is
some inaccuracies in my list.

 

[PardalisGirl]

Sorry for your loss

I'm so sorry for your loss. It's sounds like you got some really bad advice from the pet shop. Pet shops tend to use the same set up for every reptile they sell (glass with bark substrate). It's pretty standard to see Veileds being sold in set ups like that even though they are not appropriate. Exoterra glass cages work well for hatchlings. I use them for those. But after a month they should be moved to a screen cage for sure. You've gotten a lot of good advise from everyone here. I can't really add anything to it. I would just say, don't give up on getting another Veiled. There are lots of them out there who need a home with someone who does their research and gets things set up properly. You are doing that now and should have a much happier experience with one in the future

 

[nightcrawler]

sorry for losing your first cham.
when i got my first cham i made a lot of mistakes too. in your case it makes for a hard learning experience, which most probably had before. i had substrate, i had him in a glass enclosure, i had a water dish, lots of stuff. then i stumbled upon a form (not this one but chameleons online form where you can read all of my problems that i had, and stress i had) which helped me out so much, usually people who keep chams are good people and more then helpful. so i corrected my mistakes before it got too late.

i think that you can keep a baby cham in a glass enclosure as long as you take great care of it. if you do get another cham that small and you only have that cage (before you get his final 2'x2'x4' screen cage) then you will have to be very cautious. you will have to have nothing in the bottom of the cage, like woodchips or dirt or mud. you will have to put paper towels in the bottom and change them everyday. this is important. if you don’t they will get bacteria in them and that is bad. you will have to mist him (not directly) like many people said and wait till it dries out completely. you could get a dripper but you will have to do more with the paper towels and change them more then once a day in the spot. with my experience i had him in a 3'x1'x18" high cage (for a short while) so my ventilation was ok because the hot air raised on one side and sank into the cage on the other. your cage might be too small for this to work because you need an area of hot and cold air for this to work. you might be able to over cover one side away from the heat lamp in order to give him some cool spots but that is iffy. now don’t take me as an expert because i am far from that and i claim nothing to do with that, i am just telling you how i did it in order to show you it is possible. i only had him in here maybe a month before i moved him into his 2'x2'x4' cage so he could be a little bigger, but i got mine when he was about 3-4 months. that makes a difference. if you get another make sure he is 3 months or close to it to make sure he is well established.
if anyone has anything they would like to add or object to please do.

 

[joefromtoronto]

u have to do a lot of reading on them before you buy one,its like having a dog gotta pay a lot of attention to them,and this site helps A LOT!

 

[TRI0N]

Just a side note on real plants. Some chameleons will eat the plants. Veiled for one is a plant eater aswell. I recentlly had to remove my Pothos out of my enclosure due to her eating the leaves. Eating a pothos too much can cause problems and ficus has a very small toxic level but if mine begins to munch on the ficus I will no doubt have to remove it and replace with a Hibiscus (sp) since these are perfectly safe to eat yet very hard to care for.

Pothos can be dangerious if quanity of consumption is high vs live food.

Ficus does have a sap that is considered toxic and for any plant eating chameleon you need to watch them closely and make sure they don't get into the habbit of eating the plant.

Victoria had plenty of live food to hunt down and for some reason wanted to munch the pothos. So now I've got to keep an eye on here for ther ficus and make quick adjustments to prevent toxic levels.

 

[kinyonga]

Some of my veiled females have stripped pothos plants bare and never had a problem from it.

 

[TRI0N]

Well thats good to know. I read the plant database here and it says to be cautious on pothos. I'll put mine back in if such experience has been established with the plant. I was more on the safe then sorry routine on that one. Ficus however is for sure one that will need to be watched.

 

[dodolah]

Well thats good to know. I read the plant database here and it says to be cautious on pothos. I'll put mine back in if such experience has been established with the plant. I was more on the safe then sorry routine on that one. Ficus however is for sure one that will need to be watched.

eating ficus leaves is fine for chameleons.
The mild toxic comes from the sap that oozes out when you break the stem.
so, watched for the milky sap.
If you find one, take the plant out and let it dry out for 24 hours b4 you put it back in.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

The only problem I've heard of with ficus has to do with Panthers and eye irritation. Don't recall hearing of this plant being a problem with veiled chameleons.

-Brad