My very first Chameleon (Veiled) Need Advice

DJNX

New Member
This is a provisional cage, might replace it in 3-6 months depending on how fast he grows.

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The crickets escape from the top, any advice?

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This is B1-66ER or John for short.

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Do you notice anything about him, related to health or anything else I should be aware of?

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what kind of heat lamp is that?? you need to have UVB so they can get d3 in there body and not get metabolic bone disease. the heat source should be 60 through 75 watt. A 100 will be to much heat for a young cham. You need to keep your humidity at 50-60 percent minimum. When he gets a a couple months older or even now if you can get him a screen cage. Glass=bad. At night you need to turn all of there heat source and uvb off, because they like it cool at night time when there sleeping. Day temps should be in the mid 70s at this age with basking spots of 81-83 degrees
 
you should also get some live plants in there such as pothos hibiscus and more. Search the forums for all the plants that are healthy for them. You can pretty much get the plants anywhere that has a plant section like wallmart. These live plants also help keep humidity up
 
10 gallon tanks are bad setups for even babies. There is no way you are going to be able to mist enough without flooding the bottom and making a huge mess. You can make it work for the short term if you remove EVERYTHING, and I mean everything, and put in a live or plastic plants for the chameleon to drink from, live preferable but plastic will work since that looks to be a 2 month old chameleon, and you could put the vine back in. You don't want moss or anything else that will mold. You need something along the lines of a 40 watt bulb on one side, and a linear flourescent UVB tube for UVB as mentioned above. Hopefully you have a digital thermometer with a probe as it is super easy to cook a chameleon in that setup. They will bask themselves to death as babies.
 
what kind of heat lamp is that??

Repti Glo 5.0 Compact Tropical Terrarium Lamp.

Unfortunately, unless you tell me he will die with a cage with glass, he will have to wait for a new terrarium for at least 3 months, we just bought that.

I plan to buy an Exo Terra Digital Thermo-Hygrometer probably tomorrow or the day after that, so I'm clueless about humidity right now and about temperature, we are around 5-10 degrees celsius during the night so I use the Heat Glo.

I was also planing to buy another lamp to have the heat glo and the repti glo at the same time during the day and only the heat glo at night.

Live plants will come soon as well.
 
This is just my experience from very recently getting my first veiled as well :) you need to get a UVB light repti glo 5.0 or repti sun are both great I'm not sure how to explain exactly what the UVB light does but I know it is VERY important a little research on the computer will give you the reason for why you need iit. Do you know if he is a boy or girl? Boys will have a little spur on the back of their back feet.What are you feeding him an are you dusting what you are feeding and gutloading what your feeding?how often are you spraying the cage as well and what is the humidity and tempatures in the cage? Most veiled are about full grown with in a year or a year and a half not 100% positive but pretty sure once again just a little research you can find out.When you get a bigger I would recomened buying or creating a mesh cage because they don't like seeing their reflections because it can stress them out. lllreptile.com sells big mesh cages for a good price and ships fast.the tempature should be about 75 degrees and the basking spot shoul be around 80 degrees, humidity should be 50% hope this help :) message me if you have anyother questions and let me know how he's doing :)
 
ya im sorry my temp where a little off. Mine where more for juveniles around 4/5 moths. Really though chameleons mean dedication, and your terrarium is vital to there health. You should really consider a new tank as soon as possible. You don't want a chameleon with a respiratory system problem from no air flow. Maybe can try to get your money back for the tank. I have returned many things for my chameleon because they weren't what i was looking for. remember anyone on this forum knows better then a manager at petco....don't let them fool you lol (cause they will)
 
Just so you can see a basic cage setup I am posting a picture of what I typically keep adult male Veileds in. 24x24x48 screen cage. All of mine have gone into this size cage at 5-7 months of age depending on size, and Veileds grow quickly. You can see the UVB fixture (white) and the heat lamp which contains a 75 watt bulb. You can see this guy basking right under the heat lamp. I just brought this guy in for the winter as he normally lives outside in the summer and his ficus has been losing leaves, but outside it fills the cage. There are also fake vines in there. His basking temp is about 90 degrees and ambient room temp here is low 70's. You need both UVB and a basking spot on about 12 hours and off 12 hours. Be very careful with night hear-you should not need it unless temps are dropping below 60. For your baby, if he can get close enough to the UVB and you are getting a temp reading of about 8o you may not need a basking bulb.
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What is the temperature in the basking/warmest area of the cage? The coolest part of the cage?

The most often recommended light is the long linear fluorescent Repoti-sun 5.0 tube light. It has had no bad reports against it yet.
 
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Repti Glo 5.0 Compact Tropical Terrarium Lamp.

Unfortunately, unless you tell me he will die with a cage with glass, he will have to wait for a new terrarium for at least 3 months, we just bought that.

I plan to buy an Exo Terra Digital Thermo-Hygrometer probably tomorrow or the day after that, so I'm clueless about humidity right now and about temperature, we are around 5-10 degrees celsius during the night so I use the Heat Glo.

I was also planing to buy another lamp to have the heat glo and the repti glo at the same time during the day and only the heat glo at night.

Live plants will come soon as well.

Do not have any lights on at night, they need darkness to sleep so find another way of heating at night. i just use a blanket and cover his cage and this allows the temperature to drop which they also like.

He will definitely be too large for that tank in 3 months. I made the same mistake as you and bought a tank like that and my Cham needed a bigger place within 2 weeks, thats how quick they grow. mine has been in his larger cage for 2 months now and he is just about ready for a larger one. If you cant afford a new cage then you could always build one, its not that hard and theres plenty of guides and videos, and will be cheaper than a vets visit.

Did you buy the proper supplements to put on his food?
 
Do not have any lights on at night, they need darkness to sleep so find another way of heating at night. i just use a blanket and cover his cage and this allows the temperature to drop which they also like.

He will definitely be too large for that tank in 3 months. I made the same mistake as you and bought a tank like that and my Cham needed a bigger place within 2 weeks, thats how quick they grow. mine has been in his larger cage for 2 months now and he is just about ready for a larger one. If you cant afford a new cage then you could always build one, its not that hard and theres plenty of guides and videos, and will be cheaper than a vets visit.

Did you buy the proper supplements to put on his food?

In that case, then I feel more comfortable waiting until he needs a bigger cage to buy it, if that comes in a month or whatever time it is, I will. I have been with this chameleon only for a couple of days, that is why it's kind of hard for me to think of spending again on a cage, right now.

And yes, I have calcium and vitamins.
 
What is the temperature in the basking/warmest area of the cage? The coolest part of the cage?

As I've said, I will buy an Exo Terra Digital Thermo-Hygrometer tomorrow, then I will report back in with temps and humidity numbers.
 
OK. I have been considering a Flexarium

http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/flexarium.php

However I'm going to check other options. There is a street dedicated to selling cages of all sizes, although I will be looking for something similar to the dimensions of the Flexarium of 100 gallons.

Any recommendations of what to look for or what to avoid with these cages?
 
I'm just wondering why you didn't do some research *before* you bought all your equipment and your cham? Your setup is totally inadequate, and I find your statement: "unless you tell me he will die with a cage with glass, he will have to wait for a new terrarium for at least 3 months, we just bought that" to be utterly ridiculous. That chameleon should not have to wait a single day for you to change things, whether it's due to a lack of funds, or whatever. A suitable habitat should have been available to him the minute you brought him home.
 
OK. I have been considering a Flexarium

http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/flexarium.php

However I'm going to check other options. There is a street dedicated to selling cages of all sizes, although I will be looking for something similar to the dimensions of the Flexarium of 100 gallons.

Any recommendations of what to look for or what to avoid with these cages?

Hey welcome. Where are you located? people in different parts of the world keep chameleons in different types of enclosure.

A few things are common no matter where you are, like humidity, temps, UVB, fresh air, supplements & food. In a aquarium the freest air is a challenge, which is a part of the mold problem. If you just must use the aquarium then try a small fan blowing across the tank. But be careful of temps & humidity as the fan can really mess with both.

The flexarium are good, a lot of people use them. They are not a durable as a screen cage. Crickets have been known to chew the sides on the flexarium so if you use one you might want to cup feed.
 
I'm just wondering why you didn't do some research *before* you bought all your equipment and your cham? Your setup is totally inadequate, and I find your statement: "unless you tell me he will die with a cage with glass, he will have to wait for a new terrarium for at least 3 months, we just bought that" to be utterly ridiculous. That chameleon should not have to wait a single day for you to change things, whether it's due to a lack of funds, or whatever. A suitable habitat should have been available to him the minute you brought him home.

I'm sorry, but that is the way it is.

Hey welcome. Where are you located? people in different parts of the world keep chameleons in different types of enclosure.

A few things are common no matter where you are, like humidity, temps, UVB, fresh air, supplements & food. In a aquarium the freest air is a challenge, which is a part of the mold problem. If you just must use the aquarium then try a small fan blowing across the tank. But be careful of temps & humidity as the fan can really mess with both.

The flexarium are good, a lot of people use them. They are not a durable as a screen cage. Crickets have been known to chew the sides on the flexarium so if you use one you might want to cup feed.

Mexico City. So there is nothing I should know before buying one of these custom cages? Materials to avoid, something? I will probably buy it on the first week of 2011.
 
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