Nervous questions from a new chameleon owner

[diananana]

Hi everyone! This is my first time posting on here, as I just got my little guy today. Before this I've had only slightly heartier animals, like turtles, so I'm a little nervous about keeping him healthy and happy. I'm also not sure if this should be posted here or in the Health Forum or the Setups/Enclosures one, so let me know if I should move it!

First I will give you a little info on my cham. He is a male veiled, age unknown (pet shop said he is at least several months old, but he is only 2 inches not including the tail).

I have him in a 16x16x30 screen cage with UVB and a basking lamp, plenty of foliage and vines, and a plant dripper as a water source.

I'm a little worried he might be under fed-- at the shop, they said to feed him about 3 crickets a day, but I've read they should be eating 10+ as babies And then when I put the crickets in today, I noticed they instantly hid away (some under paper towels, some behind leaves, etc). I don't see any now, but I'm pretty sure they're hiding as opposed to having been eaten. Should I put them in a bowl? I'm getting really paranoid he's too stressed or just unable to catch them.

My next question is about water... I have a plant dripper, so as long as I have a vine going right next to the water moving over the leaves, he should be able to get at it, right? I didn't see him drink today, which made me nervous.

My last question is about temperature. For babies, the ideal basking spot is low 80's, right? I'm having trouble staying at that, because it's so hot in my house right now. I don't have AC, so even with only a 50 watt bulb the basking area is pushing 90, which really worries me.

Any suggestions? Would it be helpful if I posted pics of my setup?

Sorry if this is rambly or too general, but I just want to make sure I have everything in order to help him! Thanks everyone!!!

 

[xephyr17]

Welcome to the forums!!! You've come to the right place to learn just about everything you need about taking care of your little guy.

My comments in red below

Hi everyone! This is my first time posting on here, as I just got my little guy today. Before this I've had only slightly heartier animals, like turtles, so I'm a little nervous about keeping him healthy and happy. I'm also not sure if this should be posted here or in the Health Forum or the Setups/Enclosures one, so let me know if I should move it!

First I will give you a little info on my cham. He is a male veiled, age unknown (pet shop said he is at least several months old, but he is only 2 inches not including the tail).

I have him in a 16x16x30 screen cage with UVB and a basking lamp, plenty of foliage and vines, and a plant dripper as a water source.
Good size to start--you may already know this, but when he gets bigger he'll need an enclosure that's 24x24x48 minimally

I'm a little worried he might be under fed-- at the shop, they said to feed him about 3 crickets a day, but I've read they should be eating 10+ as babies And then when I put the crickets in today, I noticed they instantly hid away (some under paper towels, some behind leaves, etc). I don't see any now, but I'm pretty sure they're hiding as opposed to having been eaten. Should I put them in a bowl? I'm getting really paranoid he's too stressed or just unable to catch them.
I had a similar problem with my veiled when I first got him. I ended up completely removing any paper towels, etc. at the bottom of the cage so they couldn't hide there and that helped some. But otherwise I'll just make sure that every day if I see them hiding to kinda scare them out (don't scare your cham while doing that if you can avoid it though--it doesn't take much to make a cricket run away out of a hiding spot haha). You can try cup feeding if that makes you less nervous about it. But from my experience, if he's hungry, he'll go find the crickets.

My next question is about water... I have a plant dripper, so as long as I have a vine going right next to the water moving over the leaves, he should be able to get at it, right? I didn't see him drink today, which made me nervous.
It's generally pretty rare to see your chameleon drink, actually. Do you have a mister? A machine, or just a little bottle sprayer or anything? I manually spray the cage every few hours if I can to keep the humidity up and I've caught Ender (my veiled) get at the water on the leaves from that every now and then. The surest bet to knowing if your cham is hydrated, however, is to check his poops If there's a little white chunk near/connected to the brown chunks of his poop, he's drinking and there's no need to worry

My last question is about temperature. For babies, the ideal basking spot is low 80's, right? I'm having trouble staying at that, because it's so hot in my house right now. I don't have AC, so even with only a 50 watt bulb the basking area is pushing 90, which really worries me.
Do all you can to get the room he's in to a steady temp so you can regulate the enclosure's heat. If it's too hot in there, in the meantime, you can turn off the basking light so it's not super hot in there.

Any suggestions? Would it be helpful if I posted pics of my setup?
Yes, please post pics of your setup and your little one

Sorry if this is rambly or too general, but I just want to make sure I have everything in order to help him! Thanks everyone!!!

Good luck to ya! We're all happy to give advice and help out

 

[kplatvoet]

Welcome- this is the place to be if your a nervous newbie-
It sounds to me as if they weren't feeding your little guy enough- but don't be too worried if he's not eating or drinking in front of you right away they sometime need to settle in - I didn't see my flapneck drink for a month when I got him- you can tell if he's drinking enough by his poop (poop 101 is a sticky and worth the read)
A cup might be a good idea for now - some people use one with a piece of screen in it so the crickets climb up the screen and are easy to find- I just used a small cup that I stuck a piece of velcro on and had it's matching piece on a button so I could move it or have two different places with different things in them- phoenix worms /-crickets mostly when they were small-
You can turn off the basking light if it's a really hot day - keep the UVB on and the basking for a short time in the AM and PM - but off in the heat of the day. Misting will also cool off the cage so I mist more when it's hot.
Check the care sheets in the Resources section above and check out Jannb's blog for new owners -

 

[diananana]

xephyr--thanks so much! i'll take the paper towels out for now (the crickets are so sneaky!) and maybe cup feed if I get too worried. I definitely want to avoid him getting lazy or bored though, so that's a last resort I think.

kplatvoet--thanks as well! I haven't seen any poop yet, but I've had him less than 24 hours, so i'll keep checking. and thanks for those links! they're awesome!!!

RE: misting, is it normal for the chameleon to be kind of annoyed by the mister? I have fairly cool water in it (to keep things cool in there) and he seemed stressed enough to leave his hiding spot to climb the plain screen when I hit him with a few droplets (he came back as soon as I stopped). I did my best to avoid him, but where he was hiding was also where the best plants to mist were, so it was hard

here are some pics of my setup. i couldn't really get any of nifty, as he's shy and I didn't want to bug him, but I got a lousy one through the screen please give me any tips/corrections you can think of!

 

[camimom]

Cup feeding will not make him lazy or bored.

Just reposition the cup in his cage every time you feed, and at different lengths from him, and he will be fine.

When he gets closer to adult age, you can use a plastic bin, the size of a shoebox, and feed that way.

the bugs tend to run to different corners, and the chams have to angle and move to get to them.

 

[diananana]

ok sounds good! I put in an opaque cup with 7 dusted crickets in there, figured I would come back in a while to see if he's eaten any. still haven't found any poop which is a little nerve wracking, but I figure I will soon.

other than that is the setup ok? I wasn't sure if the cage was too empty in the right/top right parts or if leaving some open space was good.

 

[camimom]

I would add more foliage in the upper section.

chams like height.

dont worry about poop.

i can almost guarentee hes gone, you just cant find it.

i didnt start seeing poop from my chams until they were at lesat 6 months old.

when they are adults i can find easily, but babies, pssh, youd be surprised.

 

[diananana]

awesome! I will fix that up today or tom.

and I just went in to check on the temp and actually interrupted him eating! didn't see him go for the crix, but he was right near the dish and 4 of the 7 were gone thanks for all your help everyone! feeling much less worried now! and can I assume that if he's eating he's probably drinking too?

but continue to send any corrections/advice my way if you can think of them!

(or at least, I think he ate? since he was near the dish. hopefully they didn't just hop out, but I don't think so)

 

[Zephalia]

I would add more foliage in the upper section.

chams like height.

dont worry about poop.

i can almost guarentee hes gone, you just cant find it.

i didnt start seeing poop from my chams until they were at lesat 6 months old.

when they are adults i can find easily, but babies, pssh, youd be surprised.

I agree that you are not utilizing the space available in your enclosure. My chams only use about the upper 1/3 of their enclosures. They prefer to be up high. String vines and foliage across the cage and different heights and angles to better use the space you have open there.

Welcome and congrats on your little guy! There's lots to learn about caring for them and it will come in time but this site is a great resource.

 

[xephyr17]

I'm just gonna throw in one other thing (sorry if it seems we're bombarding you with problems haha) but what are you using to measure your temp? It looks like from your pic that you may be using a Zoo Med one with a hand or something.

The reason I'm asking is because when I first got my cham, the pet store suggested that one and once I came on here (about a month after having him) I found out that the temp was completely wrong most of the time! I ended up buying a thermometer gun, like this one: http://www.amazon.com/HDE-Temperature-Infrared-Thermometer-Laser/dp/B002YE3FS4 and it works great. Saved me from a lot of problems I've been having with temp in the enclosure!!

 

[kplatvoet]

It's actually great that he's eating on his second day - usually takes time to settle in - I agree that you need more vines higher but I would take it slowly on changing things while he's settling in - maybe moving a couple of things toward the top but then wait till he's more comfortable before you do anything major-

 

[Tiggles]

Sorry to Hijack someone else's thread but, when you guys say use more vines do you have any recommendations for brand?

 

[xephyr17]

Sorry to Hijack someone else's thread but, when you guys say use more vines do you have any recommendations for brand?

I just use Jungle Vines from Exo Terra. They work great and I haven't had any problems... They're like 10 bucks at the local Petco

 

[diananana]

not to worry!!! it's really good getting feedback; i'm totally new to this so i don't mind at all hearing where to improve! i just bought that heat gun off amazon as well as a dripper (which i think will work better than the water-recycling one they got me to buy at the pet store )

the pet store closes before i get off work today, but i'll go tomorrow to get more vines and foliage for the top part of the cage.

re: humidity, how would you guys recommend keeping track of it in the cage? is there a certain gauge that works better than others (and hopefully isn't too expensive )? is the ideal humidity for a chameleon of his size different from that of an adult?

 

[diananana]

hi, just an update on the cage situation, i added a few vines and a couple plants/hiding spots in the top part of the cage today and he really seemed to like them i included a pic of the new setup, please let me know if i should change anything else! i am thinking of adding maybe one more vine after he's had time to get used to these additions.

he was a bright lime green all day today, which (i think?) is a good thing. he ate 8 crickets (i know it should be a little higher, but after the 3 a day the pet store had him on, i guess this is a good improvement? ) and i posted a thread on the health forum asking how to get him up to a proper diet.

i still haven't found any poop, but i'm thinking this is more due to my ineptitude than anything else, because he's definitely eating (and i THINK drinking, because his eyes don't look sunken? i am worried about that though)

 

[my sweet Picasso]

Hi. I am 1 week old at this. I feel much the way you do. I have read a lot and this site is absolutely wonderful with everyone's knowledge and input. My lil guy is doing great he eats crickets and has started nibbling a little here and there on the pothos in his cage. I am a lil lost as today tried several times to give him small superworms but he backed away so I assume the pet store never feed him those...he is active and has drank several times in front of me. I made my own drip system for now until I can upgrade. It works. .. I wish you great success. And hope for my own as I have really fallen in love with my lil guy Picasso.

 

[little leaf]

no advice , the gang has that covered , just wanted to say WELCOME and dont forget to post lots of pics of your little guy