New Baby Veiled Cham

T

tigerlily1117

New Member
My family and I are new Cham parents. We just got our tiny bundle yesterday. We have been told she is about a month old. She's been very active in her new enclosure (reptibreeze until we finish building her new large enclosure). We (my son and I) are very nervous parents as we are used to mammals and their eating habits. Our new cham hasn't eaten for us yet. We are going with the feeding cup method and have a small meal worm and cricket in it. What is the best way for us to encourage her to eat? My son is at school all day and i've checked on her twice today, trying to leave her alone as much as possible. Humidity is currently 30 and temp is 82. We are hand misting 2-3 minutes at night and in the am plus we have a small dripper. She has lots of plants, mostly fake one real (again this will change with her custom large cage). How long can we expect her to catch on to the cup feeding? Thanks for indulging our new parent worries.
 
Current problem: Nervous new cham parent/worried she wasn't eating (now she's eating)

Chameleon Info:

  • Your Chameleon- The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
    • Veiled chameleon
    • Female
    • Was told she is about a month
    • One day

  • Handling- How often do you handle your chameleon?
    • We only handled her to get her into her enclosure.

  • Feeding- What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
    • Crickets and mealworms-just added some dubia roaches
    • We started this morning with one cricket and mealworm to see if she would even eat yet. She left the mealworm and ate the cricket so I gave her two more this afternoon and she ate those too. We plan to feed her in the am and pm. We are feeding the crickets flukers high calcium. Now that we know shes eating we will start making the gut loading food with veggies.

  • Supplements- What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
    • Now that we know she is eating we will start using the reptil calcium we have every day and with d3 once a week.

    • Watering- What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
      • We hand mist 2-3 minutes in the am and pm. We also have a small dripper going all day. We also use a humidifier at night and plan to get a fogger.
      • Have not seen her drink yet

  • Fecal Description- Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
    • Haven't seen any yet. I'd guess it may be hard to find given we can hardly find her sometimes.
    • Not tested for parasites.

  • History- Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
    • Nope

Cage Info:

  • Cage Type- Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
    • Currently in a reptibreeze 16x16x30 (we are building her permanent cage which will be much much bigger
    • We have three sides covered with window film to keep in humidity

  • Lighting- What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
    • I believe our UVB is a reptisun (we will get the long uvb bulb t5 or 6% for the big cage)
    • We have a 75 wat heat bulb
    • Both on in the morning and off when it gets dark.

  • Temperature- What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
    • Basking approx 80
    • Overnight i believe was about 70
    • We have a digital temperature/hygrometer on top of the cage (plus the little dinky one that was givin to us with the cage)

  • Humidity- What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
    • One live pothos on the bottom of the enclosure and plastic around three sides
      • Hand misting twice a day, one small dripper
    • Yesterday we just set it up so we didn't get the humitidy where we'd like to I believe it only got to about 40 but we are working on that, would love suggestions as Iowa winters are dry!

  • Plants- Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
    • One pothos for now but will have more in her big cage/as we find them in the stores here.

  • Placement- 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?
    • It’s in my sons room, approximately 3 feet off the floor in the corner of his room
    • Not near any vents , we have a ceiling fan that isn't used currently.
    • Not a high traffic area
    • Top of the cage is approximately 4-5 feet off the floor

  • Location- Where are you geographically located?
    • Carlisle Iowa
 
I can go through your husbandry today but can you please post pics of the entire enclosure including the lights on top for us? Also pics of the labels of your supplements and of your new baby.
 
Keep in mind this cage is only temporary as we are building her a much bigger and nicer cage. We really need help with humidity and getting her to eat things other than crickets. Thank you
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See my feedback in Red bold. This will be a ton of info. take it piece by piece most important things to fix asap are lighting, supplements, and feeders.

Current problem: Nervous new cham parent/worried she wasn't eating (now she's eating)

Chameleon Info:

  • Your Chameleon- The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
    • Veiled chameleon
    • Female
    • Was told she is about a month
    • One day
  • Handling- How often do you handle your chameleon?
    • We only handled her to get her into her enclosure. Good hold off on handling until she gets bigger. They are very fragile at this stage and spook easily jumping from hands. Start out just getting baby used to your hands being related to food.
  • Feeding- What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
    • Crickets and mealworms-just added some dubia roaches... Make sure the feeders are very small. At 1 month old babies are typically eating pinhead crickets. And needing lots of them every day. Might be good to look into ordering crickets in bulk amounts from somewhere like rainbow mealworms. We do not limit babies food intake. They can easily take down 3 dozen or more feeders a day when they are this little. If the feeders are too large babies will back off them and not eat.
    • We started this morning with one cricket and mealworm to see if she would even eat yet. She left the mealworm and ate the cricket so I gave her two more this afternoon and she ate those too. We plan to feed her in the am and pm. We are feeding the crickets flukers high calcium. Now that we know shes eating we will start making the gut loading food with veggies. Concentrate your feedings in the morning and afternoon. Not late in the day they need time to bask and digest the food before lights kick off. See image for gutload and feeder options.
  • Supplements- What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
    • Now that we know she is eating we will start using the reptil calcium we have every day and with d3 once a week. So with these two the calcium without D3 would be used at all feedings. Now the calcium with D3 you want to return to the store and get either repashy calcium plus LoD version or Reptivite with D3. THese both are multivitamins with D3 and would only be given 2 times a months say the 1st and the 15th. Supplements should be lightly dusted on the feeders. There should not be loose supplement in the feeder cup and the feeders should not look like powdered donuts.

    • Watering- What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
      • We hand mist 2-3 minutes in the am and pm. We also have a small dripper going all day. We also use a humidifier at night and plan to get a fogger. If your humidifier is a cool mist this is fine and can be used as the fogger at night. But make sure your temps are low enough to use this. You really want them below 67-68. Otherwise there is a higher respiratory infection risk.
      • Have not seen her drink yet They can be very shy drinkers. But having the dripper going will allow baby to drink when it needs to.
  • Fecal Description- Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
    • Haven't seen any yet. I'd guess it may be hard to find given we can hardly find her sometimes.
    • Not tested for parasites.
  • History- Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.
    • Nope Where did you get the baby from... 1 month is extremely young to sell them. Depending on where you got it you may want to make sure you run a fecal to ensure there are no parasite issues.
 
Cage Info:

  • Cage Type- Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
    • Currently in a reptibreeze 16x16x30 (we are building her permanent cage which will be much much bigger
    • We have three sides covered with window film to keep in humidity This is fine for another 2 months or so... By 4 months old baby should be in a bigger cage.
  • Lighting- What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
    • I believe our UVB is a reptisun (we will get the long uvb bulb t5 or 6% for the big cage) So you have to get a T5HO fixture and a 5.0 or 6% bulb for this cage. The compact bulbs do not have the output distance needed for them to not develop MBD. With this one being so young you will need to raise the uvb fixture 4 inches off the top of the cage. Then have the closest branches 5 inches below the screen. This gives a total distance of 9 inches from bottom of fixture to branch. Putting the branch at a 3 UVI and then the screen top within a 6 UVI which is the max they should be exposed to. babies screen climb the top so you want to ensure you set it up this way.
    • We have a 75 wat heat bulb This will be far too intense for a baby. Drop it back to a 60 watt regular incandescent white bulb. Then you will have to raise the fixture up off the top of the cage to ensure baby does not get a thermal burn. But you have to have the T5HO UVB fixture before you raise the double dome or the baby will not be able to get to any usable UVB light with it raised.
    • Both on in the morning and off when it gets dark. Make sure this is a 12 hour cycle. Lights on and then no light on at all.
  • Temperature- What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
    • Basking approx 80... You want a temp gauge with a probe to determine actual basking temps in the cage. You need to ensure they are never over 75-80 for baby. Babies this young have a hard time with too much heat. It can kill them so you have to be extremely cautious putting heat fixtures on babies this young.
    • Overnight i believe was about 70 Look into govee sensors. These can be put into the cage as long as they are not in a direct spray path. They work with an app on your phone and you can determine exact temps that are good for running foggers at night. They give you ambient temps and humidity levels at any point during the day. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R586J37/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
    • We have a digital temperature/hygrometer on top of the cage (plus the little dinky one that was givin to us with the cage)
  • Humidity- What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
    • One live pothos on the bottom of the enclosure and plastic around three sides
      • Hand misting twice a day, one small dripper
    • Yesterday we just set it up so we didn't get the humitidy where we'd like to I believe it only got to about 40 but we are working on that, would love suggestions as Iowa winters are dry!
    • So often it is a misconception that they need super high humidity. They actually should not have high humidity during the day. Range for daytime humidity levels should be 30-50% max daytime. At night it can be high as long as temps are cool and there is air circulation.
  • Plants- Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
    • One pothos for now but will have more in her big cage/as we find them in the stores here. See image for plants choose the veiled tested. I would try to find some of the centerpiece plants that will work in this cage. And pull your fake plants out. The real plants are much more natural for them to drink from and help balance the humidity in the cage. Also fake plants can pose issues of impaction with veileds because they will try to eat them.
  • Placement- 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?
    • It’s in my sons room, approximately 3 feet off the floor in the corner of his room
    • Not near any vents , we have a ceiling fan that isn't used currently. As long as the cage does not sit directly below the fan you can use it in the room.
    • Not a high traffic area
    • Top of the cage is approximately 4-5 feet off the floor
  • Location- Where are you geographically located?
    • Carlisle Iowa

This is a great site for setting up a cage and all things husbandry. https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-husbandry-program-getting-started-with-chameleons/

When you get to the point of building your new cage please post. With wood you want to make sure your not using something like cedar. All wood needs to be sealed with a water based polyurethane and you need to let it gas off for a good week or so before putting the cham in the cage. Otherwise this can be toxic for the cham. Using aluminum window screen is the recommended type for cages. This will be small enough so feeders can not escape and they can not chew through it. Also it is the best for working with your UVB lighting.


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